A sovereign debt ‘exchange’ is not a simple charitable gift, but a conversion of an original financial or trade transaction that benefits both debtor and creditor. There is evidence that some originating transactions gave rise to sovereign debt that is odious or illegitimate. If the debt is illegitimate, any future transactions that deal with the debt – including exchanges – may also be illegitimate. Allegations of illegitimacy cannot be confirmed or denied without access to the details of the debts' originating transactions. Therefore, in order to assess the legitimacy of a proposed debt exchange, the debts' originating transactions must first be examined and deemed legitimate, in a public debt audit.

In order to conduct a public debt audit, the information disclosed must be sufficient to answer four questions: how much is owed, by whom is it owed, for what is it owed, and is it really owed (i.e., is it legitimately owed)? Answering the final question requires the most information. This includes the essential terms of the contract and/or rescheduling, such as rates of interest, and off-balance sheet conditions, such as buy-back agreements; the benefit received by the foreign population; evidence of due diligence, in particular whether the capacity of the future debtor was examined and the content of any environmental impact statements; and the intended and actual use of funds to show that they were not used to bribe foreign officials.