Online Openness and Transparency of Local Budgets in Belarus

Krivorotko, Yuri V.; Sokol, Dmitriy V.

doi:10.2478/ceej-2021-0009

Figures & Tables

Structure of Information Content of Official Websites of ATU of the Republic of Belarus (%)Source: Compiled by the authors

Budget transparency indicators ranked by the Sum of Expert Assessment PointsSource: Compiled by the authors.

Heat map of openness and transparency of oblast (regional-level) budgets of the Republic of BelarusSource: Compiled by the authors.

OLBIT Heat map on the basic territorial level of BelarusSource: Compiled by the authors. OLBIT, Online Local Budget Index of Transparency

The ratio of authorities’ efforts in disclosure of budget information OLBIT by regionsSource: Data calculated by the authors on the base of research results. OLBIT, Online Local Budget Index of Transparency

Authorities’ efforts coefficient to ensure transparency of local budgetsSource: Data calculated by the authors on the base of research results.

Matrix of the transformed ranks of the expert assessment

Indicators/experts	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Sum of ranks	d	d²	Indicators weighting
x₁	3.5	2	1.5	7.5	1	1.5	8.5	13	7	13	2	60.5	−33	1,089	4.0%
x₂	3.5	14	11	14	6	7.5	6	6.5	15	13	15.5	112	18.5	342.25	7.5%
x₃	12.5	7	6	10.5	6	12	13	6.5	15	4	4.5	97	3.5	12.25	6.5%
x₄	7.5	14	11	3	11.5	12	13	6.5	7	13	11	109.5	16	256	7.3%
x₅	12.5	14	15	16	16	12	13	6.5	7	8.5	15.5	136	42.5	1,806.25	9.1%
x₆	3.5	10	6	5.5	13	12	2.5	1	11.5	16	13.5	94.5	1	1	6.3%
x₇	12.5	14	15	14	14.5	1.5	13	13	11.5	4	9	122	28.5	812.25	8.2%
x₈	12.5	10	11	10.5	14.5	5	13	13	7	13	11	120.5	27	729	8.1%
x₉	7.5	10	6	1	9.5	7.5	13	6.5	2	1	7.5	71.5	−22	484	4.8%
x₁₀	3.5	5	3	5.5	6	3	2.5	6.5	2	4	4.5	45.5	−48	2,304	3.0%
x₁₁	3.5	2	1.5	7.5	11.5	5	2.5	6.5	2	4	7.5	53.5	−40	1,600	3.6%
x₁₂	12.5	2	6	14	6	12	2.5	15	11.5	8.5	11	101	7.5	56.25	6.8%
x₁₃	12.5	4	11	10.5	9.5	12	6	16	11.5	8.5	13.5	115	21.5	462.25	7.7%
x₁₄	12.5	7	11	10.5	6	12	8.5	6.5	7	4	4.5	89.5	−4	16	6.0%
x₁₅	12.5	14	15	4	2	16	13	6.5	15	13	4.5	115.5	22	484	7.7%
x₁₆	3.5	7	6	2	3	5	6	6.5	4	8.5	1	52.5	−41	1,681	3.4%
∑	136	136	136	136	136	136	136	136	136	136	136	1,496		12,135.5

The level of authority's efforts to ensure openness and transparency of ATU local budgets by the regions

Oblasts/regions	Authorities’ efforts to ensure transparency of local budgets, (Y_i)	The ratio of authority efforts to ensure transparency of local budgets, (Y_i)/(Y_average)	Local budget transparency rating points of authorities’ efforts, (B_i^auth)	Local budgets transparency level ensured by authorities’ efforts, B_i^auth/B_max
Brestskaya oblast	55.38%	0.89	817.1	26.3%
Vitebskaya oblast	65.26%	1.05	1,319.6	35.1%
Gomelskaya oblast	57.37%	0.92	1,014.8	28.2%
Grodnenskaya oblast	73.93%	1.19	1,285.1	43.7%
Minskaya oblast	41.23%	0.66	567.4	15.1%
Mogilevskaya oblast	80.74%	1.30	1,956.5	52.0%
All ATU	62%			33.4%

