<p>Public access to information on governmental budgets and spending is an important means of empowering civil society to actively participate in improving policy choices. Assessing budget transparency, however, is a complex task in the contemporary state. Many aspects of a government’s structures and procedures must be analyzed, from the legal framework to the availability and quality of information and from the different types of investments and expenditures to the intricate systems of resource distribution.</p>
<p>Moreover, the state’s use of public resources is not limited to the direct administration of the country. In most nations, governments also distribute resources to public corporations, autarchies, foundations, and other entities that have hybrid legal statutes to pursue public interests and/or state functions in competition with the private sector. For this reason, the International Budget Partnership (IBP), under its Open Budget Initiative (OBI), has recognized both the potential impact of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) on budgets and the importance of public access to information with regard to transfers and uses of funds by these corporations.</p>
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