GUIDELINES FOR PUBLIC FINANCE DATA DISSEMINATION AND

The Twining project, an institutional cooperation between Italy and Turkey, is co-financed
by the European Union and the Republic of Turkey.
EU TWINNING PROJECT
“Improving Data Quality in Public Accounts”
GUIDELINES FOR PUBLIC FINANCE DATA
DISSEMINATION AND ACCESS
Final version
Activity 1.7
May 2012
1
Table of contents
1. Foreword.......................................................................................................................... 3
2. International requirements and good practices ................................................................ 4
2.1 International initiatives ................................................................................................ 4
2.2 Fundamental aspects of fiscal transparency and public accounts data dissemination5
Comprehensiveness ............................................................................................... 5
Reliability .............................................................................................................. 6
Comparability (in time and space) and timeliness .................................................... 7
Understandable to the public .................................................................................. 9
2.3 What is a Citizens’ Budget .......................................................................................... 9
Main elements of a Citizens’ Budget ...................................................................... 11
Citizens’ Budget style and format .......................................................................... 13
Citizens’ Budget dissemination .............................................................................. 13
2.4 New challenges for fiscal transparency: open government data ............................... 16
Some benefits of open data inside and outside the public administration................. 20
“Open” public finance data ................................................................................... 20
3. Technological solutions.................................................................................................. 28
3.1 System architecture for data dissemination at GDPA ............................................... 29
3.2 Geographical Information System (GIS) ................................................................... 32
3.3 Statistical tools for data management ....................................................................... 33
3.4 Data Warehouse ....................................................................................................... 34
3.5 Data Visualization ..................................................................................................... 35
3.6 Open Data tools ........................................................................................................ 39
3.7 Interoperability to data .............................................................................................. 40
4. Public understanding and involvement .......................................................................... 44
4.1 Public consultations .................................................................................................. 44
4.1 Promoting data use and re-use through websites and competitions ......................... 45
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1. Foreword
The foundation of modern public financial reporting lies in the communication of financial
information about the government’s activities to citizens and their representatives in
Parliament. Indeed, fiscal transparency is a key aspect of the accountability for the way in
which governments raise taxes, borrow, and spend public money and, since the late
nineties, it is increasingly a requirement of international obligations (e.g., within the IMF,
the OECD and the European Union).
Fiscal transparency requires providing information about past, present and future activities
of government in collecting and allocating public resources and in a way that it be:
•
comprehensive, reliable, timely, comparable in time and space, understandable to
the public
•
easily accessible, at detailed level (raw data), re-useable (i.e. open data)
Although there is room for debate on the benefits of wide access to public finance details,
there is a broad consensus on the fact that fiscal transparency is relevant for:
• Better informed decisions (in government and outside it)
o it helps to highlight potential risks to the fiscal outlook, resulting in an earlier
and smoother fiscal policy response to changing economic conditions
o it enables public debate which may improve resource allocation
o greater oversight by civil society and international markets encourages
governments to pursue sound economic policies and achieve greater
financial stability
• Increased accountability of policy action
o it strengthens credibility and public understanding of macroeconomic policies
and choices
o it may enhance social consensus on difficult trade-offs in the context of
limited resources and multiple demands
• Increased accountability of public officials
o tracking expenditure and knowing whether it has gone to where was planned
makes it easier to detect (and reduce) corruption
• Better access to capital markets
o Investors are reassured by more transparent governments and therefore a
more willing to facilitate access to international capital markets
These Guidelines aim at improving the GDPA capacity for data publication and accessibility
according to the following viewpoints: contents; technological solutions (IT architecture
and software platforms) and public understanding and involvement (media, citizens,
NGOs). Particular focus is made on opportunities for public accounts dissemination and
communication through open data. Each topic is presented briefly and accompanied by a
more extensive list of examples, references and websites.
3
2. International requirements and good practices
2.1 International initiatives
Guidelines and assessments on the extent to which countries satisfy them are promoted
by international organizations and civil society organizations.
The major on-going initiatives are:
1) IMF Fiscal Transparency Code (since 1998, revised in 2007)
In 1998, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) introduced a Code of Good Practices on
Fiscal Transparency which led to a voluntary program of fiscal transparency assessments
called fiscal transparency modules of Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes
(ROSC). The Code provides a comprehensive framework for fiscal transparency and
focuses on clear roles and responsibilities, transparent budget processes, public availability
of information, and assurances of integrity. To expand and explain the principles of the
Code, and to help guide the conduct of fiscal ROSCs, a Manual on Fiscal Transparency was
released and revised in 2007.
http://www.imf.org/external/np/fad/trans/code.htm
http://www.imf.org/external/np/fad/trans/manual/intro.htm
2) OECD Best Practices for Budget Transparency (since 2001)
The OECD best practices for budget transparency are a reference tool supporting the full
disclosure of all relevant fiscal information in a timely and systematic manner and provide
a series of best practices in the areas of principal budget reports, specific disclosures,
quality, and integrity.
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/33/13/1905258.pdf
3) Open Budget Initiative (since 2005)
The International Budget Partnership conducts, in collaboration with civil society around
the world, a biennial Open Budget Survey and Index, providing ratings of the openness of
budget material in over 60 countries. The detailed and systematic survey of current
practice is performed by local experts (in Turkey TESEV). The Index assesses the
availability of key budget documents, the quantity of information they provide, and the
timeliness of their dissemination to citizens in order to provide reliable information on each
country’s commitment to budget transparency and accountability.
http://www.openbudgetindex.org
4) Open Government Partnership (OGP) on Budget Transparency (since 2011)
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral initiative advance in 2011. It aim to
secure commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight
corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. OGP is overseen by a
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steering committee of eight governments and nine civil society organizations. It has a
specific module on budget transparency and reporting standards. One of the core
principles states “Transparency: information on government activities and decisions is
open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the public and meets basic open data
standards (e.g. raw data, machine readability)”
http://www.opengovpartnership.org/
Box 1: Key budget reports for the public
Internationally accepted good practices require governments to publish at least eight key
budget reports at various points in the budget year:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Pre-Budget Statement
Executive’s Budget Proposal
Enacted Budget
Citizens Budget
In-Year Monthly Reports
Mid-Year Review
Year-End Report
Audit Report.
2.2 Fundamental aspects of fiscal transparency and public accounts data
dissemination
The dissemination of data on public accounts should follow basic principles, such as
comprehensiveness, reliability, timeliness, comparability in time and space, and being
understandable to the public. Hereafter a selection of the main features connected to each
principle.
