Jordan ranks first in region on Open Budget Index

AMMAN — Jordan has gained eight points on the 2017 Open Budget Index, achieving 63 per cent, and being ranked one of the first among Middle East countries, according to the Washington-based International Budget Partnership (IBP).

General Budget Department Spokesperson Muhammad Okeili said that Jordan advanced eight points compared to the 2015 classification, when the Kingdom registered 55 per cent, noting that Morocco reached 45 per cent, Egypt 41 and Tunisia 39, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Okeili noted that Jordan ranked 24 out of the 115 countries listed in the index, highlighting that the Kingdom's grade of 63 per cent is higher than the international average of participating countries (42 per cent).  

He attributed this progress to the improvements implemented over the past two years on procedures of preparing the budget and the quality of information mentioned in budget documents.

The Open Budget Index is the world’s only independent, comparative measure of central government budget transparency, which is published every two years, according to the IBP website.

The index assigns countries covered by the Open Budget Survey a transparency score on a 100-point scale using a subset of questions that assess the amount and timelines of budget information made publicly available in eight key budget documents, in accordance with international standards. 

The Open Budget Index 2017 showed a modest decline in average global budget transparency scores, from 45 in 2015 to 43 in 2017 for the 102 countries that were surveyed in both rounds. 

This decline is in stark contrast with the average increase of two points documented in each round of the survey between 2008 and 2015, the website added.