Transparency and Accountability in Budgeting

If a ₹5 biscuit can tell us everything, why can’t a ₹100 crore road? I recently came across this thought-provoking visual-and it struck a chord. In fact, I’ve seen something similar already implemented on several PWD roads in Kerala, where boards display the cost, contractor, and responsible engineers involved in a public works project. That’s transparency. That’s accountability. And that’s exactly what we need nationwide. Why this matters: A ₹5 Parle-G biscuit packet gives you: Manufacturer Batch number License details Expiry date A ₹100 crore road? Often no clue who built it, how much it cost, or who's accountable for its failure. Imagine if every road had: A QR code on a board at regular intervals Scannable info on: Name of the contractor Date of completion Cost incurred Responsible government department Supervising engineers and ministers This is not a futuristic dream-it’s a reality in progressive states like Kerala. So why not scale it across India? As per Kerala PWD's 2023 circular, all major road works must display: Project name Contractor details Total sanctioned cost Start and end dates Contact number for grievance redressal These boards are common on NH, SH, and PMGSY roads in the state. A suggestion for India: Let’s treat public infrastructure like public information. Taxpayer money deserves traceability-whether it’s for a bridge, a hospital, or a highway. Let’s build roads you can drive on and trust. #Transparency #Accountability #GoodGovernance #KeralaModel #PublicInfrastructure #DigitalIndia #RoadSafety #NHAI #PMGSY #TaxpayerMoney #LinkedInIndia #IndiaDeservesBetter #QRcodeInitiative

💰 🧮 💸 🎓 A common refrain I hear when talking to college and university trustees: budgets in higher ed are unlike anything in the business world. How colleges make and spend money remains mysterious even to those who've spent their careers in higher education. That's why in the latest installment of the Higher Ed 101 series on the Future U Podcast, Michael Horn and I took a deep dive into college budgeting with Rick Staisloff, a former college CFO and founder of RPK Group. Whether you're a board member, college professor, or tuition-paying parent, this episode offers valuable insights into college budgeting—what works and what doesn't. My three takeaways: 1️⃣ College budget buckets are too large. Most institutions don't really know where they're making money or where they're spending it. "We have to get into unit cost to really understand the financial health of an institution," Staisloff told us. Most colleges don't know how much it costs to graduate a biology major versus an English major, for instance. When enrollment was growing and public funding flowed freely, this approach probably wasn't fiscally responsible but it functioned. Now, when institutions need to be strategic, leaders need greater insight into resource allocation—otherwise they're moving pennies instead of dollars. In other words: show me where you spend your money, and I'll show you what you value. 2️⃣ The lack of transparency leads to lack of accountability. While colleges might set enrollment goals, their leaders often don't know what financial targets they should be hitting. "I'm always struck at the institutions we work with at how seldom deans, chairs, budget unit heads are given a clear sense of what good looks like and what they're supposed to be achieving," Staisloff explained. 3️⃣ It's business intelligence, stupid. My biggest takeaway: how little higher ed leaders know about their business. Part of this is cultural—campuses resist discussing ROI of individual programs. Part is technological—colleges have underinvested in ERP systems, leaving them flying blind in financial forecasting. This becomes increasingly problematic as we face an enrollment cliff and federal funding uncertainty. 🎧 Listen to the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/e8zV_PSy 📺 Watch highlights of this episode as well as select full episodes on our YouTube channel: https://lnkd.in/dRRBvpiR I'm biased, but this episode should be required listening for new board members:

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗪𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 with the Entire Company (And Why You Should Too) For a long time, I thought transparency was risky.  • What if people panic?  • What if they misunderstand numbers?  • What if it creates anxiety? Then I realized something: 𝗢𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗮𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹. So we started sharing our financials.  • Openly.  • Regularly.  • Context included. Here’s what changed: 1. People stopped guessing. They started thinking like owners. 2. Costs became intentional. Trade-offs became visible. Decisions made sense. 3 .Transparency didn’t weaken authority. It distributed responsibility. Of course, numbers without context can confuse. So we explain why, not just what. Because trust isn’t built by protecting people from reality. It’s built by inviting them into it. If you want accountability, share the information people need to actually take it.

