Making Our National Budget More Transparent

Budget 2016 is scheduled to be tabled in parliament on October 23rd. How involved have you been in this process of allocating taxpayers’ money? According to a joint survey by the Open Budget Initiative and the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) - not enough.

The Open Budget Initiative is a global advocacy program which strives to make the process as transparent and accessible as possible. It conducts a biennial survey in 102 countries which evaluates whether governments give the public opportunities to participate in the budget process at the national level. Sri Murniati from the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) is the lead researcher for the survey in Malaysia. She explains her findings.