The role of transparency and accountability in the public budget

Worldwide governments make efforts to make public budgeting transparent and accountable, but it is hard to follow the measures and meet targets, especially in developing countries like Pakistan. This study has analysed the existing practices to make transparent and accountable government financial arrangements in Pakistan. The main objective is to observe how the government incorporates these elements in financial planning, what the parameters are, and what the effects of transparency and accountability are on public budgeting. Pakistan’s budget system lacks good financial management, and the quality and accessibility of budget information are the main problems. The budget documents are not consistent, the content is not clear, and not transparent; information is not comprehensively defined, such as the source of revenues is missing, tax and non-tax revenues are not mentioned, and budget documents are not released on time. Many inconsistencies make the budget process ambiguous and create room for corruption. The immediate need is to increase the culture of budget openness, raise fiscal transparency, and citizens’ participation at all stages of budget designing, planning, approval, and execution.