Basic governance isn’t optional — it’s the frontline defence against corruption. When a national budget starts to smell, it’s usually because someone doesn’t want the public to see what’s really going on. The 2025 PNG Budget is exactly that scenario. Instead of investment in people, essential services, or genuine nation-building, we’re watching billions of kina funnelled into large contracts and programs with almost zero transparency. Prioritising opaque mega-projects over basic accountability is not just bad governance — it’s dangerous. Even the most elementary beneficial ownership regime would expose how many of the companies benefiting from Connect PNG and other major contracts trace straight back to MPs and political associates. That’s not speculation — it’s what every anti-corruption and financial governance system in the world is designed to prevent. Opposition MP James Nomane has raised the exact concerns any responsible government should already be addressing. His call for transparency is not political — it’s democratic. A K28.4 billion budget, and only K1.5 billion (5.2%) is visible at district level through DSIP. The rest? Untraceable to the people who actually rely on services. That is the definition of inequity. Nomane is right: • Citizens deserve to know where the money went. • They deserve to know which companies were paid, for what work, and in which districts. • They deserve access to the IFMS Vendors Payment List, MYEFO, and FBO that actually disclose recipients, not just broad allocations. And importantly, the Public Finance Management Act 2022 (s.3(2)) already requires quarterly reporting. Transparency is not a favour — it’s the law. If K1.6 billion went to Connect PNG, then show the public the contracts. Show the contractors. Show the beneficial owners. Show the work delivered. If there’s nothing to hide, then nothing should be hidden. Good governance is simple: • Open books. • Open contracts. • Open reporting. • Open accountability. PNG will never break the cycle of corruption and inequality while billions disappear into black boxes controlled by ministers, departments and political networks. Integrity isn’t a slogan — it’s transparency in action. Read more: (PNGfacts article) https://lnkd.in/gt8whakC

How do we follow taxpayers' money? In early March, during our training with the Global Ties Detroit, I was part of the Economic Development & Sector Innovation group. We were challenged to identify a common issue across our countries. One thing that truly stood out to me: Uzbekistan has a public portal where citizens can propose and vote on projects → openbudget.uz The “Open Budget” platform allows communities to directly influence how public funds are allocated. How powerful is that? I immediately thought… we need something like this in Mozambique. But even with a system like this, questions remain: 1. Which project should come first? 2. Are we overinvesting in certain areas? 3. What does the historical investment pattern tell us? That’s where our group went next. We conceptualized GlassBox, a way to truly follow taxpayers’ money. A system that combines: 💚 project proposals 💚 historical investment performance 💚 government priorities 💚 citizen feedback …to recommend what should be funded first, and make the entire process more transparent. This builds on the idea of moving from fragmented decisions to real-time, data-driven prioritization . And then… we pitched it. Let’s just say, we didn’t play it safe 😄. We went all in on creativity. And we won. But more than that, what stayed with me is this: If we can combine citizen voice + data + transparency, we can fundamentally change how public money works. EDSI team, you were incredible. Maria M. Desarta Rapushaj Dolgorjav Munkhbayar OYATILLO NURALIEV Bongekile Matsenjwa Nnenna N. Ofobike-Lewis. It was an honor learning with and from you. And thank you again to Global Ties Detroit Hubert H. Humphrey Program at Michigan State University for an eye-opening week on AI and emerging technologies. My motto remains: As long as we serve (and overserve) humans, we will never run out of work to do. #EconomicDevelopment #Innovation #PublicSector #DigitalTransformation #AI #OpenGovernment #PublicFinance #DataDriven #Transparency, #HumphreyFellowship, #BuildInPublic, #SystemsThinking

I brought this forward with Rep. Justin Pizzulli because Ohioans deserve to know where their money is going. JobsOhio was created to create jobs using public assets. But recent revelations, including a $60,000 podcast deal tied to a growing scandal, raise serious questions about whether that mission is being followed. Right now, JobsOhio operates with limited transparency. No regular audits. No clear disclosure of partnerships. And not even a requirement that most records be public. That’s not acceptable. Our bipartisan JobsOhio Transparency Act would: • Require regular, independent audits • Shine a light on spending, salaries, and partnerships • Ensure public officials aren’t quietly steering deals behind the scenes This isn’t partisan. It’s basic accountability. If JobsOhio is going to manage billions in public resources, it should meet the same standards we expect everywhere else. Ohioans deserve answers. And more importantly, they deserve transparency. https://lnkd.in/g6P9zDz5

