Four Levels of Government Transparency: Where Do You Fall?

It’s hard to recall a time when there has been more focus on the need for transparency in government.

We define transparency in government as having four levels, beginning with the least transparent (and least valuable):

Level One: How We Plan to Spend Money. This is about where government has traditionally defined transparency: what does the budget say about how we intend to spend money? It’s the first step - it speaks to what we plan to spend money on, after all. We might declare that we’re adding $500,000 to the budget to fight truancy. Many governments are working hard but still struggling with this first level of transparency.

Level Two: How We Actually Spend Money. At this level, we may be able to be clear about how dollars were spent – did we actually spend that $500,000 we budgeted to fight truancy on the anti-truancy effort? At this level of transparency we are beginning to have a story of fiscal responsibility – but are not yet able to tell a story about performance.

Level Three: What we Delivered With the Money. At this level of transparency we are able to be clear that our customers got something for the money we spent. We are building a more complete story of transparency of whether we spent the money appropriately and delivered what we intended to deliver. With the additional $500,000 to fight truancy, we provided X number of counseling sessions or Y number of tutoring sessions – so we know what services were delivered. To be fully transparent, though, we need to report on results customers experienced as a consequence of receiving our services.

Level Four: What Results Were Accomplished with the Money. This is the highest level of transparency, where government gets very clear that spending money is only a means to an end which is defined as the experience or result the customer has as a consequence of receiving the services. What difference was made? With the additional $500,000 we spent to fight truancy, did we actually change the truancy rate? Did we improve academic achievement? Increase the graduation rate?

At this highest level of transparency, you are telling your customers the extent to which you are able to influence the results you clearly laid out in Level One: the Budget. As the good folks in Oklahoma City say, “We Deliver What We Promise” – and they mean it in terms of results.

Government organizations which are widely recognized as among the best managed in the nation can answer these questions with objective performance information – and they use that same information to guide their management decisions, including how they allocate their budgets.

So how transparent is your organization? And – more importantly – how transparent do your customers expect you to be?

Check out our free Self-Assessment tool (click here to download) to help you determine how well your government is doing at being transparent and accountable.