FSVC is excited to announce the launch of a new program in Iraq funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs’ Fiscal Transparency and Innovation Fund (FTIF), which is administered by the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. This program will assist the Government of Iraq (GoI) in enhancing the open budget process.
In recent years, the GoI has taken strong steps to provide greater access to budget information to citizens, for example, by publishing more information on the Ministry of Finance’s website, and by releasing its first Citizens Budget and Enacted Budget. Despite these encouraging initiatives, much more needs to be done to meet international standards in fiscal transparency, as highlighted by Iraq’s transparency score of 9/100 in the 2019 Open Budget Survey (OBS).
To build on these efforts, FSVC will work with the GoI to assess the strengths and vulnerabilities in the current budget process, and develop and implement an action plan to address the gaps identified. FSVC will also work with GoI institutions to ensure the timely and complete publication of several key budget documents moving forward.