Is a Comprehensive Legal Framework a Prerequisite for Budget Transparency - Essay Example

Is a comprehensive legal framework a prerequisite for budget transparency - Discussing budget laws of Sweden and South Africa Introduction The growing debate between adoption and implementation of new laws to support budget transparency could be the point of discussion in this essay as there have been n new laws to support public management and legal frameworks in almost every different public sector enterprise in the last few years to improve transparency in the public sector. This discussion not only highlights these laws around the world that have helped to make public sector enterprises more transparent but also provides recommendations for more effective legal framework to enhance the functioning of fiscal and budget procedures and processes. The case of South Africa and Sweden are especially noted. According to Lienert(2005) many countries have adopted comprehensive and deep reforms as well new and amended laws to transform the role of the state and the budgeting processes that are involved in the working of the state. The issues that have been highlighted include fiscal transparency and political polarization, performance oriented budgeting and financial accountability. Modifications in the legal framework that have changed the role of the state and the budget processes involved or supporting it could be highlighted yet these modifications seem to have been strongest in countries that rely on laws and decrees to introduce changes The emphasis is on performance oriented budgeting and fiscal transparency and considering that the legal framework does help in shifting emphases to the process of budgeting and methodology, the central role of the legal aspect could be well documented and examined. Legal Framework on Budget and Fiscal Policy However there are many obstacles to the proper working of the legal framework and its implementation to enhance budgeting and these could be differences between countries in terms of political systems and administrative arrangements or even legal cultures that could prevent the budgeting process from being efficient and transparent. Alt James et al discussed the effects of fiscal transparency along with political polarization on prevalence of electoral cycles in fiscal balance. Such cycles are usually thought to be present in weak or new democracies although Alt James et al (2006) prove that such electoral cycles could be present in advanced and more industrialized economies as well. The focus on fiscal transparency along with budgeting transparency would bring about questions on the nature of the economy and the kind of legal framework such economies have. Fiscal Transparency If the legal frameworks are strong enough, fiscal transparency could be expected. Fiscal transparency has become one of the most important aspects of governance and financial reporting A definition of fiscal transparency is given by Kopits and Craig: "Fiscal transparency is defined ... as openness toward the public at large about government structure and functions, fiscal policy intentions, public sector accounts, and projections. It involves ready access to reliable, comprehensive, timely, understandable, and internationally comparable information on government activities ... so that the electorate and financial markets can accurately assess the government's financial position and the true costs and benefits of government activities, including their present and future economic and social implications" (1998, p. 1). The authors use a sample of data from 19 OECD countries in the 1990s, to identify a persistent pattern of electoral cycles both in the low transparency, and largely developing countries, although such cycles could not be observed in high transparency countries. Thus the authors suggest that electoral cycles in fiscal balance could be a feature of many advanced economies but not found in high transparency countries. This highlights the fact that not all advanced and developed economies would have very transparencies although some advanced economies do tend to have high transparencies in their fiscal processes. The relationships between fiscal / budget transparency and fiscal situation in a country and that of budget transparency with the political situation and turnout can be explained by considering international scenarios and cases. The legal index of the process of budget transparency encompasses 40 budget features in a sample of 41 countries. Benito and Bastida (2009) have suggested that there would be positive relationship between national government fiscal balance and budget transparency. This is because if there is more information in the budget and the budget processing is transparent, the politicians will not be able to use fiscal deficits for their own opportunistic aims or to hide their own illegal spending. Transparency affects political processes such as political turnout and according to this, there are countries that could have low transparency and high fiscal imbalance or countries with low transparency with small fiscal imbalance or fiscal surplus with high transparency. Alt James et al (2006) suggest that government transparency has been an integral part of the reformation of public sector enterprises as it is imperative to have a transparent and accountable government framework that could convince the citizens and media, financial markets that government strategies and procedures are the most effective or the most appropriate so that the actions and resulting outcomes could also be supported by the public transparency that could help in gaining support in nearly all government agenda. It is important that the government actions and implementation programs are revealed in clear government directives that would require costs and annual budgeting of every strategy planned. This suggests the fact that the government will have to remain at all times clear about the goals and the directions of their agenda and show the taxpayers and citizens exactly what the costs and expenses of their public strategies are and maintain a completely transparent and public fiscal process. Transparency in any form in necessary and especially necessary within government financial contests as transparency will increase trust and establish credibility in governance, and also makes information more easily accessible an predictable. Transparency improves public trust on governance and a better understanding of government decisions and government spending. Transparency could be important in case of the activities of international organizations, in understanding monetary policy and fiscal policy and the transparency of fiscal policies or budget brings out the entire financial transactional process of the governments an it is imperative that taxpayers know exactly what the government has been spending on and how the government conducted its businesses and financial dealings and obligations. Alt, Lassen, and Skilling (2002) code nine budget procedures that could be used to measure the degree of transparency in an organization or in governance: 1. Is the budget reported on a generally-accepted--accounting principles (GAAP) basis (Since shared language and principles facilitates communication, following a general accounting framework would mean more transparency.) 