Transparency gaps in budget implementation soar

Verité Research Assistant Manager Edward Uthayathas, Verité Research Research Analyst Chathuni Pabasara and Verité Research Senior Research Analyst Sureni Weeratunga share an update on Budget Promises, an online platform of the think tank that tracks national budget implementation

PIC BY PRADEEP PATHIRANA

• Verité Research’s evaluation highlights increased lack of transparency in budget proposal implementation in 2022 and 2023

The lack of transparency in the implementation of budget proposals has increased sharply in 2022 and 2023, a systematic evaluation by Verité Research revealed.

The Colombo-based think tank observed that the government, on average, did not disclose information to assess the progress of 70 percent of the expenditure proposals in 2022 and 2023. This is a significant increase from the 45 percent observed between 2017 and 2021.

“This means the information was not disclosed proactively online, nor in response to the Right to Information requests filed,” Verité Research said, while sharing the progress of the mid-year budget tracker yesterday.
“Failure to disclose information has been a problem every year. However, the level of opacity has substantially increased in 2022 and 2023,” the think tank added.

Verité Research’s mid-year update shows that, as of June, the progress of 68 percent of the 25 highest value proposals in the budget speech for 2023 cannot be assessed, due to lack of information. 

Information was available to assess the progress of 32 percent of proposals but only 8 percent of these were on track and 24 percent demonstrated poor progress.

The total value of all 25 proposals tracked by Verité Research is Rs. 49.3 billion. The value of proposals where progress remains unknown accounts for 97 percent of this value (Rs. 47.7 billion). 

Verité Research asserted that the lack of fiscal transparency is a key factor that contributed to the present crisis and loss of credibility of the government, both at home and abroad. 

Several commitments made by the government in its agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and several recommendations made by the IMF in its latest governance diagnostic on Sri Lanka, highlight the importance of improving fiscal transparency. 

While the budget speech for 2024 will be made on November 13, the think tank asserted that greater transparency and accountability about the progress of budget proposals could help to address the concerns noted by the IMF and in turn, improve Sri Lanka’s chances of a sustainable economic recovery.