Open budgeting

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The open budget is a synonym for an opening up around the budget cycle and the budget processes in politics and administration .

Open budgeting

In many countries it is already regulated in the budgetary principles that the budget should be transparent, public and comprehensible. The budget principles valid in Germany include, in addition to task performance, prior, annuality, economic efficiency, frugality, total coverage and budget balancing, as well as several transparency and disclosure obligations. They are intended to inform the population about the plans, management, accounting and auditing. These include the budgetary principles of completeness (Art. 110 (1) GG, §11 BHO ), clarity and truth (§§13, 14, 17 BHO), the public (§10 BHO) and the public budget debate (Art 42 GG; Art. 104a ff. GG).

Open budget

The question arises as to whether and how budget publicity, openness and transparency in budgeting can be measured objectively. The International Budget Partnership , a partnership founded in 1997 at the American Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington DC to support civil society institutions in developing countries and in newly founded states, has developed the Open Budget Index for this purpose. The aim of the index, which has been collected every two years since 2006, is to make the transparency and accountability obligations of national budgets comparable in order to draw attention to undesirable developments, improvements and development prospects. A scale from 0 to 100 is used to clearly display the current opening. The Federal Republic of Germany achieved twelfth place out of 94 countries examined in 2010 with an OBI value of 68. The underlying criteria are based on eight central budget documents (Pre-Budget Statement, Executive's Budget Proposal, Enacted Budget, Citizens Budget, In-Year Reports, Mid-Year Review, Year-End Report and Audit Report), the budget and the budget process . The data for the Open Budget Survey (IBP 2010) were collected via an expert survey (2010: 123 questions). The preparation generated contributes to the measurement and visualization of the opening. The understanding of the complex topic is improved, opportunities for comparison are opened up and a discussion about the status and perspectives is invited . The IBP uses the term “open budget” primarily in the sense of open and transparent budgets and open and transparent budget systems (IBP 2010).

Open Budget 2.0

With a view to the potential of social media, however, the following sections will speak of an open budget system in the sense of “Open Budget 2.0”, especially if budget management is opened up with the support of social media beyond mere budget transparency, budget publicity and open budget debates is also lived by local authorities and authorities, transparency is supported by electronic publication with open budget data and citizens are involved in budget processes.

There are several starting points for opening up the budget cycle:

  • The citizenry can participate in an advisory capacity through participation budgets in the context of budget preparation.
  • A proactive provision of budget plans in open formats opens up new perspectives for public budget discussions.
  • Real participatory budgeting is suitable where the elaboration and decision-making of a budget are to be completely transferred to the citizens.
  • The public can be promptly informed about resolutions of budget laws and statutes as well as about voting behavior via the Internet.
  • Modern household management systems allow up-to-date reports and analyzes on management, which in an understandable format could no longer be made freely accessible not only for internal purposes, but also to politicians and the public.
  • Surcharges for tenders and awards, contracts concluded by the state, and public subsidy payments to beneficiaries can also be published.
  • A stronger involvement of the population in (8) budget closing and in the impact-oriented examination of the use of funds would be conceivable.

Open Budget and Germany

The state of the opening of the budget in Germany varies greatly at the various levels. Federal government, states, districts, cities and municipalities show that household transparency can be lived differently via the Internet and that open household databases have already been networked and opened. Although the implementation status of budget planning data, budget management data, budget receipts and budget reports varies, there is still a lot of room in Germany for further opening up and networking.

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Jörn von Lucke et al: Open Budget 2.0 & Open Budget Data - opening up budgeting and budget data, Deutsche Telekom Institute for Connected Cities, Zeppelin University gGmbH, Friedrichshafen 2011, p. 3.
  2. ↑ International Budget Partnership: Open Budget Survey 2010, Washington 2010, pp. 15–21.
  3. ↑ Jörn von Lucke 2011: Open Budget - Thoughts on the Opening of Households in the Age of Social Media and Networked Communities, in: Hans-Ulrich Heiß, Peter Pepper, Holger Schlinghoff and Jörg Schneider (Eds.): INFORMATIK 2011 - Computer Science Creates Communities, CD -ROM, GI-Edition, Lecture Notes, Gesellschaft für Informatik, Bonn 2011, p. 2 f.
  4. ↑ a b c Jörn von Lucke et al: Open Budget 2.0 & Open Budget Data - opening up budgeting and budget data, Deutsche Telekom Institute for Connected Cities, Zeppelin University gGmbH, Friedrichshafen 2011, p. 5.
  5. ↑ Jörn von Lucke et al: Open Budget 2.0 & Open Budget Data - opening up budgeting and household data, Deutsche Telekom Institute for Connected Cities, Zeppelin University gGmbH, Friedrichshafen 2011, p. II.