BY ALBERT VAN ZYL AND JAY KRUUSE —

A young boy plays with his cart in the temporary housing settlement near Oudtshoorn. Transparent budgets raise confidence and provide an important measures to monitor service delivery. Picture: THE TIMES

THE newly released Open Budget index for 2015 is widely seen as the global measure for national budget transparency, so it is an important achievement for SA to have remained one of the top performers.

This biennial survey is the only independent, comparative survey of budget transparency, citizen participation and independent oversight institutions in the budgeting process in the world. Each country covered by the survey receives a score of between zero and 100 based on the amount and timeliness of budget information that the government makes publicly available.

In this round of the survey, SA achieved a score of 86 — enough to earn it the third spot in the rankings. This matters because research shows that budget transparency makes a positive contribution to a country’s access to more favourable credit ratings, the quality of service delivery and a range of other governance indicators.

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