The Center for Development and Integration (CDI), in coordination with Vietnam Institute for Economic and Policy Research (VEPR), has recently announced the Open Budget Index (OBI) of Vietnam, and the Ministry Open Budget Index (MOBI) for 2019. This is the seventh year the OBIs have been announced globally and in Vietnam; this is also the second year the MOBIs have been announced. The State Bank of Vietnam achieved the first rank in the MOBI 2019 with the score of 73.17.
The OBI of Vietnam and the MOBI 2019 showed that Vietnam has made positive progress in all three pillars of public budget accountability: transparency, public participation and oversight.
The results of the MOBI 2019 survey showed the remarkable improvements in the transparency of the budget at the central Government ministries and agencies compared to that of 2018, with the average score of 21.2, up by 10.2 points against the MOBI 2018.
An overview of the launching ceremony
One representative of the MOBI research group shared that the SBV was the ministerial agency that achieved the highest scores regarding to the convenience and sufficiency of five out of six types of documents that are publicized, namely budget estimation for 2020, the report on the implementation of the budget estimation in the first quarter, for six months and nine months of 2019, as well as the final balance sheet for 2018.
For each indicator, there were only 24 ministries and agencies which have publicized at least one document out of the those required for the MOBI 2019 scoring. Among those, the SBV has achieved the first rank with the score of 51.22 on the sufficiency.
There were only seven ministries and agencies scored for the convenience. The SBV also achieved the highest score of 13.41 (out of the maximum score of 17.78). The convenience was assessed on the aspects that the ministries, central government agencies having their own e-portals, with sections on budget publicity, sections with links for viewing or downloading the relevant documents, and the documents in user-friendly formats for retrieving and utilization.
The SBV also ranked first out of 18 ministries and central Government agencies that publicized information on Budget Estimation for 2020, with the score of 17.07 (out of the maximum score of 24.39). Moreover, the SBV also achieved the first rank out of 17 agencies that publicized information on the final budget balance sheet for 2018, with the score of 21.95 (out of the maximum score of 26.83).
The results of the OBI 2019 and MOBI 2019 surveys reflected the encouraging efforts and progress of the Government of Vietnam and its ministries and central agencies. In order to enhance the budget transparency in the coming time, the Government, the ministries and central agencies need to be more committed to sustainable improvements, a long-term and practical roadmap.
Le Hang