Illustrative photo (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – With 66.63 points, the Ministry ofFinance tops the 2020 Ministry Open Budget Index (MOBI), followed by theMinistry of Justice with 48.41 points.
The information was announced by Nguyen Quang Thuong, Deputy Director of the Centre for Development and Integration (CDI) at a ceremony toannounce Vietnam’s 2020 MOBI on June 16. The index was commissioned by the CDI and theVietnam Institute for Economic and Policy Research with funding provided by Oxfarm in Vietnam.
Thuong said the 2020 MOBI results showed that the level ofbudget disclosure of ministries and agencies at the central level has notimproved remarkably compared to last year.
There are still many agencies that have not yet disclosed orfully disclosed as required under the provisions of the 2015 State Budget Lawand the MoF’s Circular 61/2017/TT-BTC and Circular 90/2018/TT- BTC, he said.
The 2020 MOBI average point is 21.64, equals to that of 2019 MOBI.
Regarding availability, there are 27 agencies andorganisations out of 44 surveyed agencies that have publicly disclosed at leastone budget document (accounting for 61.36 percent), an increase of three unitscompared to the 2019’s survey.
However, there are still 17 ministries and central agenciesthat did not publicise any documents at the time of the survey, equivalent to38.64 percent.
The MOBI 2020 survey results showed that they have notpromptly disclosed budget documents as required. Of the 19 units that havepublished documents on the 2021 budget estimate, only six have announced it ontime - within 15 days from December 31, 2020.
MOBI index aims to assess the openness and transparency ofthe State budget and the execution of the 2015 State Budget Law, thereby,bolstering trust of the public and development partners in the field inVietnam, Thuong said.
2020 is the third year in a row that the MOBI index has beenannounced.
Nguyen Duc Thanh, Director of the Vietnam Center for Economicand Strategic Studies (VESS) said: While the level of publicity andtransparency of the provinces has continuously improved (through assessment byPOBI index annually), the central agencies have not made any significantprogress, even though the 2015 State Budget Law has long been in effect.
“It is disappointed because central agencies have failed toset an example of building a rule-governed state and at the same time show alack of accountability to the people,” he said.
Thanh said that it istime for the National Assembly to promote its supervisory role in promoting theopenness and transparency of the public financial system.
He suggested the Government request ministries and centralagencies to publicise the budget in line with legal regulations and issue sanctions to handle unitsthat fail to do so.
The State Audit Office of Vietnam should include publicity andtransparency on budget documents of ministries and agencies at the centrallevel in its tasks, Thanh said./.
