The International Budget Partnership Kenya (IBP Kenya) is a Kenyan non-profit organization working to advance transparency, accountability, participation, and equity in the national and county budgeting processes.
Since 2015, IBP Kenya has been conducting the County Budget Transparency Survey (CBTS), one of the few and most successful transparency initiatives conducted at the sub-national level in the world. The annual independent survey provides fair and comparative measures on the level of the information provided by all sub-national units (known as counties) in Kenya as required by the Public Finance Management Act (PFM Act), 2012, and its accompanying regulations.
The report discusses in detail the stories behind the recent large gains in budget transparency. Also, it demonstrates the best practices that counties are putting in place towards enhancing access to budget information.Some of the key findings include:
- The CBTS 2023 score is 56 out of 100 points, a 15-point increase from CBTS 2022.
- Kwale County recorded an index score of 81 out of 100 points, being the first county to attain an ‘A’ since the start of the comprehensiveness survey in 2020.
- Information on public participation continues to steadily improve, however, it remains the least provided information in county budget documents.
- In CBTS 2023, 34 counties published at least one more budget document on their website upon sharing the draft availability results, up from 29 counties in CBTS 2022.
- Compared to the formulation and approval stages of the budget cycle, the key budget documents produced in the approval and implementation stage are less comprehensive.