On the learning curve – Case study on the transparency of municipality-owned enterprises in Szeged, Hungary

The paper summarises the challenges and lessons of a pilot project run in Szeged, the regional centre of South-Eastern Hungary. The project focused on the public disclosure practices of municipality-owned enterprises in the city. The paper analyses the main regulatory, institutional and motivational barriers and drivers to local transparency within the period 2016-2017. Our methodology is based on data mapping, website content analysis and running local interviews with representatives of the municipality as well as with those of local companies. In order to assess and rank the performance of the local companies and to analyse the learning process, we develop two indexes (Compliance Index, Hardcore Information Index) – with the first one indicating to what extent do local companies comply with statutory obligations, while the second one reflects their openness towards business-sensitive information. We ranked the local companies in January 2016 first, and then repeated our assessment in January 2017. The results show that local companies do not seem to add explicit value to business integrity but would be open to learning more on its benefits and on the good practices in the field. There is a considerable variance in the public disclosure practices and a strong need for more collaborative work and peer learning. The paper concludes with policy recommendations on how to raise awareness on the social and economic importance of business integrity and to help local governments to promote transparency at the local level.