Fiscal Transparency Perception of Members of City Councils: The Case of Metropolitan Municipalities

Fiscal transparency indicates to the accessibility of the information, as well as, to the availability of information on by whom, how and why public resources are used. With the effects of the changes in the use of publicly provided resources from central governments to municipalities, fiscal transparency also becomes an important principle for municipalities. The issue of the fiscal transparency is an argument in Turkey with the recent fiscal and administrative reforms on decentralization. In this context, the study investigates fiscal transparency perceptions of city councils. The findings obtained with the survey method show that the level of fiscal transparency perception is high. However, perceptions of the participants on local public works and borrowing policies are, on the other hand, not transparent, i.e. the participants' fiscal transparency perceptions on these two policies as indecisive.