2. Are multiyear expenditure forecasts prepared (When information about future budget plans and the consequences of these plans are given, this would indicate more transparent budget procedure) 3. What is the frequency of the budget cycle (If budget implemented and updated at least annually, that would mean the fiscal policies and procedures are more transparent as frequent action would mean updated information.) 4. Are the revenue forecasts binding (more binding revenue forecasts and more legal procedures would mean that it would be difficult to deviate from such procedures) 5. Does the legislative branch have (or share) responsibility for the revenue forecast (There should be more involvement and communication between the legal and the financial aspects of a budgeting process or an organization.) 6. Are all appropriations included in a single bill (If budgets and costs are located within a single process, then monitoring becomes easier.) 7. Does a non-partisan staff write appropriations bills (There has to be transparency and staff who writes the bills will have to be unbiased for a stronger transparent process.) 8. Is the legislature prohibited from passing open-ended appropriations (Open ended appropriations should be replaced by close ended ones so that there is a level of predictability in outcomes and this would largely increase public confidence in the process.) 9. Does the budget require published performance measures (The budgeting process would require complete publications in terms of the annual report or annual fiscal policies as this would make the information more accessible and increase the level of transparency). The nine rules above as given by Alt, Lassen, and Skilling (2002) could be used as a basic framework to construct a questionnaire or survey for the levels of transparency in an organization. In order to study transparency and the accuracy of the budgeting process effectively, it is essential that all the aspects of budgeting and transparency that is presented within this questionnaire format are dealt with. The attributes of transparency that have been highlighted in the nine coded measures include prohibition on open ended budgeting an forecasts, non partisan processing of information, publication of the budget, close connection with the legislative branch, frequency of the budget cycle, binding multiyear forecasts and generally accepted accounting principles (Alt James et al, 2006 cites Alt James, Lassen and Skilling 2002). There are other authors who have developed fiscal transparency indices or identified attributes that could define or code budget transparency and Hameed (2006) developed fiscal transparency indices for a broad range of countries based on IMF's Code of Good Practices on Fiscal Transparency and to do this he used data from transparency modules. The clusters that were covered in Hameed's indices and survey were data assurances and medium term budgeting, budget execution and reporting and fiscal risk disclosures (Hameed,2006). The countries with higher transparency tend to have better credit ratings and fiscal disciplines and also less corruption according to his report. The Role of IMF and OECD There have been attempts to reform public sector governance since 1990s and government transparency is the degree to which government's actions and agenda could be observed and known by the people and the media, the markets and taxpayers at large. In public sector design process, fiscal transparency tend to play a key role and the OECD and the IMF have recently implemented the Codes of Best Practice for Fiscal Transparency in order to provide guidance to countries for an open and transparent fiscal policy decision process (Alt James et al, 2006). Although in some cases higher levels of government may require reforms in the budget as part of stabilization of government or to ward off any fears at the public level, in most cases budget transparency is not naturally followed and countries have to be reminded by the organizations such as IMF that their budgeting process should be open and transparent and all aspects must be known to the public. The initiatives by the IMF as well as the financial markets and civil society organizations could be used to assess information on fiscal transparency followed by different countries. Petrie (2003) used results from surveys and interviews and highlighted rating provided by analysts and civil society organizations on the level of awareness of fiscal transparency assessments that are used by the IMF and other similar organisations such as the OECD. Petrie has tried to explore the relative roles of the IMF and other organizations, the private sector and civil society organisations, economists and analysts and the public and media in assessing or promoting fiscal transparency and examined whether there would be greater space or possibilities for these organizations to work in a more cooperative and complementary manner. IMF's fiscal transparency initiatives could be made more effective if these civil society organizations, financial institutions and private sector enterprises could be made to work more closely and transparently sharing their budget and financial information in a more open and comprehensive manner (Petrie, 2003). According to a published report by the IMF (2007) "Fiscal transparency strengthens accountability of the government and decreases the risk of maintaining unsustainable policies. It can help provide better information to investors, the benefits of which will be reflected in stronger support for sound economic policies by a well-informed public, thereby leading a country to macroeconomic stability and high-quality growth" (2007, p1). Transparency of fiscal and budgeting procedures is necessary so that analysts, investors and general public could assess the appropriateness of the fiscal policy and regulations