Spearman's correlation coefficient matrix

		Level of budgetary openness and transparency (%)	Share of own revenues in total local budget revenues (%)	The level of local budgets transparency by the authorities’ efforts (%)	Square (area) (km²)	Population	Density of population	Own budget revenues per capita (BLN)	Total local budget revenues (in thousand BLN)	Total budget revenues per capita (in thousand BLN)
Level of budgetary openness and transparency (%)	Correlation Coefficient	1.000	−0.185^*	0.997^**	−0.273^**	−0.165	−0.092	−0.253^**	−0.201^*	0.033
	Sig. (2-tailed)		0.037	0.000	0.002	0.063	0.300	0.004	0.023	0.710
Share of own revenues in total local budget revenues (%)	Correlation Coefficient	−0.185^*	1.000	−0.179^*	0.063	0.728^**	0.696^**	0.821^**	0.685^**	−0.664^**
	Sig. (2-tailed)	0.037		0.044	0.479	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
The level of local budgets transparency by the authorities’ efforts (%)	Correlation Coefficient	0.997^**	−0.179^*	1.000	−0.279^**	−0.156	−0.083	−0.253^**	−0.191^*	0.027
	Sig. (2-tailed)	0.000	0.044		0.001	0.079	0.350	0.004	0.031	0.762
Square (area) (km²)	Correlation Coefficient	−0.273^**	0.063	−0.279^**	1.000	0.161	−0.245^**	0.166	0.159	−0.088
	Sig. (2-tailed)	0.002	0.479	0.001		0.069	0.005	0.060	0.073	0.324
Population	Correlation Coefficient	−0.165	0.728^**	−0.156	0.161	1.000	0.876^**	0.390^**	0.950^**	−0.819^**
	Sig. (2-tailed)	0.063	0.000	0.079	0.069		0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
Density of population	Correlation Coefficient	−0.092	0.696^**	−0.083	−0.245^**	0.876^**	1.000	0.388^**	0.824^**	−0.725^**
	Sig. (2-tailed)	0.300	0.000	0.350	0.005	0.000		0.000	0.000	0.000
Own budget revenues per capita (BLN)	Correlation Coefficient	−0.253^**	0.821^**	−0.253^**	0.166	0.390^**	0.388^**	1.000	0.423^**	−0.228^**
	Sig. (2-tailed)	0.004	0.000	0.004	0.060	0.000	0.000		0.000	0.010
Total local budget revenues (in thousand BLN)	Correlation Coefficient	−0.201^*	0.685^**	−0.191^*	0.159	0.950^**	0.824^**	0.423^**	1.000	−0.629^**
	Sig. (2-tailed)	0.023	0.000	0.031	0.073	0.000	0.000	0.000		0.000
Total budget revenues per capita (in thousand BLN)	Correlation Coefficient	0.033	−0.664^**	0.027	−0.088	−0.819^**	−0.725^**	−0.228^**	−0.629^**	1.000
	Sig. (2-tailed)	0.710	0.000	0.762	0.324	0.000	0.000	0.010	0.000
	N	128	128	128	128	128	128	128	128	128

Belarusian local authorities in administrative territorial units (01_01_2020) Levels of local authorities

	Kind of administrative and territorial units	Number of local councils	Kind of executive body
REGIONAL	Oblast	6	Executive committee
	Minsk	1	Executive committee
	*Total*	7	*Regional councils*
BASIC	District	118	Executive committee
	City of oblast submission	10	Executive committee
	*Total*	*128*	*Basic councils*
PRIMARY	City of rayon submission	14	Executive committee
	Settlement	8	Executive committee
	Rural council	1,151	Executive committee
	*Total*	*1,173*	*Primary Councils*
	Total	1,308	Councils

