Towards Transparent & Accountable State Governments

Malaysia Open Budget Index and Pantau Projek

In Malaysia, the spotlight on anti corruption, transparency, and good governance practices is often on the federal government. In contrast, state government budgets and projects receive minimal review and attention by civil society and the public at large. The passing of state budgets is often not sufficiently reported by mainstream media. To strengthen democracy at the state level, IDEAS aims to provide greater focus on state governance by introducing benchmarks for subnational (state) budget transparency.

At this event, IDEAS will launch the Malaysia Open Budget Index (MyOBI), which provides a budget transparency scorecard for every state,measuring the availability of budget documents and the level of oversight by the state assembly. IDEAS will also launch Pantau Projek (Project Monitor), which assesses the availability of data on selected state infrastructure projects. The aim of MyOBI and Pantau Projek is to set a benchmark that brings greater public attention to state budgets and the accountability of state governments for public expenditures.

The MyOBI and Pantau Projek assessments took place between January to May 2022, where IDEAS  trained civil society organisations and individuals to conduct the assessment for MyOBI and Pantau Projek. We believe organisations and individuals at the state level play a key role in their local democracy, by scrutinising state government decisions and holding their state governments accountable. Through this assessment training, IDEAS also aims to set up a network of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs)at  state level. This network should be equipped to analyse and provide views on state government budgets, as well as to call for accountability in state government budgets and expenditure.

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For those who missed the webinar session and would like to watch it, the video recording of the webinar is available below.