After releasing the financial results of Q1 2020, Saudi Arabia has made a marked improvement in terms of budget transparency and accountability, according to the Open Budget Index survey released on Wednesday.
The survey, conducted by International Budget Partnership (IBP), an international non-profit organization concerned with evaluating disclosure and transparency of general budgets worldwide, said Saudi Arabia has advanced 18 ranks, after scoring 18 points compared to one point in the previous survey conducted in 2017.
The results of the survey reflected recent efforts exerted by the Saudi government to enhance transparency and disclosure in public finance.
Commenting on the results, Dr. Saad Alshahrani, deputy minister for macro-fiscal policies at the Ministry of Finance, highlighted the importance of the achievement that the Kingdom managed to realize within a short period of time.
He also confirmed that with this progress, the Kingdom aspires to achieve a higher ranking that reflects efforts made in the framework of improving the quality of fiscal data and enhancing the level of transparency, which is one of the important tracks pursued by the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques in line with the Kingdom's Vision 2030.
In 2017, the Ministry of Finance issued the first detailed budget statement, quarterly (periodic) reports for the budget performance, the citizen’s budget, in addition to the publication of its medium-term fiscal framework.
During the past two years, the ministry began periodically publishing the pre-budget statement and year-end report on its website.
