From Secrecy to Transparency: Can Publicly Accessible Digital Budgets Deliver Better Value?

Abstract

This article examines how publicly monitorable, accessible and integrated real-time online budget systems, supported by enforceable penalties, can reduce corruption and enhance government value creation. Using abductive reasoning and an in-depth case study of Nigeria, the study also compares selected African information and communications technology (ICT)-enabled budget initiatives. The findings indicate that secrecy remains a central mechanism sustaining budgetary corruption, whereas citizen monitoring and digital engagement with a fully open budget spanning federal, state and local government allocations can strengthen transparency and accountability. However, the value-creating potential of such systems is constrained by limited technical capacity, weak enforcement and political resistance. Drawing on marketing exchange and principal–agent theories, the article argues that secrecy in budgetary processes undermines the implied social contract between government and citizens. It conceptualizes publicly accessible budgeting as a multi-stakeholder value-creation process and proposes digitally enabled reforms aligned with Africa’s institutional and sociocultural contexts.

Introduction

Value is the act of generating benefits, enhancing well-being and increasing the worth of ourselves and others (Bhattarai, 2024; Mahajan, 2017). Value creation by the government is the process of transforming public resources into goods, services and institutional outcomes that improve citizens’ welfare, promote trust and strengthen democratic accountability (Moore, 1997). It extends beyond mere service delivery to include transparency, equity and participatory governance, ensuring that citizens perceive government actions as legitimate and beneficial (Bryson et al., 2014). Honest governments are important for value creation through the conception, enactment and efficient delivery of beneficial programmes through the government budget.

Corrupt government budgets not only fail to deliver valuable agendas, but they also distort effectual rule and transfer resources inefficiently and unjustly (Gray & Kaufmann, 1998). From a macroeconomic standpoint, government budgetary corruption also hinders investment and growth, and it exacerbates social vices. The extant literature agrees that government budgetary corruption seems to be a particularly problematic issue in resource-rich and emerging countries (Bryson et al., 2014; Jung, 2022). In Nigeria, a resource-rich emerging country, secrecy within the government budget has been found to facilitate corruption through vaguely specified budgeted projects, the non-execution of beneficial initiatives, under-delivery and abandonment of projects, benefits limited to political party loyalists, as well as misrepresentation, inflation and recurrence within the government budget (Olarewaju et al., 2021; Oluseye, 2024).

Government budgetary corruption in Nigeria is directly linked to the misery index of the country (Akinlo, 2024), which, in turn, is a critical mirror of the quality of life. The intricacies of the Nigerian government budget are largely hidden from public scrutiny, and this secrecy, rooted in Nigeria’s pre-colonial taxation system and perpetuated by the three-tier structure of the Nigerian government, has attracted limited scholarly interest until now. This article answers the following research questions: (a) Would implementing an online, real-time budget that is integrated across all levels of government and is publicly accessible and monitorable enable the government to create significantly more value than a budget kept secret? and (b) Can consistently enforcing penalties for discrepancies in an integrated, real-time online budget system across all levels of government enable the government to create significantly more value?

Using Nigerian data and comparative evidence from African Open Treasury Portal initiatives, this article conceptualizes government budgeting as a value-creation process that delivers public goods, services and institutional outcomes that enhance citizen welfare. It argues that budget secrecy undermines this process, while publicly accessible digital budgets can generate greater value. Adopting an abductive case study approach, the study shows how advances in information technology (IT) can enable Nigeria to implement an integrated, publicly monitorable, online, real-time budget system. When combined with enforced penalties for corruption, such a system can improve accountability, reduce mismanagement and enhance citizens’ economic and social well-being. The argument draws on marketing exchange theory (Kotler, 2000, 2020), which frames governance as an exchange in which citizens provide taxes and legitimacy in return for services, infrastructure and accountability; budget secrecy disrupts this exchange and weakens the social contract. The article proceeds by outlining the theoretical background, methodology, findings, implications and conclusions.