WHY DOES GHANA NEED A FISCAL COUNCIL 1.      In recent years, Ghana’s fiscal policy management has come under scrutiny due to recurring budget deficits, debt sustainability concerns, and limited fiscal space. 2.      These challenges have exposed the need for stronger fiscal institutions that can promote transparency, accountability, and long-term discipline in public financial management. 3.      One such institutional reform is the establishment of an Independent Fiscal Council, as envisaged in Section 11 of the newly passed Public Financial Management (Amendment) Act, 2025 (Act 1136). The new act repeals the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2018 (Act 982) and consolidates Ghana’s fiscal management laws under a single legal framework. 4.      Two key aspects of this law are the introduction of strict numerical budget balance and debt rules, as well as the establishment of an Independent Fiscal Council. The budget rules mandate an annual surplus of at least 1.5% of GDP on a commitment basis and set an upper debt-to-GDP ceiling of 45% by 2034. 5.      Meanwhile, the Independent Fiscal Council will be responsible for monitoring compliance with these fiscal responsibility rules, among other functions. 6.      The next step for the government is to establish the Independent Fiscal Council and ensure that it builds build the necessary technical and managerial capacity to effectively implement these fiscal rules. 7.      The empirical literature shows that having a fiscal council is associated with “more accurate and possibly less optimistic fiscal forecasts, as well as greater compliance with fiscal rules”.  However, the independence of such a Council is critical to achieving such compliance. 8.      Last week, The Imani Center for Policy and Education (IMANI CPE) and International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) held a stakeholder workshop in Accra, Ghana where it presented its cutting-edge research on designing fiscal frameworks that balance credibility with the flexibility needed to respond to economic challenges. 9.      The report provided a deep-dive analysis of the design options available to Ghana, drawing lessons from comparative country experiences in Africa and globally. It recommends a roadmap for operationalising the Council with a clear legal mandate, functional autonomy, and strong analytical capacity. These points were also expressed by various stakeholders. 10. Stakeholders at the workshop advocated for continued support and guidance to ensure the fiscal council effectively carries out its mandate.  We look forward to continuing this work with the government and other stakeholders in supporting the all important work of the Fiscal Council. Anahí Wiedenbrüg Fernando Morra Franklin Cudjoe DENNIS ASARE Josephine Adjei-Tenkorang International Institute for Sustainable Development Imani Center for Policy and Education

Canada’s Fiscal Report Card: Too Much Government, Too Little Accountability The C.D. Howe Institute’s 2025 Fiscal Accountability Report Card offers a sobering assessment of how Canada’s governments manage, and report, public money. The findings aren’t about ideology or partisanship. They’re about competence, transparency, and accountability. Alberta once again topped the class with an A+ for timely and transparent financial reporting. Quebec followed with a B+, and most other provinces earned Bs. But the federal government received a D, dropping from already poor grades in previous years. Manitoba and the Northwest Territories landed at the bottom with D-. These marks reflect not only late reporting but also opaque budgets and inconsistencies between projections and outcomes. Collectively, Canada’s federal, provincial, and territorial governments now spend over $1 trillion annually, roughly 37 percent of GDP, or about $27,000 per Canadian. Their combined accumulated deficits exceed $1.6 trillion. This isn’t just a federal issue. Many provinces and municipalities are also running chronic deficits, adding to the subsovereign debt. Yet there is only one taxpayer. Whether Ottawa, a province, or a city overspends, Canadian workers ultimately pay the bill. Fiscal transparency matters because it’s how citizens hold governments accountable for results. When reports are late or incomplete, when accounting standards are applied inconsistently, or when budget projections miss reality by billions, or tens of billions, accountability breaks down. The deeper issue is that government has become too large and too costly. Social spending continues to expand, while investment in productivity and infrastructure lags. Canada’s persistent current account deficit - borrowing from abroad to sustain domestic consumption and government spending - is a symptom of that imbalance. If Canada wants to remain competitive, it needs more than good intentions and promises. It needs governments that publish timely, accurate information and make tough choices about priorities. The C.D. Howe Institute’s report isn’t just a scorecard; it is also a warning. Transparency and fiscal discipline are not targets that are nice to have; they’re the foundation of trust, competitiveness, and long-term prosperity.