Since its re-democratization, Brazil has made great advances in improving mechanisms for transparency and control of public spending, which improves the quality and implementation of governmental and fiscal policies in the country. As a result of this, Brazil now occupies ninth position in a ranking of 87 nations according to an evaluation undertaken by the IBP – International Budget Partnership.

This was the message that the Brazilian Minister of Planning, Miriam Belchior, passed to participants at the Open Government Partnership Conference, which also marked the first meeting in Brazil of the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT). The Conference began today at the Ulysses Guimarães Convention Center and will continue up to tomorrow.

For the Minister, Brazil’s high ranking is due in great part to the institutional instruments through which the Federal Budget established: the Medium Term Plan (“PPA”), the Budget Guidelines Law (“LDO”), and the Annual Budget Law (“LOA”).

The ranking placing Brazil in ninth place in fiscal transparency was published by the IBP in its Open Budget Index. The index measures the degree of access that each government provides to the public through the completeness of information in eight key budget documents.

The Minister detailed several initiatives that have been adopted to disseminate information, such as the monthly publication of statistics via the Internet, regular disclosure of reports on budget execution and federal debt, and bi-monthly reporting of revenue and expenditure.

In particular, she pointed out one item of significant progress: the approval of the Law on Access to Public Information. For the Minister, this is a “historic step to ensure transparency in our country, because this provides all Brazilians with the possibility to consult government documents and information”. The law applies to all three branches of government and enters into force on May 16.

According to Minister Belchior, even with this positive result Brazil will not rest on its laurels. She considers that there is still substantial room for improvement, especially in simplifying the information available to the public. “We are making great efforts to achieve this”, she said.