The International Budget Partnership released today the Open Budget Index (OBI). The UK scores first on the provision of budget information to its public, followed by South Africa, France, New Zealand and the United States. On the other hand, 80% of the surveyed governments fail to provide sufficient information on the budget to its public.Read… Read more »
The interview below is with Matthew Stephen Worner (GovLoop’s Bureaucrat on Sports, the Hokie Guru). Matthew was one of the inaugural bloggers on GovLoop. My appreciation is great and sincere for Matthew taking the time to do this interview. Where were you born and raised? I’m from Mayville, North Dakota, which is about 60 minutesRead… Read more »
The Hokie Guru hasn’t posted much as of late because he’s back in another accounting class (and his last one). The Hokie Guru is trying to convert to the auditor job series (Office of Personnel Management qualifications right here) in the federal government. Let’s get right to it… the Hokie Guru’s favorite movie this yearRead… Read more »
TARP Creates Staffing Headaches for Treasury The Government Accountability Office has released its latest progress report on the Troubled Asset Relief Program and the Treasury Department’s new Office of Financial Stability (OFS). The Eye will not even attempt to assess TARP’s economic impact, but will instead focus on how it’s altered the federal food chain.Read… Read more »
It appears that the news media is partially to blame for the continuing decline of the U.S. Postal Service. The bad news about its future came yesterday during a Senate subcommittee hearing on the financial future of the Postal Service. There’s an interesting nugget in the prepared testimony of Phillip Herr, the Government Accountability Office’sRead… Read more »
This post is based on a paper of mine published by the Electronic Democracy Centre (Zurich University) about the experience of the e-Participatory Budgeting of the city of Belo Horizonte. In part 1 of this post I use extracts from a short article by Dan Jellinek (Headstar) and myself that aimed to present a summaryRead… Read more »
The search for a head of the Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) appears to have come down on two veterans of the food safety community: Caroline Smith–Dewall, food safety director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest and former FSIS administrator Barbara J. Masters, who is currently senior policy adviserRead… Read more »
I’ve got a long post on the meaning of Obama’s acting appointments at management agencies up at FedBlog today. Here’s the first half: Why the Acting Appointments Matter By Alyssa Rosenberg | Monday, January 26, 2009 | 12:19 PM I’ve had a number of people ask why we’ve been so focused on President Obama’s decisionRead… Read more »
(note: originally posted at theConnectedRepublic.org) Participatory Budgeting (PB) can be broadly defined as the participation of citizens in the decision-making process of budget allocation and monitoring public spending. Participation may take various forms, from effective decision-making power in the allocation of resources to more modest initiatives that confer voice during the development of the budget.Read… Read more »
Several cabinet secretaries started their new jobs today on the first full day of the Obama administration. So far only Interior Sec. Ken Salazar has been greeted by a formal welcoming ceremony at his new place of employment. Over at Veterans Affairs, there will be no formal welcome for Sec. Eric Shinseki — at leastRead… Read more »