Gambia Meets U.S.'s Minimum Requirements of Fiscal Transparency for 2022

29 September 2022
The Point (Banjul)
By Ali Jaw

The Gambia has been named as one of the countries that have met the United States' minimum requirements for fiscal transparency for 2022.

The Office of Macroeconomic Affairs (OMA) of the States Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs (EB) prepares the annual FTR in consultation with States' Bureau of Energy Resources (ENR) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

"Fiscal transparency informs citizens how government and tax revenues are spent and is a critical element of effective public financial management," the U.S. Department stated in the report.

"Transparency provides citizens a window into government budgets and those citizens, in turn, hold governments accountable. It underpins market confidence and sustainability. The Congressionally mandated Fiscal Transparency Report (FTR) is a tool to identify deficiencies and support needed changes."

"As directed by Congress, EB/OMA evaluates data on fiscal transparency collected by our posts in 141 countries (those eligible to 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."

"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 September 2022, 72 countries met minimum requirements and 69 did not. Of those 69, the FTR identified 27 countries that made significant progress towards meeting requirements.

The House Report accompanying the FY 2022 SFOAA defines "minimum requirements of fiscal transparency" to mean the public disclosure of national budget documentation (to include income and expenditures by ministry) and government contracts and licenses for natural resource extraction (to include bidding and concession allocation practices).

The department assessed the following governments as meeting the minimum requirements of fiscal transparency for 2022: Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Fiji, The Gambia.

Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, India, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Samoa, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia and South Africa also made it amongst other countries.

Read the original article on The Point.

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