The U.S. State Department released the 2019 Fiscal Transparency Report on August 15, 2019.
Fiscal transparency informs citizens how government revenues and tax revenues are spent and is a critical element of effective public financial management. Transparency provides citizens a window into government budgets and helps hold governments accountable. It helps build market confidence and sustainability. The Congressionally mandated Fiscal Transparency Report (FTR) is a tool to identify deficiencies and support needed changes. The Office of Monetary Affairs (OMA) of State’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs (EB) prepares the annual FTR in consultation with State’s Bureau of Energy Resources (ENR) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
As directed by Congress, EB/OMA evaluates data on the fiscal transparency collected by our posts in 141 countries (those that could receive U.S. foreign assistance) against minimum requirements and publishes the results on the Department’s website annually. For countries to meet minimum requirements, governments must make key budget documents publicly available within a reasonable period of time. They must be substantially complete and generally reliable. Governments must also follow a transparent process for awarding government contracts for natural resource extraction. In the report released in August 2019, 74 countries met minimum requirements and 67 did not. Additionally, the FTR identified 13 countries that made significant progress towards meeting requirements.
