Question 65

How is the Citizens Budget disseminated to the public??
 * a. A Citizens Budget is disseminated widely through a combination of at least three different appropriate tools and media (such as the Internet, billboards, radio programs, newspapers, etc.).
 * b. A Citizens Budget is published by using at least two, but less than three, means of dissemination, but no other dissemination efforts are undertaken by the executive.
 * c. A Citizens Budget is disseminated only by using one means of dissemination.
 * d. A Citizens Budget is not published.
 * e. Not applicable/other (please comment).

OBS Guidelines
Question 65 asks how the Citizens Budget is disseminated to the public. Citizens Budgets should be made available to a variety of audiences. Therefore paper versions and an Internet posting of a document might not be sufficient.

To answer “a,” the executive must use three or more different types of creative media tools to reach the largest possible share of the population, including those who otherwise would not normally have access to budget documents or information. Dissemination would also be pursued at the very local level, so that the coverage is targeted both by geographic area and population group (e.g., women, elderly, low income, urban, rural, etc.). Option “b” applies if significant dissemination efforts are made through a combination of two means of communications, for instance, both posting the Citizens Budget on the executive’s official website and distributing printed copies of it. Option “c” applies if the Citizens Budget is disseminated through only one means, like a posting on the executive’s official website, a radio program, or the distribution of printed copies. Option “d” applies when the executive does not publish a Citizens Budget.

1) Online availability
Note, that the CB must be published online in order to be considered publicly available and score above a “d.” If the CB is published in hard copy only, the score should be “d.” See: Burundi in OBS 2017.

2) The case of Australia
In OBS 2019 in Australia, the researcher asked whether the Treasurer's budget speech, which was broadcast on TV and radios, should be counted. We did not give credit to this as one of the ways in which the CB is disseminated because the budget speech is part of the EBP, not the CB.

3) Does a news report from a state-owned media entity count as a means of dissemination?
Yes, this counts if it is a deliberate attempt to share the citizens budget (for example, if the government held a press conference and had news coverage of that). If it’s not a deliberate attempt to share the citizens budget, then we treat the state-run news channel like any other independent news channel and don’t count this report as a means of dissemination. See Lebanon’s Question 65 in OBS 2019.

4) How do we count means of dissemination?
If the Citizen’s Budget is both posted on an official website and some form of social media, we would treat this as two means of dissemination.

However, note that we count “social media” as a general category, meaning that if the CB is posted on multiple social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc), this only counts as a single means of dissemination.

Relatedly, if a Citizen’s Budget is posted solely on a social media channel such as Facebook, but not on an official website, we do not accept it.

5) The case of Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, the CB is being sent out via email to those who ask for it “on request”. In prior rounds, we had accepted this as a method of communication, as previously the government provided hard copy versions, but they no longer do and instead offer to send it via email. In OBS 2021, we did not accept email communication as a method of communication, because sending via email includes some form of discretion from the government about whether or not they reply to the email with the CB.