Transparency of government expenditure

Objective

Publish What You Pay (PWYP) members work towards open, participatory and transparent budget processes at national, regional and local levels in order to ensure the effective allocation and management of oil, gas and mining revenues.

Context

It is impossible to ensure proper management of natural resource wealth by looking exclusively at revenues. Transparent and accountable management and expenditure of public funds is essential to addressing the poverty, corruption and autocracy that too often plague resource rich countries.

Citizens in resource rich countries must have the data and the tools to assess the revenues flowing into their government’s coffers. But the revenue information produced from exercises like the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is only useful insofar as citizens and policymakers can use it to analyze the management, prioritization and spending of these funds for economic growth and human development.

The adoption of revenue transparency standards in many countries has resulted in more data being produced and disclosed, and more demand for attention to government spending and development outcomes. Thus PWYP members promote not only transparency in resource revenue payments and government receipts, but also the accountable and transparent management and expenditure of those revenues.