Comprehensiveness
The budget documentation, including the final accounts, and other published
fiscal reports should cover all budgetary and extra-budgetary activities:
• Extra-budgetary activities are transactions of general government entities that are
not included in the budget appropriation laws. Examples:
o transactions related to commercial activities of government agencies (user
fees) that are not included in their budgeted revenue and expenditure;
o social security funds,
o nonmarket nonprofit institutions, financed by government transfers or
earmarked revenues
o revolving funds
o tax expenditures
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o contingent liabilities
o quasi-fiscal activities
• The central government should publish information on the level and composition
of its debt and financial assets, significant non-debt liabilities (including pension
rights, guarantee exposure, and other contractual obligations), and natural resource
assets.
• The budget documentation should report the fiscal position of sub-national
governments and the finances of public corporations.
• The overall balance and gross debt of the general government should be standard
summary indicators of the government fiscal position. They should be
supplemented, where appropriate, by other fiscal indicators, such as the primary
balance, the public sector balance, and net debt.
Reliability
Fiscal data should meet accepted data quality standards, related to definitions and
classifications:
• accounting policies meet generally accepted accounting standards;
• international standard classifications to be used for economic and functional
descriptions (e.g. COFOG / SEC), on the side of national classifications
and related to checking the data:
• automated procedures are used to facilitate the monitoring of the accuracy of
data reported by individual government sector units for internal consistency testing
of each institution’s data (e.g., cross-checks). Data inconsistencies and out-of-trend
values are confirmed with reporting units, and documented.
• source data are assessed by checking across different sources (e.g., payables
by one part of the general government are equal to receivables by another,
checking independent creditor and debtor sources, and domestic bank financing
records compared with banking records, etc.).
• sound techniques are in place to estimate missing data, when relevant (to deal
with coverage problems).
• final accounts are fully reconciled with budget appropriations
An in-depth treatment of this issue is found in the IMF’s July 2003 Data Quality
Assessment
Framework
and
Data
Quality
Program,
at
http://dsbb.imf.org/Pages/DQRS/Home.aspx
and
http://dsbb.imf.org/images/pdfs/dqrs_gfs.pdf
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Comparability (in time and space) and timeliness
o fiscal aggregate outcomes are compared with previous forecasts
outturns of previous years
and with
o international classifications, alongside national ones, are used for economic
and functional representations (such as ESA95 and COFOG)
o dissemination of advance-release calendars
o simultaneous release to all interested parties
Box 2: OECD Best Practices on monthly reports
o
Monthly updates on expenditures and revenues should show progress in implementing
the budget:
•
They should be released within four weeks of the end of each month.
•
They should contain the amount of revenue and expenditure in each month and yearto-date.
•
A comparison should be made with the forecast amounts of monthly revenue and
expenditure for the same period. Any in-year adjustments to the original forecast should
be shown separately.
•
A brief commentary should accompany the numerical data. If a significant divergence
between actual and forecast amounts occurs, an explanation should be made.
•
Expenditures should be classified by major administrative units (e.g., ministry,
agency). Supplementary information classifying expenditure by economic and
functional categories should also be presented.
•
Information on commitments should be provided in addition to information on
payments
•
The reports should also contain information on the government’s borrowing activity
Source: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/33/13/1905258.pdf
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Box 3: The Open Budget Index (OBI) for Turkey
The Open Budget Index is an initiative of the International Budget Partnership. It assigns
countries a transparency score on a 100-point scale using 92 questions from a detailed Survey
focusing on whether the government provides the public with timely access to comprehensive
information contained in eight key budget documents. The last Survey was conducted in 2010:
According to the Open Budget Surveys conducted since 2006, Turkey’s ranking has consistently
improved from 42 points over 100 in 2006 to 57 in 2010. The overall situation is comparable to
several neighboring countries (including Italy), but it is lower than EU average.
Figure 1: OBI Scores 2010 Turkey, Italy and other major EU countries
•
.
Source: Open Budget Index 2010.
The main OBI recommendations in 2010 for Turkey concerned the following data dissemination
areas:
•
•
•
•
•
improving the comprehensiveness of the Executive’s Budget Proposal, Year-End Report
and Audit Report (in particular by including information on extra-budgetary funds,
quasi-fiscal activities, tax expenditures, contingent and future liabilities, and financial
and other assets; and by helping to explain the relationship between the government’s
revenue and expenditure plans and its policy and macroeconomic goals; and by adding
information on outputs and outcomes)
publishing a Mid-Year Review and increasing data in Monthly In-Year reports (which
lack information on the specific characteristics of external debt, such as maturity,
interest rate and currency denomination)
producing a Citizens Budget;
providing opportunities for the public to testify at legislative hearings on the budget;
increasing the powers of the legislature to provide more comprehensive oversight not
only when the budget is being approved but also during the budget execution period
For more information see: http://internationalbudget.org/wpcontent/uploads/2011/04/Turkey-OBI2010QuestionnaireFinal.pdf
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Understandable to the public
The understanding of the budget process by individual citizens and non-governmental
organizations should actively be promoted. In particular, the public should be provided
with comprehensive information on past, current, and projected fiscal activity and on
major fiscal risks. Fiscal information should be presented in a way that facilitates policy
analysis and promotes accountability. Regularly reports, should be published in a simple
language. There should be a commitment to make timely publication of fiscal information
written in a simple language which can be easily understood by the public at large. The
publication should also contain a description of the budget process, including the roles of
the executive branch, in preparing the budget and of the legislature in authorising
government taxation, borrowing, and expenditure.
This objective can be achieved presenting fiscal information in a way that facilitates
policy analysis: While selecting the information to public the following two concepts should
be kept in mind
Fiscal data should be reported on a gross basis, distinguishing revenue,
expenditure, and financing
Expenditure should be classified by economic, functional, and administrative
category.
In addition:
o A clear and simple summary guide to the budget should be widely distributed
at the time of the annual budget.
o Budget presentations and accounts should contain clear statements of the
government’s objectives (e.g. missions and programs) as well as a listing
of the items on which money is spent (as in traditional line-item
budgeting).
o Results of previous policies should also be evaluated against their
stated objectives, by measuring also measure outputs and outcomes in
relation to these objectives.
The government’s work is highly technical and to make public finance data understandable
it is often not sufficient to simply disclose specialized documents e statistics. Promoting a
Citizens’ Budget in a language that ordinary people can understand and appreciate is a
way to facilitate communication to the public.
2.3 What is a Citizens’ Budget
Financial data provided by governments are not always easily understood by the general
public for various reasons: because they may be presented in a highly technical way,
according to aggregates and categories relevant to the administrations operations but not
the citizens main interests. This may impede citizens capability to understand where their
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financial contribution goes. A Citizens’ budget is a tool for empowering citizens to be
aware of the budget process and to follow how budgetary resources are used. It is thus a
tool to understand the whole budget process and its implementation and to contribute to
accountability and transparency of service providers for public administrations.
The International Budget Partnership (IBP) definition for Citizens’ Budget is “A citizen
budget is a non-technical presentation of the government budget which is intended to
enable the public-including those who are not familiar with public finance-understand
government plans”.
