Why transparency is important in government

Instruments such as the Principles for Integrity in Public Procurement, the Best Practices for Budget Transparency, the Principles for Transparency and Integrity in Lobbying and the Guidelines for Managing Conflict of Interest in the Public Service -- not only help mitigate corruption risks but also improve efficiency and ultimately contribute to public trust.

Guidance on support to building and using Public Financial Management systems in developing countries emphasises transparency in budget processes, and our guidance on using national procurement systems also emphasises building transparent systems in developing countries.

We also compare public sector performance in health, education and many other policy areas across countries. Our work on the PISA for example, has had significant impact on education policy making by developing cross-country comparable indicators on education performance for the first time.

This promotes accountability, discussion and participation of citizens. Second, e-Government, Internet-based technologies and applications will be crucial components for open, transparent and accessible governments. Therefore OECD Ministers adopted the Seoul Declaration at their meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy which highlighted the importance of an open Internet to help bolster the free flow of information, freedom of expression and protection of individual liberties.

We also emphasized the need for governments to ensure that public sector information is made widely available. The public expects details on how governments made their decisions. The benefit of providing as much information to the public as possible is that it gives them an opportunity to think about decisions that the local officials made and provide valuable feedback to them.

The comments and feedback open up yet another opportunity for the all-important two-way communication. Local governments are continually looking at how to improve the quality of life for their citizens. The best decision-making is a result of multiple perspectives, including the perspectives of community members. Based on their comments, government officials can incorporate necessary changes.

People often forget that responsibility works both ways. The government needs to honest and transparent. The community has responsibilities as well. Citizens have a responsibility to be informed and hold their local governments accountable.

Advancements in technology have provided new ways for local governments to share information publicly in ways that are efficient, cost-effective, and fast. Looking to build trust? Start here — Ballotpedia offers a fantastic point transparency checklist , along with the rationale for why these items should be on every government website. But if at any point you need to prove this out, you should be able to clearly show all the steps you have taken to put the right government information out there and to be transparent.

This becomes a proactive step toward showing you are doing the right things. In the Journal of Management Policy and Practice article mentioned above, you will find nearly two dozen practical ideas for how to improve transparency in government, many of which focus on sharing critical information with the public. Posting the information out in the open allows the community to read and provide their comments back to you.

This proves important, as it paves the way for two-way communication, with you seeking feedback, citizens giving their input, and you incorporating necessary changes based on their comments. Knowing community members can easily find, access, and comment on information that affects them instills confidence in the government. The rise of technology has led to a massive increase in the amount of new information that local governments create.

At the same time, it has also led to new tools to make all this information easier to manage. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube provide local government with a wonderful tool to proactively share information with the public, whether you are announcing an upcoming event, live-streaming a city council meeting or communicating policy changes.

Plus, it is an easy way to post information online, especially if your primary website is difficult to update. Finally, social media taps into that two-way communication by engaging local residents in dialogue, which builds trust and fosters government transparency.

Your public-facing website offers another great tool to share information that is more permanent and needs to be searchable. This is a great place to post your policies, budget, and financial information, and other forms and documents the public needs to access. At a minimum, making it easy for the public to find and contact each department is a critical feature of any government website. The sheer volume of paperwork involved in working in government coupled with the need to make it available to the public presents both a challenge and an opportunity.

Greater transparency can also bring benefits to government themselves, directly or indirectly. Therefore, transparency is also considered to be a key component of public policy and efficiency. As noted in Transparency International's Global Corruption Report , "information is perhaps the most important weapon against corruption. Having access to information plays a key role in efforts to curb corruption and control its impact, since:.

So far countries around the globe have signed and 95 nations have ratified the document which calls upon all state parties to ensure public transparency generally, openness in relation to civil servants and funding for electoral candidates, and transparency in public procurement and finances.

Such measures aim to promote the prevention, detection and sanctioning of corruption. Annual Transparency Report.