World Bank Expert: Ukraine’s Budget Transparency Is One of World’s Top

Kyiv, July 10, 2012. Most recent World Bank – EU report on the effectiveness of state budget management confirmed the results of 2010 Open Budget Index regarding budget transparency in Ukraine. “In fact, budget transparency, including availability of budget information to the public, is one of the world’s best,” said Oleksiy Balabushko, Public Sector Economist at World Bank, during the presentation of the new report.

Balabushko referred to Open Budget Survey 2010, where Ukraine scored 62 points on the scale of availability of budget information to the public. This is comparable to Czech Republic (62 points) and Spain (63). Ukraine fell into the category of countries that provide a significant amount of budget information to its citizens, with only seven countries of the world falling into a more advanced “extensive information available to the public” category. These countries include USA, Sweden, Norway, France, the UK, New Zealand, and South Africa. Their points range between 82 and 92 (out of 100).

In Open Budget Survey 2010 Ukraine was preceded by Chile, Brazil, South Korea, Slovenia, Germany, Sri Lanka, India, Peru, Poland, Spain, and Czech Republic. Ukraine made it to the 19^th spot in the Open Budget Index. Such neighboring countries as Russia, Romania, and Slovakia scored lower, occupying the “some information regarding the budget available to the public” category. Overall, the report lists 94 countries.

The Open Budget Survey 2010 highlighted the fact that relatively low-income Ukraine (GDP adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP) of USD 6,340) provided significant budget information to its people, performing “relatively well” on the list, while “well-off countries like Equatorial Guinea (per capita GDP adjusted for PPP of USD 18,600 in 2009), Saudi Arabia (USD 23,221), Trinidad and Tobago (USD 19,818), and Malaysia (USD 13,770) perform very poorly”.

In 2008 Ukraine received 55 points on the Open Budget Index. Largely, the improvement resulted from the “publication of more comprehensive information in the Executive’s Budget Proposal”, states the report. Additionally, Ukrainian government “has begun to publish In-Year Reports that meet international standards. It also now publishes an audited Year-End Report (earlier the government published an unaudited Year-End Report).”

More information on the improvement of budget openness policies in Ukraine can be found in the full text of the report.

Ukraine joined World Bank in 1992. So far, the organization has provided over USD 7 billion in loans for 39 projects in Ukraine.