Theoretical Background

Advances in IT have significantly transformed how governments manage and ensure transparency in their budgets by enabling integrated, real-time online systems. These systems allow governments and citizens to monitor expenditures and revenues instantly, providing exceptional visibility and control over financial operations (Jung, 2022). Notable innovations in this field include Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, which consolidate multiple financial functions into a single unified platform, and Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS), which enable governments to manage and monitor financial transactions in real time. This integration supports continuous updates and reporting, allowing government officials to track budget performance and make informed decisions based on the latest data (Bekiaris & Markogiannopoulou, 2023; Park & Kusiak, 2005).

Blockchain technology offers another promising solution to budget opacity. Its decentralized ledger system ensures that all financial transactions are recorded in a transparent and immutable manner. For example, Georgia has implemented blockchain technology in its public registry, including budgetary and financial records, a reform that has enhanced transparency and accountability by making it almost impossible to alter financial data without detection (Lazuashvili et al., 2019). The adoption of cloud computing in government financial management represents a further major advancement. Cloud-based platforms provide flexible, secure and accessible tools for managing budgetary data, facilitating real-time collaboration across government departments and ensuring that budget information remains consistent and up to date. In addition, cloud computing strengthens data security and reduces the risk of data loss through automated backups and encryption, thereby enhancing transparency and public trust in financial operations (Mell & Grance, 2011).

Moreover, advances in data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) have further reinforced the effectiveness of real-time government budgeting systems. Data analytics tools enable the processing of large volumes of financial data, helping to identify trends and more accurately forecast future budgetary needs. AI can automate routine tasks such as audits and compliance checks, enabling human resources to focus on more strategic functions. The combination of data analytics and AI not only improves the efficiency of budget management but also strengthens governments’ capacity to anticipate and respond to financial challenges (Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2014). Together, these technological innovations contribute to a more adaptive and responsive budgeting process, promoting improved governance and resource management.

Government Budgetary Corruption in Nigeria

Historical and exegetical research suggests that Nigerian government budgetary corruption has its roots in the pre-colonial taxation era, but has become more common after Nigerian independence and lasted until the present era (Ogunyemi, 2017; Onyiah et al., 2016). Government budgetary corruption in Nigeria diverts public resources, leading to widespread poverty despite the country’s wealth (Akinlo, 2024; Olarewaju et al., 2021). These value-creation problems can be traced directly to the corruption endemic within the Nigerian government system.

This is because in Nigeria, as in many post-colonial countries in Africa, government officials often have exclusive access to information relevant to government value-creation activities, including budgeting, making them the only or a major source of relevant and timely information. This secrecy makes it harder to detect when corruption is afoot and is compounded by Nigeria’s three-tier structure (NBS, 2024). Table 1 outlines the abductive process used in this article, where two propositions, based on the research questions and reviewed literature for this article, are hypothesized and analyzed against the case of the Nigerian government’s three-tier budget.

Table 1.

Abductive Process Exercised.

Result	Rule	Case
The implementation of an integrated, publicly accessible and publicly monitorable online real-time budget system integrated across all three levels of the Nigerian government can enhance budget efficiency by promoting transparency, encouraging public participation and addressing the principal–agent problem. This approach, coupled with clear and enforced penalties for the misuse of public funds and active public engagement in budgetary matters, will significantly reduce budgetary corruption in Nigeria and help the government to create more value via the government budget.	Government budgetary secrecy affects the implied social contract and exchange process between the consumers (citizens) and the service provider (the government). The government budget should be managed openly and democratically to promote value development. Proposition 1. Research Question 1: Implementing a publicly accessible, online, real-time budget integrated across the three levels of government, and open to public monitoring, can help the Nigerian government create significantly more value than it currently does. Proposition 2. Research Question 2: Consistently enforcing penalties for discrepancies in an integrated, real-time online budget system across all three levels of government can enable the Nigerian government to create significantly more value than it currently does.	The three-tier structure of the Nigerian government has historically made the integration and monitoring of the budget of the three levels of government challenging. Advances in information technology now make it possible to integrate Nigeria’s entire national budget, covering financial statements, expenditure reports, budget proposals and economic forecasts, across federal, state and local governments into a real-time, publicly accessible and monitorable online system, thereby enhancing transparency and efficiency across all three levels of government.

