Open Budget Survey a Wakeup Call for Government
The CCF maintains its call for government to practice Transparency and Accountability on the back of a poor 2012 Open Budget Survey rating released yesterday.
Authorities on Good Governance ESCAP define Transparency as decisions taken and their enforcement being done in a manner that follows rules and regulations. It also means that information is freely available and directly accessible to those who will be affected by such decisions. This definition includes openness of the decision-making and enforcement processes as well as access to and distribution of information.
The Citizens’ Constitutional Forum reiterates its calls on the Bainimarama government to initiate urgent steps to make public the Auditor General’s reports and reports from the Public Accounts Committee available to the people of Fiji.
The recently released assessment by the Independent Open Budget Survey 2012 (OBS) shows that Fiji scored 6 out of 100. Our index rating, lower even than China’s 11, defines Fiji as providing “scant or no information” to the public in the budget documents.
CCF CEO Rev. Akuila Yabaki says taxpayers remain in the dark on how their money has been spent by the Bainimarama government since 2006. This in itself goes against Pillars 3, 4 and 5 of the Peoples Charter which demands greater transparency and accountability from the government in dealing with public funds.
CCF urges the Bainimarama government to take on board the findings and recommendations of the OBS and allow public access to its financial documents and audits which are currently only for internal use within government bodies.
In the absence of Parliament there’s even greater onus on the part of Government to make this information available as it is a fundamental principle of Good Governance.
For further information, please contact the communications team at CCF on communications@ccf.org.fj
5 comments:
What Fiji currently has is an excuse for a government. It is not a government but a military regime which controls the country with guns. It is a dictatorship. The rule of law is a sham. Military thugs took over a legitimately elected government and having been filling junta perpetrator pockets since then. Anyone with the courage to speak out against this bullying dictatorship is silenced. There is no accountability or transparency, not to mention the absence of a mandate. Good governance is a farce. The people are not even able to find out how much the self appointed 'PM' and the illegal AG are paid? And where is the honesty and integrity when they are paid through a company owned by the illegal AG's aunt? 6 out of 100 is a terrible result on this Budget Survey indicator. Anyone who does not think Fiji under the current illegal regime is in trouble is a fool, in denial or benefiting from the dictatorship. Sanctions against this military junta need to increase dramatically and appropriate steps taken by free and democratic nations to remove this cancerous scourge ruining Fiji. The wonderful people of Fiji deserve better than this.
The 2012 Open Budget Survey for Fiji was conducted by a twenty-something arts graduate from the USP who presented the Finance Ministry with a list of questions that apart from anything else, took little account of the realities in Fiji. Two years ago it was conducted by Jenny Seeto, the respected accountant, and Fiji scored 12, not 6. Doesn't sound quite right, does it?
It's also strange that the CCF is trying to score points against the Government with this meaningless survey when It actually sends teams out with the Finance Ministry to ask ordinary people for their input into the Fijian budget. Sounds pretty accountable to me.
Talking about the Open Budget Survey, a year ago Fiji scored Nil. That's right, zero. Why? Because the Fijian researcher sent his list of questions to entirely the wrong Ministry. This year, the same thing happened but the survey was eventually passed through to the Finance Ministry and the right person finally got to see the questions. She says they were pathetically inappropriate to a small Pacific country and there was no way that Fiji could make the grade. So the wrong questions sent to the wrong people. But apart from that, the Survey was fine.
ok poor survey...just tell us the fark what our pm and ag earn.
produce audit reports
lets survey these two issues........yep 0 out of 100.
Here, Here.
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