Generally speaking, a Citizens’ budget is a collective term for various ways to involve
citizens in the budget process and allocation of financial resources. The concept was
started in the late 1980s in the city of Porto Alegre (Brazil) and since then, it has spread to
all continents and is currently active at country, regional and local level in many places
around the world. Today, thanks to ICT technology, a Citizens’ budget can become an
interactive tool for governments and public institutions to receive feedback from citizens
on matters of public interest.
Usually, a Citizens’ Budget is mainly aimed at the communication to the public Executive’s
Budget Proposal. In this case it should be produced at the same time the budget is
presented to the legislature. In some cases, the Citizens’ Budget is in fact based on the
Enacted Budget or Budget Law and illustrates presenting the estimate of income received
by the State, as well as the expenditures estimates that are authorized to the institutions
so they can execute programs and projects; which in turn translates into public services
financed by taxes that have been collected. However, a clear understanding of what has
actually happened during the Budget Execution through the representation of the
outturns/end-of-year financial statement and how much or why it has differed from the
initial plans is equally as important.
Broadly speaking, a Citizen’s budget should be aim at:
• guaranteeing the right of citizens to have access to detailed information on
government's activities as they are the main contributors
• improving communication through the implementation of actions which are
more visible and closer to citizens in order to increase general consent on future
government policies;
• raising a clear perception of the services offered and though which
expenditure
• managing realistic expectations among citizens in how public money are used.
• preventing media communications crisis due to misunderstanding in the data
interpretation
• enhancing accountability.
Citizens’ budget, in order to be successful, needs of course to be integrated into a larger
governance agenda, and should involve the cooperation with civil society, good
governance and rule of law which have been proved to be increasingly critical elements in
guaranteeing transparency.
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In most cases the Citizens’ Budget is the result of a joint work among:
• the Directorate in charge of the overall Budget preparation and monitoring (such as
the General Directorate of Public Accounts)
• the IT Department, in charge of implementing the IT system for data inclusion and
storage
• the Press Office/Communication office, for the preparation of the tools and events
in order to make the public at large aware of the budget.
Main elements of a Citizens’ Budget
Citizens’ Budget should thus include the following main principles:
Clarity of roles and responsibilities: a clear explanation of the structure and functions
of the government, of the responsibilities within government, and of the relations between
government and the rest of the economy should be provided in order to better understand
the mechanisms which lay behind the budget structure;
Open budget processes: some information about how a budget is prepared, executed,
and monitored is also essential;
Public availability of information: specification of the coverage, detail, and timing of
fiscal information should also be provided to the public;
Assurance of integrity: a description of how the quality of fiscal data is guaranteed.
Although there is no agreement on the definition, purposes and contents of a Citizens’
Budget, these are some of the common features in most countries:
Highlighting the budget priorities
Presenting a broad introduction to the key components of the budget
Examples on how the budget will impact ordinary citizens and significant new
measures
Fiscal balance over medium term horizon
Promoting transparency and access to budget information also by other means
(mentioned in the Citizens’ Budget)
The Citizens’ Budget should present what is the estimated / actual revenue and what is
estimated / actual expenditure:
by function (or sector);
by purpose (or objective o program)
by administrative unit;
by economic category (e.g. wages and salaries, interest, capital expenditures)
by geographical location
by financing source
and where applicable:
by major programme
by funding line
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The following is an example check-list of information which are of interest for the citizens
Check-List of information to be provided to citizens
Determining the information the citizen want is a main step to prepare a good citizens’
budget
As regards income the following questions should be addressed:
How much of the government’s activities does the budget cover?
Which is the profile of the different tax-payers? (how many different types of
taxes? which kind of taxes?)
Are there any external financial sources (international donors; EU)?
How much is being borrowed and from whom?
As regards expenditure the following questions should be addressed:
For what and with which aims are expenditures made? (functional classification)
What is being “bought” with public expenditure: salaries, goods and services,
investments? (economic classification)
who is responsible within Public Administration
management? (administrative classification)
of
the
expenditure
Who are the beneficiaries? Families, companies, other public administrations?
Which is the difference between planning and final expenditure?
How much time is needed to implement a public investment project?
How much does it cost the expenses management? (salaries, purchase of goods or services
to make the system work)
Which are the tools which allow the public expenditure?
Which kind of projects were funded in a specific area? (district, municipality,
region)
Which are the main sectors and for which reason
Additional information to be provided could also regard:
the different types of accounts or funds, and what agencies are inside or outside
the budget;
data on the government’s extra-budgetary activities, and their impact on
consolidated government accounts
a summary and an explanation of the “quasi-fiscal activities”
transfers between different levels of government
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Remember also:
to include references and links to more detailed spending information
to demonstrate realism of the budgeted levels of revenues, expenditures and the
fiscal balance by comparing with recent trends
to evaluate expected out-turn for the current year in comparison to its forecast in
the previous budget
to list key fiscal risks:
Citizens’ Budget style and format
The Citizens’ Budget is deliberately produced for citizens and explains how the
government collects, distributes and uses public resources. The best format should be a
stand-alone technical document, ideally produced by Ministry of Finance, written in simple
language with limited use of jargon and of abbreviations.
The document should also:
highlight simple and attractive charts and diagrams
be short but provided with lots of links
contain maps on expenditure allocation to sub-national / local governments
use simple per-capita indicators for significant revenue and expenditure
aggregates, in addition to the total figures , and present main figures as
percentage of GDP
include a budget / public accounts terminology glossary
Box 4: Suggestions for adopting a clear language
Particular attention must also be devoted to the language used when explaining the budget to
the citizens.
In this context the following useful material can be the consulted.
1.
“how
to
write
clearly”
published
by
the
European
Commission:
http://ec.europa.eu/translation/writing/clear_writing/how_to_write_clearly_en.pdf
2.
“Style
guide”
published
http://www.economist.com/styleguide/introduction
by
the
Economist:
Citizens’ Budget dissemination
The Citizens’ Budget should be actively disseminated. It is suggested to arrange launches
in occasion of public seminars, conferences and in occasion of Public Administration Fairs
both at national and at international level. it should also be encouraged the NGOs
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participation, to publicize its availability on the web. Copies should be made available in
hard copy and electronic form, but also alternative formats can be considered such as:
Video clips
Radio podcasts
Poster
Pamphlets
Additional educational materials could be prepared to be disseminated in schools, so that
teachers, together with their students use it as an educational subject. Awards could be
published in schools were teachers and student will be asked to explain the budget to the
general Public. The best budget representation could be used as a standard format for the
publication of the Citizens’ Budget. In case of multi-ethnic communities the use of multiple
languages should be considered, together with its availability in formats and tools which
take into consideration the disadvantaged groups. Finally, the Citizens’ Budget, once
published, should be actively promoted through an adequate media campaign.