The principal–agent problem arises when an agent (e.g., a manager) has incentives that diverge from those of the principal (e.g., a shareholder), leading to potential conflicts of interest and inefficiencies (Grossman & Hart, 1992). Government budgets are at risk of the principal–agent problem due to budget secrecy because the principal, the citizens, find it hard to make the agents, government officials, provide the value that the principal wants, simply because they do not know what the agents are up to and how to make them fulfil the wishes of the principal. Thus, implementing a publicly accessible and monitorable online open budget system can enhance budget efficiency by encouraging transparency, the public’s participation and alleviating the principal–agent problem (Jung, 2022). Several versions of open budget systems and e-transparency initiatives have been documented in the literature (Harrison & Sayogo, 2014; Porumbescu et al., 2022).

Benefits of Publicly Monitorable Open Budgets and E-transparency Initiatives in Post-colonial Africa

Corruption exists worldwide, but in Africa, it intensified as a response to colonial rule, which imposed foreign institutions that conflicted with indigenous norms and values. During and after decolonization, corruption evolved into a dysfunctional yet stabilizing institution that enabled the coexistence of colonial and local systems, gradually producing a syncretic order (Van den Bersselaar & Decker, 2011; West, 2015). Colonial mentalities of government continue to shape post-colonial governmentality and its outcomes (Adebanwi, 2017). Although many contemporary corrupt practices can be traced to colonial legacies, post-independence governments have also deepened corruption and poverty through their own actions (Olarewaju, 2018). While the right to exclude others is a defining feature of private property (Merrill, 1998), many African governments treat the national budget as if it were the property of the ruling party, restricting public access. This secrecy surrounding revenue and expenditure processes has been linked to historically opaque taxation practices (Mamdani, 2018; Michalopoulos & Papaioannou, 2016).

The Open Budget Survey of the International Budget Partnership provides the main global assessment of budget accountability, evaluating (a) public participation, (b) institutional oversight and (c) transparency of budget information. Results consistently show that Sub-Saharan Africa performs below most other regions, apart from North Africa and the Middle East (International Budget Partnership, 2023). Nigeria offers a critical case for examining fiscal transparency (International Budget Partnership – Ghana (2023); International Budget Partnership – Kenya (2023); International Budget Partnership – Nigeria (2023)). Its extreme cultural diversity and colonial amalgamation produced weak budgeting institutions that remain poorly aligned with local realities (D-PLACE, 2016). Reform efforts have been constrained by elite resistance and political contestation. Nigeria created the Open Treasury Portal in 2019 to enhance transparency in public spending (GOV.NG, 2019), but its impact has been limited by incomplete data, weak enforcement and low civic use. Kenya’s IFMIS and Open Data Portal have enabled comparatively stronger disclosure and civil-society engagement, while Ghana’s GIFMIS remains only partially operational (GIFMIS, 2025; IFMS, 2025; KNBS, 2025).

Methodology

This article utilized the abductive reasoning case study research methodology. Abduction involves drawing inferences from a body of data to an explanatory proposition (Burks, 1946). Peirce (1934) expanded the concept of inference to include abductive methodological processes, which focus on the discovery of hypotheses and propositions. Abduction generates hypotheses by providing explanations for the observed facts (Fletcher et al., 2018; Oetzel, 2005) and aims to infer the best possible explanation for a phenomenon to arrive at the most viable and useful interpretation. Charmaz (2006) described abduction as a form of reasoning that closely examines data, considers all potential explanations and then formulates propositions to confirm the most likely interpretation of the observed data. Existing theories serve as the foundation for abduction, although these theories may need modification (Niiniluoto, 1999).

