Palestine
Open Budget Survey Results
Public Participation
0
Budget Oversight
17
Transparency
8
Open Budget Survey 2023
This assessment examines the documents published and events, activities, and developments that occurred through 31 December 2022. The findings and recommendations below should be considered in light of the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
International institutions and development partners should support committed actors within government and civil society in Palestine who are working towards more open and accountable public budgets.
The Open Budget Survey (OBS) is the world’s only independent, comparative and fact-based research instrument that uses internationally accepted criteria to assess public access to central government budget information; formal opportunities for the public to participate in the national budget process; and the role of budget oversight institutions, such as legislatures and national audit offices, in the budget process.
The survey helps local civil society assess and confer with their government on the reporting and use of public funds. This 9th edition of the OBS covers 125 countries.
This part of the OBS measures public access to information on how the central government raises and spends public resources. It assesses the online availability, timeliness, and comprehensiveness of eight key budget documents using 109 equally weighted indicators and scores each country on a scale of 0 to 100. A transparency score of 61 or above indicates a country is likely publishing enough material to support informed public debate on the budget.
Transparency in Palestine compared to others
Public availability of budget documents in Palestine
| Document | 2023 |
|---|---|
| Pre-Budget Statement | |
| Executive’s Budget Proposal | |
| Enacted Budget | |
| Citizens Budget | |
| In-Year Reports | |
| Mid-Year Review | |
| Year-End Report | |
| Audit Report |
How comprehensive is the content of the key budget documents that Palestine makes available to the public?
| Key budget document | Document purpose and contents | Fiscal year assessed | Document content score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-Budget Statement | Discloses the broad parameters of fiscal policies in advance of the Executive's Budget Proposal; outlines the government's economic forecast, anticipated revenue, expenditures, and debt. | 2023 | Internal Use |
| Executive’s Budget Proposal | Submitted by the executive to the legislature for approval; details the sources of revenue, the allocations to ministries, proposed policy changes, and other information important for understanding the country's fiscal situation. | 2023 | Not Produced |
| Enacted Budget | The budget that has been approved by the legislature. | 2022 | Internal Use |
| Citizens Budget | A simpler and less technical version of the government's Executive’s Budget Proposal or the Enacted Budget, designed to convey key information to the public. | 2022 | Published Late |
| In-Year Reports | Include information on actual revenues collected, actual expenditures made, and debt incurred at different intervals; issued quarterly or monthly. | 2022 | 52 |
| Mid-Year Review | A comprehensive update on the implementation of the budget as of the middle of the fiscal year; includes a review of economic assumptions and an updated forecast of budget outcomes. | 2022 | Not Produced |
| Year-End Report | Describes the situation of the government's accounts at the end of the fiscal year and, ideally, an evaluation of the progress made toward achieving the budget's policy goals. | 2021 | 19 |
| Audit Report | Issued by the supreme audit institution, this document examines the soundness and completeness of the government's year-end accounts. | 2021 | 24 |
Recommendations
We stand in solidarity with our partners in Palestine. The following recommendations should be considered in the context of the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Palestine should prioritize the following actions to improve budget transparency:
The OBS assesses the formal opportunities offered to the public for meaningful participation in the different stages of the budget process. It examines the practices of the central government’s executive, the legislature, and the supreme audit institution (SAI) using 18 equally weighted indicators, aligned with the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency’s Principles of Public Participation in Fiscal Policies , and scores each country on a scale from 0 to 100.
Palestine has a public participation score of 0 (out of 100).
Public participation in Palestine compared to others
For more information, see here for innovative public participation practices around the world.
Extent of opportunities for public participation in the budget process
(executive)
(legislature)
(executive)
(supreme audit institution)
Recommendations
We stand in solidarity with our partners in Palestine. The following recommendations should be considered in the context of the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza. To further strengthen public participation in the budget process, Palestine's Ministry of Finance should prioritize the following actions:
The Palestine Legislative Council has been suspended since 2006 due to the political division between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and the President issued a decision to dissolve the Palestinian Legislative Council in December 2018, which means that the budgets were not originally presented to the Legislative Council. It is urgent to hold elections and reactivate the Legislative Council in order to restore normal checks and balances to the budget process. Furthermore, after its reinstatement, priority should be given to the following actions to improve opportunities for public participation:
Palestine's State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau should prioritize the following actions to improve public participation in the budget process:
The OBS examines the role that legislatures and supreme audit institutions (SAIs) play in the budget process and the extent to which they provide oversight; each country is scored on a scale from 0 to 100 based on 18 equally weighted indicators. In addition, the survey collects supplementary information on independent fiscal institutions (see Box).
The legislature and supreme audit institution in Palestine, together, provide weak oversight during the budget process, with a composite oversight score of 17 (out of 100). Taken individually, the extent of each institution’s oversight is shown below:
Legislative oversight
Audit oversight
Recommendations
We stand in solidarity with our partners in Palestine. The following recommendations should be considered in the context of the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The Palestine Legislative Council has been suspended since 2006 due to the political division between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and the President issued a decision to dissolve the Palestinian Legislative Council in December 2018, and thus there is no legislative oversight during the planning stage and the implementation stage of the budget cycle. It is urgent that the legislature is reinstated in order to restore the normal checks and balances of Palestine's budget process. After its reinstatement, furthermore, the following actions should be prioritized to improve legislative oversight:
To strengthen independence and improve audit oversight by the Palestine State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau, the following actions are recommended:
The emerging practice of establishing independent fiscal institutions
Palestine does not have an independent fiscal institution (IFI). IFIs are increasingly recognized as valuable independent and nonpartisan information providers to the Executive and/or Parliament during the budget process.
*These indicators are *not* scored in the Open Budget Survey.
Methodology
Hama Zeidan
The Coalition for Accountability and integrity-AMAN (Transparency Palestine)
[email protected]; [email protected]; www.aman-palestine.org