Illustrative image (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - The Vietnam Institute for Economic and Policy Researchand the Centre for Development and Integration on July 8 released the 2019Provincial Open Budget Index (POBI), which assesses how transparentlylocalities spent their allocated public funds last year.
The averagetransparency score was 65.55 out of 100 points, up from 51 points in 2018 and30.5 in 2017.
The southern-coastaland southern regions boasted the highest average POBI scores, of 77.16 points and73.81, respectively.
The north-centralregion placed last among Vietnam’s seven regions, with 52.62 points.
The Mekong Deltaprovince of Vinh Long continued to have the most transparent administration interms of budget spending, posting 90 points.
Meanwhile, centralPhu Yen province and northern Thai Binh province were ranked last, with just 10points each.
Researcherssurveyed 63 cities and provinces regarding two main pillars - budgettransparency and civil participation - to evaluate localities’ efforts to fullydisclose all relevant fiscal information in a timely and systematic manner.
The index is builton the five main criteria of completeness, timeliness, availability,convenience, and reliability in providing seven documents that the 2015 Law onState budget mandates be disclosed and three other documents that need to bepublished under international best practices.
The POBI is anational initiative implemented independently by non-profit research institutessince 2017. Along with other indexes such as the PCI (provincialcompetitiveness index), it has become a tool to enhance openness, democracy,and transparency and also helps Vietnam demonstrate its internationalcommitment to promoting open government./.
VNA