Box 5: Typical tools for a media campaigning
Press release: a news release, press release or press statement is a written or recorded
communication directed at members of the news media for the purpose of announcing
something claimed as having news value. The publication of the citizens’ budget is a good
opportunity to send a press release in order to attract media attention on the issue. Typically,
it is mailed, faxed, or e-mailed to assignment editors at newspapers, magazines, radio stations,
television stations, and/or television networks. The press release should follow an inverted
pyramid style, with information appearing in its order of importance so that editors can easily
identify key facts
Press conferences: they allow the officials to present the budget and to explain its logic.
They are organised to inform the public at large. The press conference is a media event in
which newsmakers invite journalists to hear them speak and, most often, ask questions. There
are two major reasons for holding a news conference. One is that a newsmaker, who gets
many questions from reporters, can answer them all at once rather than answering dozens of
phone calls. Another is so someone can try to attract news coverage for something that was
not of interest to journalists before.
Media training sessions: they can be used to train journalists about the most technical
terminology related to the budget presentation. It frequently happens that news on media are
wrong because the exact terminology and the details of public expenditure are not understood.
Journalists awards: they can be established to build capacity among journalists working on
economic issues. The annual awards honour the work and contributions of journalists actively
engaged in the responsible dissemination of knowledge related to budget issues, and other
areas that support long-term policies in this sector. Journalists’ awards can be complemented
by a short training course to provide finalists with an opportunity to discuss and debate citizens’
budget issues and their impacts on the wider public. Journalists can be awarded or for the
biggest amount of articles written on the magazines/newspapers, or for the best quality articles
published on the media.
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Examples of Citizens’ Budgets at national and local level
Canada’s Citizen Budget: an interactive customizable budget simulator
http://citizenbudget.com/
New Zealand Key facts for taxpayers (e.g., 2011)
http://www.treasury.govt.nz/budget/2011/taxpayers/b11-taxpayers.pdf
Italy’s “Bilancio in Rete” (Budget on the Internet)
http://www.rgs.mef.gov.it/VERSIONE-I/Bilancio-d/Bilancio-i/
France’s Budget and Cyber Budget simulator
http://www.performance-publique.budget.gouv.fr/le-budget-et-les-comptes-de-letat/le-budget-deletat.html
http://www.cyber-budget.fr/
Nigerian Budget made simple
http://yourbudgit.com/ , http://budgetoffice.gov.ng/
Guatemala’s Citizen Budget
www.minfin.gob.gt
The city of Cologne’s participatory budget experience
http://www.epractice.eu/en/cases/colognepb
Local Budgeting in Oregon
http://www.oregon.gov/DOR/PTD/docs/local-b/504-400.pdf?ga=t
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2.4 New challenges for fiscal transparency: open government data
The Internet is one of the most striking features affecting today’s societal organization.
Among many other aspects, it allows a quicker and cheaper way to distribute information
and data. Today, most people would agree that the new standard of public transparency is
measured by the amount, significance and re-usability of data released on the web.
Data on revenues and expenditures should be easily accessible, digital, reuseable from a technical and legal point of view, machine readable, ……. ===
open data
The idea is that with “open data” the public can sort, search, and transform the
information to meet their needs and answer detailed questions, such as:
• how much of my tax money is spent on cancer research?
• how much public money is spent for schools in my region?
• how much revenue is raised by taxing fuel?
Open Government Data is raw information collected or produced by public administrations
that is shared with the public digitally, over the Internet, in a way that promotes analysis
and reuse. The notion of open government data has been around for some years. Since
2009, governments are making important pronouncements on the principles for
transparency in government and on the value of making public data widely accessible for
practical applications in and out of civic life and are launching “open data portals”. A data
portal as a single point of access to documents available for re-use – that is downloading,
searching, analyzing and re-elaborating - such as http://data.gov.uk/ in the United
Kindgom, http://data.gouv.fr in France, http://data.gov.it in Italy, http://data.soumi.fi in
Finland and many others. While e-Government explores how governments can best
exploit ICT to embed good governance principles and achieve public policy goals, open
data concentrates on the availability and accessibility of data, and on idea that third
parties may provide services with such data as well.
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Box 6: The definition of “openness”
Supposedly, open data should be released in a machine-processable format and with no patent
licensing restrictions, so that the public can sort, search, and transform the information to meet
their needs. Different definitions emphasize different features of “openness”. A comprehensive
overview is provided by http://opendefinition.org/okd/ which lists the following features:
1. Access
Available as a whole and at a reasonable reproduction cost, preferably downloading via the
Internet without charge. The work must be available in a convenient and modifiable form.
2. Redistribution
The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the work either on its own or
as part of a package made from derived work. License without royalty or other fee.
3. Reuse
The license must allow for modifications and must allow them to be distributed under the terms
of the original work.
4. Absence of Technological Restriction
The work must be provided in such a form that there are no technological obstacles to the
performance of the above activities (eg. open data format)
5. Attribution
The license may require the attribution of the contributors and creators to the work.
6. Integrity
The license may require as a condition for the work being distributed in modified form that the
resulting work carry a different name or version number from the original work.
7. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.
8. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
The license must not restrict anyone from use the work in a specific field of endeavor. For
example, it may not restrict the work from being used in a business, or for genetic research
9. Distribution of License
The rights attached to the work must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without
the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.
10. License Must Not Be Specific to a Package
The rights attached to the work must not depend on the work being part of a particular
package. If the work is extracted from that package, all parties redistributed should have the
same rights as the original package.
11. License Must Not Restrict the Distribution of other Works
The license must not place restrictions on other works that are distributed along with the
licensed work. For example, the license must not insist that all other works distributed on the
same medium are open.
Open data does not mean data identifying or that provides ways to identify
individuals, unless that information is already published.
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Public expenditure data are a prime element of open data initiatives and the open data
concept can, in turn, offer a very interesting platform to disseminate information of public
revenues and expenditures, and on all other aspects of public finance. The main aspect is
the possibility to provide a detailed account by publishing raw data in addition to
aggregates.
In fact many recent EU initiatives, such as the “European Transparency Initiative (ETI)”
launched by the European Commission in 2005, aim at raising awareness of the use
made of EU money to explain better what Europe does and why it matters.A
consultation, opened on 3 May and closed on 31 August 2006, was promoted by the
European Commission was based on a series of questions related to EU funds beneficiaries
(http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/kallas/transparency_en.htm). The main result of
this process was the adoption of the revised Financial Regulation (December 13, 2006) in
which the EU committed itself to full transparency about who receives monies from
the EU budget.
Examples of the publication of data on Beneficiaries of EU Funds
The disclosure of data about the recipients of various EU funds managed by the European Commission in
partnership with Member States, notably the Structural Funds and Common Agricultural Policy, for which
specific transparency requirements hold.
