The Open Budget Survey (OBS) is the world’s longest running and only independent measure of budget transparency, public participation and oversight at the central government level. Transparency helps the public understand the government’s budget priorities; participation mechanisms enable them to contribute to these priorities; and formal oversight of the budget from the legislature guides and scrutinizes budget choices while audit institutions assess the legality, efficiency and effectiveness of public spending.

The survey assesses transparency by evaluating the public’s access to eight key budget documents, which should be widely available during the budget cycle, and the comprehensiveness of the information in the documents. In this pillar, countries have made notable progress. Since 2008, global transparency scores have increased by more than 20%, and in this latest round, there was a one point increase in the average transparency score for the same 120 countries assessed in both OBS 2021 and OBS 2023.8 However, OBS 2023 finds the global average transparency score is only 45 out of 100, which is far from a score of 61 — the benchmark for indicating sufficient levels of budget information are publicly available and can support informed public debate on the budget. We also continue to see that countries are much better at releasing budget documents early in the budget cycle but much less likely to produce documents that show how budgets are executed. Forty percent of countries fail to publish regular In-Year Reports or a Year-End Report on the execution of the budget, and 57 percent do not publish a Mid-Year Review. This is critically important — the “rubber hits the road” when funds are spent. The public needs information at the budget execution stage to assess if their governments are spending as promised on key areas, like social programs.

In terms of public participation, the survey assesses formal opportunities for the public to interact with the executive, legislature and national audit offices, also known as the supreme audit institution (SAI), across the four stages of the budget cycle. This pillar of budget accountability continues to be the weakest, with an average global score of 15 out of 100. Among countries included in both OBS 2021 and OBS 2023, the public participation score increased by two points since the last round. Although most countries (83%) have at least one participation mechanism, countries are much less likely to have participation mechanisms in the implementation stage of the budget cycle. Line ministries are also much less likely to have budget – related participation mechanisms, compared to finance ministries, legislatures and national audit offices.

In terms of oversight, the survey assesses the role and effectiveness of the legislature and SAI. The average audit oversight score is 62 out of 100. This pillar has been relatively stable over the last several rounds of the survey, although follow-through on audit findings by the executive and legislatures is still an area that could be bolstered. Worryingly, legislative oversight has steadily declined over the last two survey rounds, falling three points from its pre-COVID-19 pandemic mark. During that time, many executive governments bypassed legislatures under the pretext of emergency powers, and we have not seen legislative oversight rebound. The global average legislative oversight score is 45 out of 100.

Download the Report

Download Open Budget Survey 2023 – Ethiopia Report