Abductive reasoning begins by identifying an observed outcome and developing plausible propositions that could explain it, which are then examined against empirical cases for confirmation or refutation (Peirce, 1934). This approach supports rigorous yet context-sensitive theory building, making it well suited to this study’s aim of developing a theory on how an integrated, publicly accessible, real-time online budget with enforced penalties could enhance public value creation, social welfare and citizen well-being in Nigeria.

Data

The data for this study were generated through digital ethnography to support abductive theory building via iterative interpretation, comparison and pattern analysis (Bazeley, 2013; Gaber & Gaber, 2018; Varis, 2015). The research was conducted in two phases. The first phase (2017–2019) involved digitally tracking 15 projects budgeted under Nigeria’s Zonal Intervention Project (ZIP) schemes for 2014, 2017 and 2019. Observation focused on BudgIT’s digital platform and social media channels. BudgIT, Nigeria’s first data journalism non-governmental organization (NGO), established in 2011, uses information and communications technology (ICT) tools to simplify budget information, monitor public projects and facilitate citizen engagement, thereby revealing both accountability mechanisms and institutional constraints (BudgIT, 2025). ZIP budget documents were downloaded and systematically compared with on-the-ground project implementation, enabling the identification of recurrent discrepancies between allocation and delivery. Importantly, the study period coincided with a limited set of exceptional years during which ZIP budgets were publicly accessible, creating a rare empirical window for observing how transparency, civic monitoring and institutional responses interact in practice.

The second phase, conducted between March and August 2025, involved tracking the progress of 10 additional ZIP-budgeted projects and comparing the OTP with similar initiatives across Africa. Table 1A in the Supplementary Material presents the interview guide for the semi-structured interviews, Table 2A (Supplementary Material) lists the 25 tracked projects with their selection logic and coding framework, and Table 3A (Supplementary Material) provides the OTP comparisons. The interviews explored ways to enhance transparency, efficiency and citizen participation in the budgeting process, as well as the barriers to achieving these goals. Additional data were collected from staff members of BudgIT.

Rule

In democratic systems, citizens can be viewed as consumers of government services, with public budgets forming a core part of the value exchanged (Kotler, 2020). As in markets, citizens have a right to know how public resources are allocated and implemented, making budget transparency essential for accountability and trust (Crepaz & Arikan, 2024; Galtung & Pope, 1999; Olarewaju et al., 2021). When budgetary processes are opaque, this implied social contract is weakened, reducing citizen trust, participation and perceived government responsiveness. Budget secrecy, therefore, disrupts the exchange relationship between governments and citizens, limiting accountability and diminishing the perceived value of public services. To sustain democratic governance and a functional exchange process, budgetary decisions must be open and accessible, enabling meaningful citizen engagement, including the monitoring of budget decision-makers (Kotler, 2000, 2020). This relates to the first proposition:

Proposition 1. Research Question 1: Implementing a publicly accessible, online, real-time budget integrated across the three levels of government, and open to public monitoring, can help the Nigerian government create significantly more value than it currently does.

An online, real-time, publicly accessible budget integrated across all levels of government enables rapid detection of misallocations, unauthorized spending and project delays. However, transparency alone is insufficient; its effectiveness depends on clear and consistently enforced penalties. When sanctions for budgetary discrepancies are well defined and applied, they deter corruption and mismanagement by increasing the costs of non-compliance (Koeswayo et al., 2024). Visible enforcement also strengthens public trust, as citizens see that violations lead to real consequences, reinforcing perceptions of fairness and accountability (Koeswayo et al., 2024). Beyond deterrence, penalty enforcement incentivizes better financial discipline and reporting, improving efficiency and project delivery (Chu et al., 2024; Hamdi et al., 2024). This relates to the second proposition:

Proposition 2. Research Question 2: Consistently enforcing penalties for discrepancies in an integrated, real-time online budget system across all three levels of government can enable the Nigerian government to create significantly more value than it currently does.