The web pages provide a catalogue of where to find the information for all Member countries. The
information is very detailed, but is not necessarily published as open data.
Web page on Beneficiaries of Grants
http://ec.europa.eu/grants/beneficiaries_en.htm
Web page on Beneficiaries of Public Contracts
http://ec.europa.eu/public_contracts/beneficiaries_en.htm
Web page on Beneficiaries of Common Agricultural Policy payments
http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/funding/index2_en.htm
From a normative point of view, much of the debate on open data today in the EU
revolves around the ongoing revision process of Directive 2003/98 for the re-use Public
Sector Information http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/psi/index_en.htm (see
Box 7).
18
Box 7: EU Directive 2003/98 for the re-use Public Sector Information
The main objective of the Directive is to establish “a minimum set of rules governing the reuse and the practical means of facilitating re-use of existing documents held by public sector
bodies of the Member States”:
•
•
•
•
-re-use of documents for commercial or non-commercial purposes where the re-use of
documents held by public sector bodies is allowed
-requirements for documents to be made available through electronic means
-transparency on conditions and charge is granted (and must be non-discriminatory for
similar categories of re-use)
-prohibition of exclusive arrangements to grant exclusive rights on documents.
The directive covers written texts but also e.g. databases, maps, audio files and films.
A revision of the Directive is in course and expected by end of 2012. Issues under
discussion:
•
General rule that all documents held by public sector bodies will be reusable for both commercial and non-commercial purposes, unless
covered by the exceptions provided for in the Directive
•
including new bodies in the scope of application of the Directive such as libraries
(including university libraries), museums and archives;
•
limiting the fees that can be charged by the public authorities at the marginal
costs as a rule;
•
introducing independent oversight over re-use rules in the Member States;
•
making machine-readable formats for information held by public authorities
the norm.
As part of the Digital Agenda for Europe1, in addition to adapting the legal framework for data
re-usethe EC Commission is also:
•
Mobilizing financial resources in favor of open data and support the development of
European data portals
•
Facilitate coordination and experience sharing between European countries, in particular
through:
•
the PSI group, a Member States’ expert group exchanging good practices
•
the PSI platform a web portal which provides news on good practices, new
products and services, and legal cases concerning PSI re-use,
•
the LAPSI network, the European network for policy discussions and strategic
action on legal issues related to the access and the re-use of PSI
•
the ISA (Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations) for
semantic interoperability to address the need of efficient public services in
EU by facilitating electronic collaboration between public administrations.
19
Some benefits of open data inside and outside the public administration
Broadly speaking, there are numerous benefits of open data the public administration as
well as for users. Experience up to now suggests the following:
Accountability: the expectation is that modern, democratic government shares
information with the society it governs to demonstrate freedom from corruption and
appropriate use of public funds.
Efficiency improvements within the administration: public reporting of costs and
comparative outcomes can be a driver of efficiency. Internal collection and monitoring of
management information is critical for driving efficiency improvements, and for making
informed strategic decisions.
Service performance: at present, where data is not open outside government, it may
often not be available inside government as well. Public sector bodies are not easily able
to benchmark their costs and the quality of their services against their peers and may
have falsely high – or low – understanding of their performance. In some cases, peerbased competition is sharpened by public scrutiny.
Data Quality: knowing that the data are released to the public improves their quality,
and because the data owners pay more attention to the processes of data management
and end users can find any errors.
Data exchange: Open Data released by Public Bodies can be directly used by other
Public Administrations, replacing costly dedicated processes; Linked Open Data can be
used to share content definition, following the Semantic Web metaphor.
Innovation in public services: Open Data presents opportunities for public service
transformation by giving users more power to self-serve.
New markets: A new market for public service information can develop if data is freely
available in a standardized format for use and re-use, particularly in the life sciences;
population data mining and risk profiling; consumer technologies; and media sectors.
“Open” public finance data
Il must be kept in mind that the release of “raw” data is very significant in itself and it
provides an opportunity for many interested parties to understand public finances and
answer specific and significant questions on revenue and expenditures. However, it does
not by itself make the government's finances necessarily more “scrutable” and
understandable.
Indeed, raw accounting data usually contains “messy” information, many alphanumerical
and often requires detailed knowledge of variable definitions and encoding schemes.
Moreover, data files are often too large to load into widely available analysis tools (such as
Microsoft Excel, which is a common tool-of-choice for many “simple” data investigators).
This means that “open data” on public finance cannot substitute aggregate views and
(more or less flexible) summary tables presenting the main features.
20
The following are examples of some already existing good practices on the disclosure of
detailed data on public accounts or specific areas of public spending at Government level.
Examples of Government initiatives:
US Recovery Act allows tracking single recipients and projects of the Recovery Funds.
http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/default.aspx
UK COINS - the Combined On-line Information System used by the UK Treasury to collect
financial data from across the public sector to support fiscal management, the production of
Parliamentary supply estimates and public expenditure statistics. Up to eleven years of data
can be actively maintained in the system - five historic (or outturn) years, the current year and
up to five future (or plan) years.
http://hm-treasury.gov.uk/psr_coins_faqs.htm,
http://hm-treasury.gov.uk/psr_coins_data.htm,
http://issuu.com/hmtreasury/docs/coins_coding_presentation_july_10
UK Public spending & reporting transparency monthly-updated list of all financial transactions
spending over £25,000 from single Departments
http://hm-treasury.gov.uk/psr_transparency_index.htm
Italy’s end-of-year financial statement at budget item level (year by year)
Example: http://dwrgsweb-lb.rgs.mef.gov.it/DWRGSXL/cons.do
(Budget Law and Mid-Year variations available in the same format at budget item level from
http://www.rgs.mef.gov.it/VERSIONE-I/Bilancio-d/Bilancio-i/ )
21
EXAMPLE:
THE US RECOVERY.GOV
To achieve its transparency goal, the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” of 2009 requires recipients of “recovery” funds to report every
January, April, July, and October on how they are using the money.
All the data is made available on the Recovery.gov website so the public can track the Recovery funds. The Recovery Act provides $787 billion,
increased to $840 billion in 2012, for tax cuts and benefits for millions of working families and businesses; entitlement programs (such as
unemployment benefits); federal contracts, grants and loans. The vast majority of the recipients fall into one of four categories: State/local
governments, Universities and other research institutions, Non-profit organizations, Private companies.
The website provides several examples on how to make the information easily accessible and interesting for the public. In particular, the
recipient of funds can be tracked on a Map and information can be searched in many ways:
•
•
•
projects can be found at specific locations (through the names of a State, congressional district, or postal code) or by topic (e.g.,
"university," "energy," "transportation").
recipients name or by topic
projects can be found by status: not yet started, in progress, or completed
Screenshots from the website are shown in the following pages.
