EBP-2

When is the EBP made available to the public?
 * a. At least three months in advance of the budget year, and in advance of the budget being approved by the legislature
 * b. At least two months, but less than three months, in advance of the budget year, and in advance of the budget being approved by the legislature
 * c. Less than two months in advance of the budget year, but at least in advance of the budget being approved by the legislature
 * d. The EBP is not released to the public, or is released after the budget has been approved by the legislature

Guidelines
Publicly available budget documents are defined as those documents that are published on the website of the public authority issuing the document within the time frame specified in the OBS methodology and that all citizens are able to obtain free of charge. (See the Open Budget Survey Guidelines on Public Availability of Budget Documents.) This is a change from previous rounds of the Open Budget Survey: now at minimum documents must be made available on the Internet and free of charge to be considered publicly available.

The OBS methodology requires that for an EBP to be considered publicly available, it must be made available to the public while the legislature is still considering it and before the legislature approves (enacts) it. If the EBP is not released to the public before the legislature approves (enacts) it, option “d” applies. Option “d” should also be chosen for documents that are produced for internal purposes only (that is, produced but never released to the public) or are not produced at all. Some governments may publish budget documents further in advance than the latest possible dates outlined above. In these instances, researchers should choose options “a” or “b,” depending on the date of publication identified for the EBP.

The OBS definition of an Executive’s Budget Proposal is a document(s) that (i) the executive submits to the legislature as a formal part of the budget approval process and (ii) the legislature either approves or on which it approves proposed amendments. The OBS will treat the Executive’s Budget Proposal as “Not Produced,” in the following cases:
 * The executive does not submit the draft budget to the legislature; or
 * The legislature receives the draft budget but does not approve it or does not approve recommendations on the draft budget;
 * The legislature rejects the draft budget submitted by the executive, but the executive implements it without legislative approval; or
 * There is no legislature, or the legislature has been dissolved.

What fiscal year to use?
According to their constitution, Sweden should release the Executive’s Budget Proposal at the latest every year by September 20 (which would put it more than three months before the start of their budget year, which is the calendar year). If the election results in a change of government that latest date is set at November 15. Elections held September 9, 2018, resulted in a hung parliament. No new government had been agreed upon even at the end of 2018. The EBP was therefore presented on November 15, 2018 by the Red-Green Coalition (the government of 2014-September 8, 2018). In this case we might think the answer to EBP-2 (“When is the EBP made available to the public?”) is answer c, but the delay in timing was due solely to the election results and was within the rules of election years in Swedish law. Should the EBP from the previous fiscal year be used? Note: the EBP approved in November 2018 is as comprehensive as those for earlier fiscal years, so the only indicator likely to be impacted is EBP-2.

After discussing at our team meeting, we came to the conclusion that for the OBS 2019, we should assess the FY 2019 EBP. This is because according to the OBS methodology, we assess the timeliness of documents based on when they were published relative to the OBS guidelines (and international good practice), not according to deadlines established in a country’s laws. While Swedish law allows the government to present and publish the EBP late during an election year, it does not influence our assessment of public availability. In this case, the EBP will of course be considered publicly available, but the score on the indicator that assesses timeliness will slip from “a” to “c.”