#transparency

The Report Nobody Reads

24 August 2026

An institution can publish hundreds of pages of reports every year and still be seen as closed. The problem isn't the page count.

Local Budget Transparency and Public Trust: A Study of Three Mid-Sized Cities

Laras Anindita, Bagas Prasetyo, Nadia Kusuma

Nusantara Journal of Public Administration · Vol. 9, No. 2 · pp. 141-158 · 2026

Publishing budget documents is often treated as an administrative duty. This study tests its link with public trust in three mid-sized cities, and finds that trust is driven not by how many documents are uploaded, but by how easily ordinary people can read them.