See: http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/default.aspx
22
23
24
25
The following are examples of some already existing good practices of gathering and reusing data on public expenditure at civil society level.
Examples of Civil society initiatives:
UK Where does my money go
http://wheredoesmymoneygo.org/
UK
Guardian
Department
expenditure
over
25
thousand
pounds
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/interactive/2010/nov/19/government-data-interactive-guide
EU Farm Subsidies. Its aim is to obtain detailed data on who gets what from the Common
Agricultural Policy (CAP
http://farmsubsidy.org/
EU Fish Subsidies Subsidies paid to owners of fishing vessels and others working in the fishing
industry under the European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy
http://www.fishsubsidy.org/
UK Local Council Spending
http://openlylocal.com/councils/spending
Italy Chamber of Deputies expenditures
LinkedOpenCamera
26
EXAMPLE: FISHSUBSIDY.ORG BY EU TRANSPARENCY
See: http://www.fishsubsidy.org/
27
3. Technological solutions
The efforts to produce a more friendly approach to data dissemination and to increase
citizens participation is helped by technical solutions that are described in this chapter.
Initially, in the box below a short description of current IT system situation in GDPA, and
consequently it introduces a data dissemination system proposal with several paragraph
on technical tools today available on the market.
Box 8: The current system in the Turkish Ministry of Finance
Technologies in GDPA Department can be considered a point of strength in Ministry of
Finance’s organization. Say 2000i is the result of GDPA’s competence in the domain of
accounting ready to develop software applications at service of various functionalities of GDPA
offices.
Say 2000i is the name of a centralized system based on Oracle technology platform and web
base applications that connects 4839 accounting units at the Local government level required
according to Law n. 5018 to provide data on their revenue and expenses. The users distributed
on Turkish territory are able to connect to the system, using a dedicated portal on off site for
uploading the financial figures monthly. That users own a password to get access to KBS, a
dedicated system inclusive in Say 2000i, dedicated to the accounting and financial review
operations. Some of LGs process data on own local accounting system are monthly.
In this context, data dissemination procedures have the main data sources in
Say2000i data stores, which represents the main data provider. Data collection from
territory (Local Government’s accounting notes) and applications management are centralized
in a data centre where the software applications running on Say 2000i base platform are
managed by 12 application servers with Linux operative system and separate storage area for
internal and external reporting purposes, based on Oracle.
Table 1: Data collection for Central and Local Government
System used
Data input
CG
LG
Say 2000i
KBS Portal1
Accounting Data are inserted Accounting Data, inserted in a xls
directly in Say2000i System which file, are uploaded after automatic
performs
automatically
all control processes
activated controls
28
3.1 System architecture for data dissemination at GDPA
Currently, internal end users can ask for specific queries to be developed, but at present
they cannot directly retrieve data. There are no tools to make direct queries, except for
the Oracle tools used by IT staff. Therefore the creation of a proper datawarehouse,
separated from the operational database, with query functions available to
both internal and external end users would be the best ITC solution.
The data dissemination proceedings need to improve the current IT System through its
own greater specialization by implementing a distinct date base upload by Say2000i data
store where is possible to adopt statistical procedures as data cleaning, filtering, missing
value, and transformation in time series format. The adoption of a system ad-hoc realize a
easier optimization of methodological process for statistical data publication tools.
Fig. 1. Data upload from centralized storage
The technological solutions proposed would be through the following:
make independent OLTP System and OLAP System, with obvious
advantages as speed up computing time, segregation of hardware and
software resources, distinction of transaction and computing, etc.;
have dedicated hardware and software resources for Statistical Control
task;
29
Among the major findings found out with the staff members of IT department, is the rapid
development towards an OLAP, online analytical processing structure and the upgrade of
hardware technologies to Oracle database machine.
The proposal guidelines for creating a Dissemination System are based on dedicated
platform with a operational data base alimented by the accounting system storage, a
staging area where data are computed and refined by statistical tools transforming
financial figures (data registration status) to Statistical data ready for publishing
(validation status). Currently, external end users may only access the financial statistical
reports while the following proposal includes a proper data warehouse, separated from the
operational database, with query functions available to both internal and external end
users.
The objective is to provide a external utilization of statistical data to citizens by creating a
dedicated web site where it is possible to log on with direct access to the data warehouse
performing queries and data extraction.
Fig. 2. – Data dissemination System
A dedicated IT platform with an operational database for computing statistical controls,
and eventually to run software applications or statistical tools, will be achieved through
the following major design steps:
1. Creation of ad-hoc operational DB, designed in line with the functional requirements
indicated by accounting system specifications and function points;
2. Migration of financial data available from accounting system;
30
3. Determination of computing staging area (from accounting data registration to
statistical validation)
4. Integration of financial data, with other information assuring an interoperability of
data sources;
5. Migration from Operation DB to data warehousing for Web data publication;
6. Determination of row data level of data accessibility for users profile;
7. Logging of users access for control purposes;
The proposal system architecture can be represented in the following information model
where the operational data will be migrated in a dedicated system for data dissemination
where data are normalized, cleansed and integrated on a operational db passing through
several staging areas of “statistical data production”. In the final stage, the statistical data
will me migrated in a DW where data are accessible to external end users (citizen and
professional users) via web portal. On other side, internal end users need to provide the
already scheduled publications and in addition a data aggregation by accounting rules,
dividing data production in classes for scope of data quality control and verification of
consolidated budget.
Fig. 3 - Logical architecture and information model
31
The data dissemination system as designed in the information model above represents a
IT solution characterized by some points of strength:
•
•
•
•
•
•
drive down the cost of developing new specific queries, on demand, reducing
budgetary expense;
to raise the level of application services;
to enhance the overall control on data dissemination activities;
speed of data access;
improve accuracy of data;
data integration.
About IT Audit and services maintenance procedures, it is necessary to highlight that ITC
department at GDPA has approached the formalization of procedures in line with Control
Objective Standards (COBIT), a standard de facto in IT audit. Consequently, future
applications running in the area of data dissemination and publications, need to follow the
procedures established by this standard in order to define a new group of functions for the
specific area “Statistical reporting of financial figures”.
The creation of specialized web portal dedicated to data diffusion should include tools for
improving citizens’ understanding of statistical information including data visualization
tools and Geographical Information Systems (GIS).
3.2 Geographical Information System (GIS)
Data representation on geographical maps is considered the best solution for better
explaining to people the activities made from Central and Local Government in the
territory.
Geographic information system is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate,
analyze, manage, and present all types of geographical data. The acronym GIS is
sometimes used for geographical information science and represents the merging of
cartography, statistical analysis, and database technology.
