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pwyf / 2014-technical-consultation

Consultation for the 2014 Aid Transparency Index test
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Planned expenditures #33

Open markbrough opened 10 years ago

markbrough commented 10 years ago

Description Individual planned expenditures must be related to individual activities but are generally high level commitments rather than a detailed breakdown of the activity budget. This is only expected if the activity is at least in the implementation phase.

N.B. this refers only to the commitment <transaction-type>. The definition under the standard is:

A firm written obligation by the donor to provide resources of a specified amount under specified financial terms and conditions and for specified purposes for the benefit of the recipient.

2013 Index tests

transaction/transaction-type[@code='C'] exists (if activity-status/@code is at least 2)?

Issues

  1. Some organisations use the <budget> field for publishing this information. The definition for <budget> in the Standard is:

The value of the aid activity's budget for each financial year as in the original project document.

Questions

  1. Should this indicator also measure <planned-disbursement>s?

2014 Index test We are not planning to change this test in 2014, unless feedback suggests there is a strong case for doing so.

ErinCoppin commented 10 years ago

This test is currently looking at the field ‘committed transactions’. The activity budget is not the same as it is an estimate of the project costs which is not about dated intended flows of finance to recipients, so this test should not look at the budget field.

If there is a question about whether planned disbursements is the same as committed expenditures, this should be resolved by the IATI code list and IATI guidance to donors. Whatever the reason for ‘committed transactions’ existing as a separate category than ‘planned disbursements’, this should be made explicit so that there is no duplication or confusion for donors. See also comments on ‘overall cost’, #32.

YohannaLoucheur commented 10 years ago

The main source of confusion with this indicator is its name. We re-iterate our suggestion to refer to the IATI field being used - in this case, Commitment - and its definition.

"Planned expenditures" sounds too much like "Planned disbursements", which has its own field in IATI and, surprisingly, is not assessed in the Index despite its importance for short-term planning at the country level.

bill-anderson commented 10 years ago

Mark in the TAG session Clarifying Confusions there was consensus on the meanings of and distinctions between Commitments, Budgets, and Planned Disbursements. (Shreya was part of that consensus and I'm sure has notes). The index needs to come into line with that consensus.

markbrough commented 10 years ago

Thanks for all the comments.

For 2014

There will be no change in the tests for this indicator.

Notes