Section 2

Guidelines
Introduction:

The first broad category of questions in the Open Budget Questionnaire looks at the information that is provided with regard to the Executive’s Budget Proposal upon its submission to the legislature for consideration, and how that information is presented. The Executive’s Budget Proposal typically receives more attention — from the legislature, the media, and the public — than any other budget document that the executive regularly releases. This heightened level of attention makes it essential that the Executive’s Budget Proposal and any supporting budget documentation are made widely available and provide clear and comprehensive information.

The Executive’s Budget Proposal is one of the most important policy documents that a country issues each year, for it is through the budget that governments translate many of their key policy goals into action. The nature of the Executive’s Budget Proposal can vary from country to country; sometimes it is a single document, and sometimes it is a collection of multiple documents. It is important that the Executive’s Budget Proposal is transparent because its proposals determine revenues (how much citizens pay in taxes), expenditures (how government resources are distributed among citizens), and debt (how much of the cost of government is borne by current or future generations). To allow for an informed public and legislative discussion on the budget, best practice calls for the executive to provide a full explanation of its taxation, spending, and borrowing plans well in advance of its enactment. The first section of the questionnaire assesses the content of the Executive’s Budget Proposal.

For the purposes of answering the following questions (1-53), researchers should draw their answers from the main Executive’s Budget Proposal that is available to the public, as well as any supporting budget documents that the executive may provide to the public. In order to be considered publicly available by the Open Budget Survey methodology, the Executive’s Budget Proposal and any supporting documents must be released to the public in advance of the legislature approving the budget. (See Section 1, Executive’s Budget Proposal) If according to the Open Budget Survey standards, the Executive’s Budget Proposal is not considered publicly available, then all questions regarding the Executive’s Budget Proposal should be marked “d.”