Partners for Transparency issues new research paper

Governance systems and their role in promoting transparency and integrity ... Open governments, for example

Partners for Transparency issued a new research paper within the framework of the work of the Observatory of Transparency and Integrity Policies. The paper was titled “Governance systems and their role in promoting transparency and integrity ... the study of open governments as an example.”

The paper focused on researching the open government model, its feasibility and its impact on enhancing transparency and integrity and its role as a guarantee for good governance and citizen participation in public affairs. By defining open governments, reviewing the main elements of open government strategies and initiatives, and then studying the impact and outcomes of these open governments and their efforts to achieve growth and development.

The paper dealt with the principles of good governance, represented by accountability, participation, transparency, rule of law, anti-corruption, justice, discipline, and finally social responsibility. This is related to the level of governance at the global level, which led to a decline in society’s perception of the government’s effectiveness in many of these countries, especially in the last decade, specifically with regard to the size and quality of public services provided, the degree of professionalism and independence of the civil service, the quality of policy formulation, implementation and success, and the government's credibility in Adherence to these policies.

The paper also dealt with the term open government, which is based on the idea that the people have the right to access the documents of their state’s government and the procedures it takes, and their right to monitor its actions, at least in a way that makes this people have a general idea of what their government is doing. Open government also means improving communications and management processes in various branches and levels of government, which means more internal participation. It reviewed the historical development of institutionalizing this term, which was evident in 2011 through the establishment of the “Open Government Partnership (OGP)” through a pledge Eight countries work side by side with civil society to combat corruption and raise the level of transparency, then in December 2012, the partnership gained great support with the issuance of United Nations General Assembly Resolution No. (67/218) on enhancing transparency, participation and accountability in public financial policies. And, in the year 2014 AD, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development adopted “Principles of Budget Management”, which endorsed the principle of direct popular participation in fiscal policy. In 2015, the International Monetary Fund published the "Good Practices Act for Financial Transparency", which endorsed the same principle.  

The paper concluded with presenting a number of recommendations in order to reach good results in the field of public sector governance in the Arab countries, including Egypt, the most important of which was restructuring the administrative apparatus to prevent overlapping roles of agencies or the lack of clarity of the functions and roles assigned to each agency, and to create a mechanism to separate the supervisory roles. Legislative and executive, and qualifying human cadres capable of managing these roles effectively. The most prominent international successful practices in the governance process and its basic principles, in order to involve the institutions concerned with governance by providing them with the opportunity to present ideas, visions, and proposals that contribute to developing a complete vision.

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Governance systems and their role in enhancing transparency and integrity