and also get a sufficient understanding of the structure and finances with which any specific government is working. Expenses of the government are assessed with the costs and savings and the annual budget is considered in order to understand whether the government financial goals are being reached and how the government is using tax payer money. It is essential for the government to provide a complete picture of the financial processes and transactions as people have a right to know the government's agenda and the four essential principles of fiscal transparency are based on: clarity of roles and responsibilities; public availability of information; open budget preparation, execution, and reporting; and independent assurances of integrity (IMF, 2007) Thus the need for an open budgeting and fiscal system, the need for easy availability of information and clarity of government spending, agenda, strategies as also government roles and responsibilities actually help in improving the transparency of the budgeting process. The US has participated in the IMF Fiscal Transparency Questionnaire and Self Evaluation Report of 1999 and in 2003 results of their assessments were published by the IMF. The IMF has since then encouraged all countries to participate in a transparency assessment to enhance their budget and financial processes and reporting. According to a report by Bastida (2007), the relationship between public sector transparency and better economic and social outcomes of a country should be better understood although this fact has been established and acknowledged by many analysts. When there is a lack of transparency in budget reports it could be a deterrent to smooth and effective governance although various modes and explanations have been provided to explain this. The bureaucratic model or the fiscal illusion would be the two theories that could be put forward to explain the lack of transparency in budgeting in some countries and many of these would be developing nations. The bureaucratic model is the complications in the budgeting process and the paper work that could see many of the important elements of the budget getting lost in the process. The bureaucratic model would indicate that the lack of transparency is due to the logistical and administrative reasons and in fiscal illusion transparency is avoided by providing an illusive report with major gaps in explanation. Transparency would mean that countries should meet all OECD requirements and IMF requirements following Codes for Best Practice in financial policies and Best Practices for Budget Transparency. Transparency is positively correlated with economic and social development of a region or a country and negatively correlated with corruption suggesting that the more corrupt countries would be less transparent and also have less socio economic development (Bastida, 2007). Bastida also argues that within the political framework, conservative and democratic or liberal governments could have equal levels of transparency and political ideologies do not affect the transparency of a government. This point however remains debatable as autocratic or dictatorial governments may not have high levels of transparency as seen in the case of Zimbabwe and Sudan, Burma and Iraq. Another controversial point could be that political agendas could in some cases define transparency as Russia and socialist China could be considered to be less transparent than many other nations. However political ideologies and transparency is a controversial topic although could present implications for future research. Transparency, corruption, democracy and development would be the essential features that could lead to four types of country clusters and these would be top-performing and high transparency countries, low transparency yet developed nations, low transparency and developing nations which is a common situation and worst-performing or very poor transparency and poor economic development (Bastida, 2007, p. 702). Fiscal Stability Economic governance is improved with greater fiscal transparency and fiscal stability as this highly improves functioning of government sectors and facilitates improvements. The socioeconomic environment is largely improved for the private sector if there is complete transparency n the fiscal and budgeting processes. Fiscal transparency is an acclaimed and popular feature of governance and promoted by analyst and economists, policy makers and investors, public and shareholders and the international organizations such as the IMF and OECD. Fiscal transparency in governance and public sector not only helps in developing and establishing taxpayer confidence and not only increases public trust in governments, its also largely helps the workings of the private sector as the private sector tend to depend on the public sector for the budgeting and financial transaction as well. Especially during any financial emergencies the private sector ultimately turns to the public financial sector and reserve or centralized banks of governments and for this complete fiscal transparency and financial regulations is very important for a country's economic growth and socioeconomic development as well. Heald, D. (2003) suggested that greater fiscal transparency would mean improving economic governance arrangements that could in turn promote fiscal stability. This greatly improves government functioning and facilitate overall improvements of the economic environments as well. The public and private sectors are both enhanced and improved and their budgeting processes will have to be equally credible to improve the economy and political stability of a region. Transparency thus improves governance arrangements and expectations and also improves government functioning, builds better budgeting ad fiscal processes, and improves socioeconomic and general fiscal stability in a region by enhancing the economic environment greatly. Heald like Bastida claims that "Fiscal transparency is much acclaimed by policy-makers, not only in the UK Treasury but also by the IMF and OECD" and the repeated importance given to fiscal transparency by all researchers in economic development suggest that fiscal transparency would continue to remain the central point of discussion for economic growth and stability of all countries and could also be used for comparing economic growth and the difference public trust in government in the developing and developed nations. Fiscal transparency however could have many meanings with generalized definitions or specific explanations according to the set of circumstances or