Russia's budget ranked one of world's most transparent

Russia went 11 positions up on the international ranking of budget transparency by International Budget Partnership (IBP). The organization publishes its own independent ranking every two years. As a result of the most recent research, specialists of the organization concluded that the level of transparency of the budget in 77 out of 100 countries was below the required standard. The ranking was published on the official website of the organization.

The ranking is prepared every two years by experts who do not serve as members of the governments of the ranked countries. It consists of 125 questions and is totally independent.

New Zealand took the first place on this list. It is followed by South Africa, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway and France. The list ends with Qatar, Myanmar and Equatorial Guinea with an index of zero points.

Russia Open Budget Index makes up 74 points. In 2010, it was 60 points, 58 points - in 2008, in 2006 - 47 points. Russia is followed by Slovenia, Brazil, Germany, India and Slovakia.

According to authors of the report, the countries, whose ranking falls short of the mark of 60 points, can not achieve an adequate level of budget transparency. The government of such countries refuse to engage civil society in budgetary processes, researchers said. Specialists also said that only South Korea allowed its citizens to all stages of the budget formation.