By Vivek Ramkumar, International Budget Partnership— Jun 14, 2016
This is the second post in “Unpacking the Open Budget Survey,” a series of blogs exploring the richness of the Open Budget Survey data and some of the different ways they can be used.
Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) are crucial government bodies that verify whether public money is being used effectively and lawfully, and assess whether the fiscal information being produced by governments is complete and reliable. Despite being fundamental to a well-functioning budget system, most citizens have a limited understanding of their role and functions.
Since 2006, the Open Budget Survey (OBS) has sought to measure the role and effectiveness of SAIs and their contribution to more accountable budgets. In this blog we examine the strengths and weaknesses of oversight institutions based on the data from the latest round of the Survey.