VZCZCXRO1317
RR RUEHGI RUEHTRO
DE RUEHC #8111/01 2651317
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 221258Z SEP 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO RUEHAB/AMEMBASSY ABIDJAN 2708
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 8303
RUEHAH/AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT 1540
RUEHGI/AMEMBASSY BANGUI 1449
RUEHJL/AMEMBASSY BANJUL 5899
RUEHDK/AMEMBASSY DAKAR 3560
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RUEHNT/AMEMBASSY TASHKENT 1349
RUEHTRO/AMEMBASSY TRIPOLI 9807
INFO RUEATRS/TREASURY DEPT WASHINGTON DC 0196

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 STATE 098111 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID ECON EFIN PREL AID AO UV CM CD CF NG SO CB EG
LE, SA, YM, AF, KG, MV, TI, BL, DR, DO, NU, VC 
SUBJECT: DEMARCHE: ENCOURAGING CENTRAL GOVERNMENT BUDGET 
TRANSPARENCY - CONTINUED 
 
REF: A. STATE 81177 
     ¶B. STATE 28885 
 
¶1.  (U) This is an action request; see para 5. 
 
¶2.  (U) Section 7088(c)(1) of the Department of State, 
Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 
2009 (Div H, P.L. 111-8)("the Act"), prohibits "assistance 
for the central government of any country that fails to make 
publicly available on an annual basis its national budget, to 
include income and expenditures." Section 7088(c)(2) permits 
the Secretary of State to waive this restriction on a 
country-by-country basis.  Congress revised this provision in 
FY09 to require individual country waivers after the previous 
administration utilized a blanket waiver in FY08.  The 
Secretary's authority to waive this requirement has been 
delegated to the Deputy Secretary for Management and 
Resources. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) After passage of the Act, the Department, with 
input from Posts, determined which central governments had 
budgets that did not meet the terms of the legislation and 
whether it was in the national interest to seek a waiver to 
allow foreign assistance funding to proceed. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Administration and Congressional interest in this 
issue reflects a view that open budget processes and fiscal 
transparency are key components of good governance. 
Transparent budget and procurement processes are especially 
important to effective allocation and management of limited 
resources, as well as key to a government's accountability to 
its citizens.  Promoting fiscal transparency is therefore a 
foreign policy priority.  To that end, in justifying future 
transparency waivers, the Deputy Secretary for Management and 
Resources will specifically inquire about U.S. efforts being 
undertaken to bring the governments in question into 
compliance with Section 7088(c). 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Action request: Posts in countries whose central 
governments received a waiver for the release of FY09 
assistance funds are requested to deliver the following 
points to host government officials at the appropriate level: 
 
-- Good governance and respect for rule of law are critical 
to sustainable development and a country's effective use of 
resources, including U.S. foreign assistance.  An open budget 
process and fiscal transparency are key components of good 
governance. 
 
-- The U.S. Government places a high priority on promoting 
budget transparency.  Transparent budget and procurement 
processes are especially important for the effective 
allocation and management of limited resources and 
accountability to citizens. 
 
-- In March of this year, the U.S. Congress passed the FY 
2009 Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related 
Programs Appropriations Act, which prohibits "assistance for 
the central government of any country that fails to make 
publicly available on an annual basis its national budget, to 
include income and expenditures," unless the Secretary of 
State waives the restriction and sends a report to the 
Congress justifying the waiver.  This restriction is included 
in next years, Appropriations Acts. 
 
-- This year the USG required a waiver for (country) in order 
to continue providing U.S. assistance. 
 
-- The State Department could not unequivocally state that 
your government met the budget transparency standard required 
by the FY 2009 Appropriations Act, yet we determined that it 
was important to the national interest of the United States 
to continue providing assistance. 
 
 
STATE 00098111  002 OF 002 
 
SUBJECT: DEMARCHE: ENCOURAGING CENTRAL GOVERNMENT BUDGET 
TRANSPARENCY - CONTINU 
-- Future waivers will not be automatic.  When determining 
country eligibility for future waivers, we will look 
specifically at improvements made by (country) to improve 
budget transparency. 
 
-- We encourage you to improve budget transparency by making 
a national budget publicly available that reflects income and 
expenditures in a manner that is accurate and credible. 
 
-- If appropriate:  Increasing budget transparency can be as 
simple and low-cost as posting local budgets in 
publicly-accessible places, like schools and government 
offices.  It can also include creating/expanding budget 
technical assistance programs, which are supported by a 
number of U.S. government agencies, other donor countries and 
international financial institutions.  We are interested in 
hearing whether there are ways our assistance could help you 
to make your budget more transparent. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) FOR POSTS, REFERENCE ONLY ) NOT TO BE SHARED WITH 
HOST GOVERNMENT (paras 6-9):  EEB/IFD/OMA, in coordination 
with F, L, H, and PM, developed a methodology for reviewing 
fiscal transparency to satisfy the requirement in the 
legislation.  In reviewing whether a country met the 
requirements, the Department relied primarily on: 
 
-- Post's response to reftel, which requested an update on 
host country fiscal transparency; 
 
-- State's 2008 Report to Congress on Fiscal Transparency and 
Accountability in Countries whose Central Governments receive 
U.S. Foreign Assistance; 
 
-- International Monetary Fund reports; 
 
-- The NGO Open Budget's 2008 report on budgetary 
transparency. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) In recommending whether a country met the 
requirement set out in Section 7088(c)(1), the Department: 
 
-- Took into account whether a country makes publicly 
available a budget that includes income and expenditures. 
"Publicly available" can be broadly interpreted to mean that 
the information is available on-line, on request from the 
government, for purchase at a government printing office, 
etc.; 
 
-- Evaluated the completeness and credibility of that 
publicly available information with regard to central 
government revenues or expenditures; 
 
-- Did not consider the omission of military or intelligence 
spending from the budget, as many countries do not disclose 
this for national security reasons; 
 
-- Did not review budget transparency below the central 
government level. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Typically, countries were deemed to require a 
waiver if: 
 
-- The budget was not publicly available; 
 
-- There was substantial doubt about the credibility of the 
budget; 
 
-- And/or there was a significant level of extra-budgetary or 
non-disclosed revenue or expenditure, rendering the budget 
non-transparent. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Where there were serious concerns about the issues 
noted in para 8, EEB/IFD/OMA noted them to the relevant 
regional bureau.  The regional bureau then made a 
determination whether to pursue a waiver so that assistance 
to the country in question could continue. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Posts are requested to deliver demarche responses 
by October 20 in cable slugged for EEB/IFD/OMA Briana 
Saunders, and by e-mail to SaundersB@state.gov. 
CLINTON