A GIS can be thought of as a system—it digitally creates and "manipulates" spatial areas
that may be jurisdictional, purpose, or application-oriented. A GIS developed for an
application, jurisdiction, or purpose may not be necessarily interoperable or compatible
with other systems and it is based on a spatial data infrastructure (SDI), a concept that
has no such restrictive boundaries.
In a general sense, the term describes any information system that integrates, stores,
edits, analyzes, shares, and displays geographic information for informing the users. It
needs of data repository central to computerized maintenance management system
(CMMS) as a part of dissemination system asset and analytical software systems. GIS
applications are tools that allow users to create interactive queries (user-created
searches), analyze spatial information, edit data in maps, and present the results of all
these operations.
32
Nevertheless the financial figures and budget execution data belonging to GDPA’s data
store need of classification for typology of expenditure (infrastructure, education, healthy,
cohesion, agriculture, etc) and these groups of financial expenditure may be applied with
statistical information from territory as density of population, medium age of population,
university and education centers, medium salary,…., and main territory resources
improving the users understanding to economical life of Turkish Republic.
GIS technologies assure a prompt data visualization of financial data to users in the own
territory providing an interactive tool to compare Public Government activities closer to the
population interest.
This power tool of data visualization fits perfectly for population curiosity while is less
useful for budget execution inherent some class of expenditure not linked to the territory.
3.3 Statistical tools for data management
Many software tools can be used for managing the data from a statistical point of view.
Here we suggest just few examples of tools widely used. These tools could be introduced
to support operation in different steps of the process: from data cleaning, to “big data”
management, to complex statistical elaborations.
Today many of these tools are open source. Here are some examples.
Google Refine (see: http://code.google.com/p/google-refine/) is a power tool for
working with messy data, cleaning it up, transforming it from one format into another,
extending it with web services.
Google Refine is a standalone desktop application for data cleanup and transformation to
other formats. Its interface is similar to spreadsheet applications (and can work with
spreadsheet file formats), however acts more like database.
It operates on rows of data which have cells under columns, which is very similar to
relational database tables. One Refine project is one table. User can filter rows to display
defining filtering criteria (for example, showing rows where given column is not empty).
Unlike spreadsheets, most operations in Refine are done on all visible rows:
transformation of all cells in all rows under one column, creation of new column based on
existing column data, etc. All actions that were done on dataset are stored in project and
can be replayed on another dataset.
Unlike spreadsheets, no formulas are stored in cells, but formulas are used to transform
data, and transformation is done only once.
Program has web user interface, however it is not hosted by software developer, but
available for download and use on local machine. When starting Refine, it starts web
server and starts browser to open web UI powered by this webserver.
Another tool from Google is Google BigQuery https://developers.google.com/bigquery/) , a
web service that lets you do interactive analysis of massive datasets—up to billions of
rows. Scalable and easy to use, BigQuery lets developers and businesses tap into powerful
data analytics on demand.
33
Google BigQuery Service allows you to run SQL-like queries against very large datasets,
with potentially billions of rows. This can be your own data, or data that someone else has
shared for you. BigQuery works best for interactive analysis of very large datasets,
typically using a small number of very large, append-only tables.
While Google Refine is a free product you can download, Google BigQuery is a service
with a pay-per-use policy based on query processing and storage used.
The need for complex statistical operations on data requires the use of a statistical tool.
“R” (http://www.r-project.org/) has been receiving a lot of attention recently, although it’s
been around for over 15 years. R is an open-source language for statistical computing and
data visualization, supporting data manipulation and transformations, as well as
sophisticated graphical displays. Corporate data analysts and statisticians often know R
and use it in their daily work, either writing their own R functionality, or leveraging the
more than 3400 open source packages. The Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN
http://cran.r-project.org/) supports a wide range of statistical and data analysis
capabilities.
R is a statistics language similar to SAS or SPSS. It’s a powerful, extensible environment,
and as noted above, it has a wide range of statistics and data visualization capabilities. It’s
easy to install and use, and it’s free. To expand R features, recently Oracle corporation
released “Oracle R Enterprise” (https://blogs.oracle.com/R/tags/oracle_r_enterprise) that
lifts memory and computational constraint found in R today by executing requested R
calculations on data in the database. Oracle R Enterprise allows users to further leverage
Oracle's engineered systems, like Exadata, already used in Turkish MoF, for enterprisewide analytics.
3.4 Data Warehouse
Data Warehouse technology is one of the techniques usually included in “Business
Intelligence” techniques. It provides to users data coming from a cleaned, transformed
Data Base designed for data analysis. Using Data Warehouses (DW) users can select data,
combine them and generate “new” outputs” like tabulations and graphs. DW software is
essential to enable users to analyze data in custom mode, then download the final results
in the desired format.
Many examples of DW are available, some DW tools are developed as an extension of
traditional DBMSs, others are products specifically designed for Business Intelligence. Both
proprietary and open-source products software are available. DW could improve the ability
for Turkish users to analyze data and create new relationships.
Here a short list of Business Intelligence opensource tools: Pentaho
(http://www.pentaho.com/),
Jasper
(http://www.jaspersoft.com/)
and
Palo
(http://www.palo.net/). Some of them are supported by Turkish companies such as GNA
(http://en.gna.com.tr/).
Here our suggestion to introduce Data Warehouse tool:
– start analyzing Data Warehouse tools market
– compare tools characteristics with GDPA requirements
34
– test the best two tools, possibly one proprietary and one open-source
– choose the tool that best meets the requirements of Ministry and external users
– start releasing a selection of data on a simple DW in which users can process,
manipulate, download data.
3.5 Data Visualization
More and more statistical organizations are using new methods to present statistical data,
starting from Maps and Advanced Graphic Method (Hans Rosling is considered the father
of New Visualization age - http://www.gapminder.org/) and including charts, Mindmaps,
and display of news, data, connections, websites, articles and resources.
One of the often used tools are “dashboard” a data visualization tool that displays the
current status of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) for an enterprise.
Dashboards consolidate and arrange numbers, metrics and sometimes performance
scorecards on a single screen. Dashboards can often be obtained using Data Warehouse
tools quoted in previous paragraph.
A simple way to start presenting data using advanced visualization techniques is Google
Public Data Explorer (http://www.google.com/publicdata/home) , a tool by which every
organization can show his data on the Web so that users can find, explore, and share it.
We suggest two steps for using GPDE:
1. first Ministry of Finance can start testing the tool uploading datasets for
visualization and exploration by privileged users;
2. in a second phase MoF can agree with Google for a formal insertion of his data in
the Dataset Directory http://www.google.com/publicdata/directory.
Many organizations have chosen this way of publishing (often as additional way to their
website), between them WorldBank, IMF, OECD, Eurostat etc.
VIDI is another suite that can be used to display data in new ways. VIDI is a set of Drupal
(an open CMS) modules designed to enable the creation of visual data displays. Using
VIDI tools you can display changes in data values over time, relate data in various ways to
geographical maps, or display static datasets through different types of charts.
