Local Budget Transparency in Belarus

World experience demonstrates that public participation in the budget process and transparency in the public sector are required prerequisites for the State’s proper economic strategy. Financial openness, in its broadest sense, is now a crucial component of sound fiscal and monetary policy. In a narrower sense, it is more often associated with the transparency of the budget process, particularly at the local level. Financial transparency helps to ensure the efficient collection and allocation of public resources. It increases government accountability, builds citizen trust, and eliminates potential for corruption. Research on fiscal transparency in Belarus shows a noticeable gap compared to other post-Soviet countries, linked to the significant centralisation of Belarusian governance. The study is based on the main theoretical principles of principal-agent theory, as well as on the theory and practice of fiscal transparency. The purpose of this study is to assess the online openness and transparency of local budgets in Belarus at the basic administrative-territorial unit (ATU) level. The developed methodology involves the use of two criteria: (1) the level of transparency of local budgets and (2) an assessment of the authority’s efforts in ensuring transparency of local budgets. Based on expert judgments of the significance and actual availability of this information, we conducted an integrated assessment of the information content of local government websites in 2020. As a result, we calculated the Online Local Budget Index of Transparency. In addition, we evaluate which factors (financial, geographical, and demographic) affect transparency levels. We found that the degree of transparency is not sufficiently correlated with local budget size, revenue, area, or population.