DUSHANBE, November 29, 2012, Asia-Plus — An international conference formally titled “Budget Transparency in Tajikistan: Formation and Experience of Other Countries” is taking place in Dushanbe today.
Organized by local NGO Center for Municipal Development under support of Tajik Branch of Open Society Institute/Assistance Foundation (OSI/AF-Tajikistan), the meeting has reportedly brought together representatives of local authorities from six cities and districts involved in testing methodology of budget transparency and promotion of transparency policy at local level and experts from Kyrgyzstan and Georgia.
Representatives from the Center for Municipal Development say the conference will serve as a platform for discussions with experts from various countries for promotion of the budget transparency in Tajikistan.
This conference is the completion phase of the project, Support to Local Budget Transparency, sponsored by the OSI East-East Program. The Center for Public Technologies from Kyrgyzstan and Caucasian Institute for Social and Economic Research from Georgia have also participated in implementation of this project, the source said.
Budget Transparency (BT) is defined as the full disclosure of all relevant fiscal information in a timely and systematic manner. BT is a fundamental precondition for accountability and public participation in governance processes. Lack of transparency and democratic control of budget processes creates opportunities for graft and corruption. A non-transparent budget can neither be properly analyzed nor can its implementation be effectively monitored. Transparency allows citizens to provide inputs into the budget process and to assess whether a government executed the development plans in accordance with budgetary allocations.
Transparency and participation can jointly lead to better budgetary outcomes by reducing manipulations of budget, misappropriation of resources and fostering sensible, accountable and equitable resource allocations.