country agenda. It is important to establish a structure for fiscal transparency or to evaluate the criteria for such transparency. Such criteria have already been discussed in the earlier part of this essay suggesting that fiscal transparency processes are linked to particular sets of outcomes, circumstances and particular organizational viewpoints and objectives. The link between transparency and accountability could be established as also the distinction between process and event transparency considering the difference of between over exposure and clarity as explained within the context of government budgeting. Overexposure or revealing every single detail of government transaction could be tedious or even raise issues of privacy however considerable clarity in major government expenditures could enhance the budgeting process and provide the right levels of transparency. The aim is thus to attain a balance and the right kind of transparency so that the best performance of countries could be measured in terms of international best practice with regard to public expenditure and taxation. Heald(2003) suggests that the UK as high levels of fiscal transparency according to international standards although there is still a gap between rhetoric and practice and a divergence between nominal and effective transparency (Heald, 2003). This is because there are frequent changes in definitions of public expenditure, in producing the government agenda towards financial policies and regulations and also the government plans in matters related to economic development. There could also be non publication of reports and analyses and a lack of clarity in tax policies and all these gaps and incongruent aspects could add up to an incomplete form of transparency that is not the ideal in governance reporting or budgeting process. This is how the need for a comprehensive legal framework has been highlighted in all discussions related to budgeting. Budget laws are important because in many countries and especially in developing nations, IM or OECD directives are not enough and even the governments may not have a clear and transparent economic policy that could emphasize an enhanced and transparent reporting of government expenditures and these would be deterrents in any effective transparency process. When governments are not too keen to maintain a completely open and transparent fiscal policy and budgeting process, there is naturally a lack of fiscal transparency and budget transparency leading to less accountability and fall of public confidence in the government. Yet in many developing nations governments continue to show low accountability by not having an open and transparent fiscal policy and financial system. This is where the legal framework is essential as when the political systems don't encourage or follow an open financial system or fiscal transparency, the budget and financial laws could help in restoring the level of transparency that the public, media or international organizations demand or expect from governments. A comprehensive legal framework, not just in case of fiscal policies but in all aspects of government functioning, could actually enhance the functioning and also improve government credibility and make certain government systems and functions more efficient. We require laws in every setting and functioning level and in every aspect of governance as laws help to provide a structure or framework within which individuals or the public or even the government could work. These legal frameworks lay down the rues for better governance through strict regulations which are at times necessary for output and economic and social development of a country. The legal frameworks and laws of the developing nations could be studied and a comparison could also be drawn between the legal frameworks of fiscal policies in Sweden and that in South Africa. It is essential to understand the differences between the fiscal policies and government agendas as also the laws and framework of regulation that are valid in case of developing and developed nations and a comparative analysis between the two could also help in highlighting various problems and issues in having or not having a strong legal framework. Thus n the next stage of the discussion an analysis of the fiscal policies in developing and developed nations are distinguished with special references to South Africa and Sweden. Developing nations and budget in South Africa, Sweden A paper by Ghatak et al (2007) provided investigational reports on fiscal policies in Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, and Venezuela and competing methodologies were used for the study. In the analysis the authors suggested that fiscal policy reactions could indicate sustainability and surplus adjustments would have to be made in case of sustainability for higher debt to income ratios in certain developing nations. In case of non sustainable trends in government debts, corrective measures will have to be used as debt modeling procedures could lead to weak evidence of fiscal behavior especially in Latin American nations. Debt models and procedures as well as extra corrective measures taken by governments would have to be evidential and based upon information available and this is especially true for developing nations which face a higher debt to income ratio. The fiscal policies in these cases will have to emphasize on corrective measures, on debt modeling, on sustainability measures and also focus on longer term economic growth. As far as the South Africa fiscal policy and budget transparency is concerned, Akinboade 2004 investigated the budget deficit interest rate relationships with reference to South Africa and within the context and used the two econometric methods of the London School and the Granger-causality methods (Akinboade, 2004). The study highlighted that in case of South Africa, the two important features of budgeting and fiscal policy would be interest rates and budget deficit if any and the paper suggests that these two indices would be independent in South Africa, a feature that according to the author could not be very conducive to transparency as transparency will have to include among other thins a link of relationships between the fiscal policies and interest rates as also budget deficits as budget deficits are as important in fiscal transparency as are budget surpluses or any other financial adjustments made by the government. Burger (2006) highlights how along with many other countries, South Africa too have struggled to find solutions to persistent and continual public sector