Case Study: Nigeria’s Shrouded Tier Structure

The three-tier structure of the Nigerian government has historically made the integration and monitoring of the budgets of the three levels of government challenging. However, advances in IT now make it possible to have Nigeria’s entire national budget information at the federal, state and local government levels, totally publicly available online in real-time in an integrated manner to enhance transparency and efficiency across the three levels of government. This approach will also involve minimal costs if changes are made to the three-tier structure in the future and will enable the three levels of the Nigerian government to streamline their activities while encouraging public participation in the budgeting process. As one stakeholder (O2) in the community with a budgeted project shared: We at the local level cannot see even the budget of the local government not to talk of the state or central government. We need to be able to see all three to know who should be doing what or if there is duplication. Similarly, another stakeholder (K2) in the community with a budgeted project shared, We keep getting told that this road is in the budget of the federal government and then the federal government says it is the property of the state government and in the end, we are the ones that suffer.

Nigeria operates a three-tier governance system comprising federal, state and local governments, each with distinct responsibilities. While this structure supports decentralized administration, it complicates budget monitoring because financial information across the three tiers is fragmented or inaccessible. As a result, citizens struggle to track public spending or assess government performance. Although a budget monitoring unit exists at the federal level, secrecy limits citizens’ ability to report or challenge budget implementation in their communities, allowing governments to self-evaluate using opaque criteria. This undermines value creation and exacerbates the harms of corruption. By contrast, South Korea’s open budget system reduced inefficiency and improved accountability through public participation (Jung, 2022), while ICT-enabled civic monitoring has similarly enhanced transparency in Nigeria’s ZIPs (Olarewaju et al., 2021).

Analysis of Results

The results revealed that corruption in Nigeria’s budgetary process is systemic and manifests in several recurring patterns: vaguely defined budget items and projects, non-execution or abandonment of projects, diversion of benefits to political loyalists, inflated costs and recurrent listing of the same projects. Tracking the budgeted items and projects showed that secrecy in budget formulation and implementation enabled corrupt practices, reinforcing citizen distrust and weakening democratic accountability. The lack of transparency disrupted the implied exchange relationship between government and citizens, leaving the latter disempowered and disconnected from governance processes.

The second phase of digital ethnography and interviews revealed that ICT tools, digital monitoring and online citizen engagement through digital platforms like the Tracka platform and social media are effective in reducing corruption when budgets are made visible and traceable. As one stakeholder (O1) in the community with a budgeted project shared:

We need to have a way for the citizens to see what is going on with the budget and call our political leaders to account. We do not even know what is going on in the budget even though many of us are very interested. If we could use digital tools to monitor the budget and even social media to interact with each other about the budget, that would be great.

Similarly, another stakeholder (R1) in the community with a budgeted project shared, It will be a very good idea to have a digital platform where we the youths can see the expenditure that will affect our lives. Another stakeholder (K1) in the community with a budgeted project stated, The main problem is the secrecy of the budget. We, the members of the public are hopeless over it. We need to think seriously about how to make the budget transparent and accessible to everyone. In addition, a member of BudgIT (BT1) explained that

We can only track budgeted projects that we can see online in the budget and try to link these with projects on the ground. If we have no access to the budget, then we cannot track and advocate for the budgeted projects to be undertaken and completed.

Generally, the results of the tracking showed that budgeted projects that were subject to public scrutiny via digital monitoring showed better alignment between planned and delivered outcomes compared to those hidden in opaque allocations. BudgIT highlighted both opportunities (enhanced citizen participation, improved information flow and increased accountability) and barriers (weak enforcement mechanisms, political resistance and institutional secrecy). The evidence, often captured by the phrase ‘transparency is the enemy of corruption’, supports both propositions.

An integrated, publicly accessible and publicly monitorable online real-time budget system would enhance value creation by making discrepancies readily detectable and allow citizens to choose credible political leaders, while the consistent enforcement of penalties would strengthen deterrence, improve efficiency and help rebuild public trust. The analysis also highlighted cybersecurity risks and the associated costs of implementing an IT-based budget system. For example, BudgIT was affected by a malicious cyberattack that disrupted operations and increased cost, although this was due to the operational software and hardware context of BudgIT and should not be over-generalized. As a member of BudgIT (BT2) shared, A malicious user got access to some IAM keys and gained access to our account programmatically. The user spinned up instances in different regions using windows p3.16xlarge which gulped up a lot of dollars within a few minutes.

