Ensure public access to current financial data

A World Bank (WB) official Monday advised the government to make its financial data public for the sake of fiscal transparency.
Sadia Priyanka, the WB official, felt that Bangladesh government could prepare a draft of its annual budget at least three months before the start of a new financial year and post it at its own website for public review.
She argued that it would ensure broader participation of the people in the government's fiscal measures.
Ms. Priyanka, who deals with 'Governance Global Practice'issues at the WB, made the suggestions while presenting a keynote paper, titled, 'Open Public Data: An Opportunity for Bangladesh' before the high officials of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) at the Secretariat Monday.
She said the disclosure of financial data to public was very much consistent with the 'Digital Bangladesh' concept and the Right to Information Act.
The WB official said civil society organisations, non-government organisations, media and researchers want to have access to the government's financial data.
Before the presentation of the keynote paper, the WB conducted a small survey on the members of the civil societies, researchers and media representatives.
The WB official said the civil societies and the academia are more eager to have access to such data.
They want exposure of public finance data, especially the list of subsidies, their amounts and total spending.
They also want to know about contingent liabilities and debt servicing data with projections.
However, many of the interviewees had raised questions about the quality of data and inconsistencies in data presented by different government organisations on the same subjects or issues.  
They mentioned that such discrepancies are mainly observed in the case of tax-related data.
Dr. Zahid Hussain, lead economist at the Dhaka office of the WB said openness about government's financial data would ensure fiscal transparency.
He said the people have the right to know how and where the money allocated in the budget is being spent since the same belong to them.
He said Bangladesh government usually publishes post-use data concerning public fund and, in many cases, those are too old and outdated.
Governments of a number of countries including those of USA, the UK, Canada and New Zealand are announcing new initiatives towards public information. A number of developing countries including Afghanistan have also initiated similar process.