Ranked expert assessments of significance and weight of indicators for assessing the openness and transparency of local budgets

Indicators (K_i)	Average ranked score (B_i)	Weight indicators (Y_i)
Section ‘Economics’	5.50	4.0%
Separate section ‘Budget (and/or Finance)’	10.18	7.5%
Program of Socio-Economic Development of the Territory	8.82	6.5%
Project budget	9.95	7.3%
Citizens budget	12.36	9.1%
Protocols of public hearings on budgeting	8.59	6.3%
Adopted decisions approving budget for the current year	11.09	8.2%
Decisions on approval of the report on the annual budget execution	10.95	8.1%
Quarterly (Semi-Annual) reports on the budget execution	6.50	4.8%
Statement on borrowing policy	4.14	3.0%
Information about current borrowings and repayments	4.86	3.6%
“Investment atlas’ (‘Investment Passport of District’)	9.18	6.8%
Information on the implementation of current investment projects	10.45	7.7%
Report on execution of budget programmes	8.14	6.0%
Feedback interface	10.50	7.7%
Articles (informational messages) on local budget in local media	4.77	3.5%

Expert assessment of budget information indicators

Estimated indicators	Average score	Experts^*
Estimated indicators	Average score	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
x₁	6.2	8	5	6	7	2	1	9	4	8	9	4
x₂	8.0	8	10	9	9	5	7	8	3	10	9	10
x₃	7.5	10	8	8	8	5	8	10	3	10	7	5
x₄	7.7	9	10	9	4	7	8	10	3	8	9	8
x₅	8.8	10	10	10	10	10	8	10	3	8	8	10
x₆	7.5	8	9	8	6	8	8	7	1	9	10	9
x₇	8.5	10	10	10	9	9	1	10	4	9	7	7
x₈	8.2	10	9	9	8	9	6	10	4	8	9	8
x₉	6.3	9	9	8	1	6	7	10	3	5	5	6
x₁₀	5.9	8	7	7	6	5	5	7	3	5	7	5
x₁₁	6.1	8	5	6	7	7	6	7	3	5	7	6
x₁₂	7.2	10	5	8	9	5	8	7	5	9	8	8
x₁₃	7.9	10	6	9	8	6	8	8	6	9	8	9
x₁₄	7.3	10	8	9	8	5	8	9	3	8	7	5
x₁₅	7.6	10	10	10	5	3	9	10	3	10	9	5
x₁₆	5.9	8	8	8	2	4	6	8	3	7	8	3

The level of transparency of the local budgets of ATU by the regions

Oblasts/regions	Number of matches in monitoring indicators, (K_i)	Local budget transparency score, (B_i)	Potential local budget transparency score, (B_max)	Transparency level of local budgets, B_i/B_max
Brestskaya oblast	109	1,310.55	3,106.5	42.19%
Vitebskaya oblast	174	1,919.27	3,760.5	51.04%
Gomelskaya oblast	143	1,585.95	3,597.0	44.09%
Grodnenskaya oblast	161	1,692.86	2,943.0	57.52%
Minskaya oblast	114	1,214.95	3,760.5	32.31%
Mogilevskaya oblast	223	2,366.23	3,760.5	62.92%
All ATU	924	9,147	20,928	43.7%

Online Openness and Transparency of Local Budgets in Belarus

Figures & Tables

Fig. 1

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Fig. 6

Matrix of the transformed ranks of the expert assessment

The level of authority's efforts to ensure openness and transparency of ATU local budgets by the regions

Spearman's correlation coefficient matrix

Belarusian local authorities in administrative territorial units (01_01_2020) Levels of local authorities

Ranked expert assessments of significance and weight of indicators for assessing the openness and transparency of local budgets

Expert assessment of budget information indicators

The level of transparency of the local budgets of ATU by the regions

Paradigm

My account