Based on the discussion so far, the model in Figure 1 flows abductively via inference to the best explanation. Abductive analysis suggests that a publicly accessible, online, real-time budget integrated across all three levels of government could improve efficiency by promoting transparency, enabling citizen participation and addressing the principal–agent problem. When combined with clearly enforced penalties for misuse of public funds, such a system could significantly reduce corruption and enhance value creation. Democratic governance depends on informed citizens and oversight, even where limited secrecy is justified (Horn, 2011; Rittberger & Goetz, 2018).

Figure 1.

Abductive Model Inferred.

Technologically, synchronizing budget entries with government and project bank accounts would enable fraud detection, contract vetting and auditing of abandoned projects, with narrowly defined exemptions for security spending. Implementation could follow a phased approach, beginning federally and extending to states and local governments under a harmonized legal framework mandating open data standards and enforceable sanctions. However, evidence from Nigeria’s OTP shows that transparency alone is insufficient; without institutional capacity, enforcement and active civic engagement, open systems risk symbolic adoption (Davies & Perini, 2016; World Bank, 2020; Zuiderwijk & Janssen, 2014). Thus, real-time transparency improves accountability only when aligned with incentives, enforcement and political will. For security reasons, portions of the military budget may be excluded, particularly during wartime, provided they are properly audited. These findings further translate each proposition into testable hypotheses for future research, as shown in Table 2.

Table 2.

Testable Hypotheses for Further Enquiry.

Proposition	Hypothesis	Effect Point/Dependency	Statement	Actionable Implementations
Proposition 1	H 1a	Transparency effect	Citizens with access to a real-time, integrated budget platform will report higher perceived government accountability than those without access.	Launch public real-time budget portal
Proposition 1	H 1b	Engagement effect	Use of an online, real-time budget will be positively associated with citizen participation in monitoring budget projects.	Enable citizen reporting and dashboards
Proposition 1	H 1c	Value perception	Exposure to real-time budget data will increase citizens’ perceived value of government services.	Publish accessible budget data
Proposition 2	H 2a	Deterrence effect	Consistent enforcement of penalties will reduce abandoned or misallocated projects.	Apply sanctions for discrepancies
Proposition 2	H 2b	Trust effect	Citizens’ trust in government will increase when penalties are visible and consistently enforced.	Publicize enforcement actions
Proposition 2	H 2c	Performance effect	Agencies subject to penalty enforcement will show improved efficiency in project delivery.	Monitor delivery Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and penalties

Boundary Conditions

The claim that digital tracking and citizen engagement can improve transparency and accountability in Nigeria holds only under specific boundary conditions shaped by institutional capacity, incentives and political resistance. While public access to budget data is necessary, it is not sufficient: without institutional commitment, enforcement mechanisms and active civil society participation, transparency alone might not produce accountability. Evidence shows that real-time transparency is effective only when actors possess the skills and resources to interpret data and exert pressure, and when incentives encourage official responsiveness (Global Communication Initiative, 2020). Transparency combined with enforcement can also help where sanctions align with performance incentives.

Conclusions

This article demonstrates that Nigeria’s budgetary corruption and limited public value creation stem from systemic secrecy, weak institutions and poor accountability across its three-tier system. Using abductive analysis and digital ethnography, it shows that an integrated, real-time online budget, combined with enforceable penalties, can enhance transparency, trust and value creation. Advances in IT now make such systems technically feasible through tools such as ERP, IFMIS, blockchain and cloud computing. However, without legal enforcement, institutional reform, civic capacity building and political commitment, digital budgets risk becoming symbolic rather than transformative. When these conditions align, public budgeting can shift from opaque elite control to an inclusive platform for public value creation. The propositions advanced in this article are also applicable to similar contexts.