deficits or inadequacies. The adoption of fiscal rules and a regulatory framework could be way out from persistent budget failures and deficits. One of these rules discussed in the paper is the output-sensitive deficit rule of Taylor, and its applicability to South Africa. Burger argues: "Such volatility in the deficit/GDP ratio may cause fears that government may not be able to maintain the stability of the debt/GDP ratio, thereby again introducing fiscal un-sustainability" (Burger 2006, p.643). Sustaining the stability of the debt to GDP ratio is an important feature of the budget in South Africa and in fact in any developing nation the sustainability of the debt to GDP ratio indicates the economic progression of the country. Burger suggests an augmentation of the application of the Taylor rule to reduce the volatility in the public debt/GDP ratio suggesting how fiscal rules and policies followed by other countries could be relevant or inappropriate for South Africa. According to Burger, any augmented fiscal rule could contribute both to fiscal sustainability as well as economic growth ad stability in the African region. The government has to maintain stability of the debt/GDP ratio as that is an important indicator of economic development and fiscal sustainability would be an essential element in explaining economic growth of the region and also in maintaining fiscal transparency in government budget processes. The fiscal budget and report could have its gaps and limitations or relevant points in the calculations of the fiscal balance and this would be particularly misleading for countries like South Africa that has substantial movements in trade and thus requires a completely transparent fiscal policy (Swanepoele 2008). The trading activities of South Africa makes it imperative that South Africa has a sound and transparent fiscal policy although the government seems to be less focused on the transparency issue. The budget measures are done on the basis of income rather than output although in these cases what will have to be considered are changes in commodity prices, consumer spending, and the general attitude towards economic well being and these transitory factors could all have a lasting impact on the way the government projects its fiscal policies. On the other hand Sweden has an independent fiscal policy that is framed by the fiscal policy council although Sweden continues to have binding targets for fiscal policy and also comprehensive reforms. The Swedish financial crisis of 1991-93 could be an exemplary model that shows how banks could be saved during an economic downturn. The model is still followed and discussed by policymakers as one of the most effective. Some of the features of Swedish fiscal policy are political unity and swift policy actions during financial emergencies, guarantee of deposits and liabilities to banks, adequate legal framework with open ended funding, transparency and full information disclosure, and effective macroeconomic policies that helped to finally end the crisis (Goldstein and Turner, 1998). Legal Framework for Budget According to the OECD, the legal basis for budget processing tend to vary enormously across OECD countries and whereas the US has some major laws to support federal government budget processes, Denmark and Norway never has such supportive legal framework. One OECD study (2005) compares legal frameworks for budgeting and fiscal policies in 13 OECD countries including Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States. The difference between legal frameworks of these nations has been studied and the report has tried to identify why legal systems differ to this extent and what are the legal frameworks that could be common or effective for these countries and what are the specialized laws applicable to only one specific country that could support or relate to the budgeting process and fiscal policy. These legal frameworks are aimed to help rather than hinder the government budgeting process. The norms for an optimum legal framework for each country could be established with a focus on the similarities and differences in formal laws and statues related to the budget system. This could help in comprehensive government planning so that any government could reform budget laws according to the legal and social, economic political necessities of the nation. In a study released by the OECD public sector division, the three major policy recommendations for good governance have been given as: I. Ensuring impartiality in the decision-making process by a credible conflict-of-interest policy. II. Increasing transparency in the preparation and execution of the budget. III. Promoting freedom of information, consultation and participation of citizens in the formulation and implementation of public policies. (OECD, 2002) The second policy recommendation on increasing transparency in the preparation of the budget by any country is what is relevant to this discussion and suggests that just like the IMF the OECD policy recommendations could serve as a major supportive framework for all nations and especially developing nations like South Africa. Conclusion: In conclusion the budgeting and fiscal processes are complicated and the government will have to take special care to make the process as transparent as possible so that there is complete public trust and support for governance and such endeavour. The budget and fiscal policies are best done according to the legal framework which the countries could themselves develop or they can depend on models and directives of other countries and organizations. The legal framework would be necessary for supporting government initiatives, to overcome financial crises if any (as seen in the Swedish case) and especially relevant and helpful for developing nations although there are countries with no legal frameworks for budgeting as in case of Norway and Denmark. Thus scholars might argue that legal frameworks are not absolutely necessary as seen in Scandinavian countries yet a country like South Africa and other developing nations require a clear and transparent budget and fiscal process and legal support as public trust is important in developing nations and in democracies and all government expenses should be documented. The sort of economy like South Africa which depends on long term sustainability requires a proper legal framework and budget laws that could help and support the government initiatives and also help to attain long term goals. References: Alt, J. E. and D. D. Lassen (2006). 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