Two ways to use it:
1. use VIDI on the website http://www.dataviz.org loading your data, choosing
between available visualizations and storing there your visualization;
2. download VIDI modules and install them in your Drupal website, then import your
datasets and prepare data displays.
Another website offering advanced methods of visualization for statistical data is IBM
ManyEyes (http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/); the service is
offered by IBM and the site is really easy to use:
35
• Upload a data set
• Choose a visualization type: besides the usual bubble charts, scatter plots, bar
charts, you find also word-clouds (tag-clouds), treemaps, network diagrams
• Discover
• Share with others
Any kind of data set you upload is visible for the community: a nice way to share
discoveries, find cool stuff and start meaningful discussions.
Talking about new visualizations, we must quote the “Infographics”, graphic visual
representations of information, data or knowledge. Good examples of Infographics can be
found at http://www.coolinfographics.com/ and http://www.good.is/infographics .
Other
websites
dedicated
to
visualization
tools
and
methods:
http://datavisualization.ch/tools/, http://visual.ly/. Many visualization techniques are also
available in modules of tools presented above in 3.2 and 3.3 paragraphs.
36
Examples of Advanced Visualizations mentioned in the text
First of all an example of Dashboard, in which many different graphics are collected to give the
user an overview, a glance of the situation.
Then we introduce a page from the World Bank website, one of the best-practice for data
presentation: in this page you can see a sort of Statistical Dashboard
37
examples 9 (continued)
Here a chart obtained from Google Public Data Explorer, a free service in which many national
and international organizations store their data so that users can process them also in graphical
ways
Finally an example from Gapminder, a graph with moving bubble-chart to show the trends over
the past two centuries of economic and health indicators
38
3.6 Open Data tools
Open data are data freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without
restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control. Open data are often
available in open formats as “raw data”, meaning that researcher and stakeholders can
make their own processing and analysis on them. More and more Open Data are now
released as Linked Open Data (http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html).
A first software platform available to manage Open Data is CKAN (Comprehensive
Knowledge Archive Network - http://ckan.org/). Developed by OKFN (Open Knowledge
Foundation Network), a community promoting open knowledge and access because these
principles have the potential to deliver far-reaching societal benefits. ‘Open knowledge’
according to OKFN is any content, information or data that people are free to use, re-use
and redistribute — without any legal, technological or social restriction.
It's an open source package that make data accessible – by providing tools to streamline
publishing, sharing, finding and using data. CKAN is aimed at data publishers (national
and regional governments, companies and organizations) wanting to make their data open
and available
Used by many central (dk, no, uk) and local governments, its main features are:
•
Publish & Find Datasets (import, keywords, versioning)
•
Store & Manage Data (Raw data, metadata, statistics, geo-)
•
Engage with users & Others (Community Mgmt)
•
Customize & Extend (APIs, extensions, opensource)
The World Bank website is an high-level web site that implements many of listed
suggestions and could be used as “best practices” example: http://www.worldbank.org/.
In their website http://data.worldbank.org/ you can find data by country or by topic or by
more than 1.000 indicators . All indicators available in table, map, graph and downloadable in xls and xml format. On the World Bank website there are also modules to
directly access WB data from Stata and “R” statistical tools.
39
Box 9: DRUPAL
The increasing size of data managed by websites and mew ways of data dissemination can be
well managed only using a Content Management System (CMS). CMSs support the creation,
management, distribution, publishing, and discovery of corporate information, covering the
complete life-cycle of the site pages, providing simple tools to create the contents, to publish
and finally to archive them.
The main advantages of using CMS is the separation between content management and
technical management of the site and the availability of numerous tools to improve the
presentation of the site and simplify the management.
Many CMS are available for free and open source; between them Drupal(1) gives many
functions that simplify the data management and visualization (modules Data, Data Cube and
Linked Data and others1) and therefore it's used in big projects of data dissemination like
DataGov, DataGov.uk and World Bank (1).
A list of Turkish government (central and local) websites managed by Drupal can be found at
http://groups.drupal.org/node/19885#Turkey .
Drupal with version 7 introduces the use of RDFa. RDFa (or Resource Description Framework –
in – attributes) is a W3C Recommendation1 that adds a set of extensions to XHTML for
embedding rich metadata within Web documents, by enriching the existing human-readable
data with RDF attributes. RDFa then enables us to bridge the gap between what humans see
when viewing a document and what machines "see" when they process the same document.
RDFa data can be queried using SPARQL language, another W3C standard. The presence of
these standard technologies used in Semantic Web is another reason why Drupal is widely used
for OpenData websites.
Starting from 2011 there is an effort shared between United States and India: “Data.gov-in-aBox”, an open source version of the United States’ Data.gov data portal (based on Drupal) and
India’s India.gov.in document portal. The U.S. and India are working together to produce an
open source version available for implementation by countries globally, encouraging
governments around the world to stand up open data sites that promote transparency, improve
citizen engagement, and engage application developers in continuously improving these efforts.
The new project is called Open Government Platform1 (OGPL). The first module released is the
Data Management System, which provides the tools and capabilities for publishing data in the
Open Government Platform, an open source product designed to facilitate governments around
the world to stand up their own open government data sites.
3.7 Interoperability to data
The formalization of data format is a crucial point to assure data exchange and
interoperability between Institutions and Ministries also in view of e-government projects
which require a more general approach to data analysis and decision making support.
Best practices in Europe are represented by SDMX format, which assures data exchange
among others between European Central Bank and National Central Banks and IMF.
40
The advantage of having standard data formats that share a common Information model
(SDMX) is that all of these types of exchange can take place side-by-side, and the
applications may process metadata assuring interoperability.
The interoperability to data is assured in the following operative steps:
a. Business alignment in SDMX framework
i. From tables to SDMX format ready to be transmitted via gateway
b. System architecture
i. Technology independent specification of an SDMX information model
c. Data modelling
i. Automated mapping of information model
A. Business alignment in SDMX framework. An example of transformation from a table of
monetary and banking statistics to metadata SDMX format (to perform data exchange to
IMF) is the following:
41
B. System architecture.
entities is the following:
An example of architecture for data exchange between two
C. Data modelling
The content of a generic interchange message for statistical metadata could be
represented in the following items:
•
Interchange administration segments
•
Message administration segments
•
Code lists
•
Statistical concepts
•
Key families
•
Data set administration segments
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•
Array structure
•
Data segment(s)
•
Attributes
•
End of message administration
•
End of interchange administration
The information model representation in UML (Unified Modelling Language)
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4. Public understanding and involvement
4.1 Public consultations
The easiest way to prepare for data dissemination to the public – being the specific
purpose the setup of a Citizens’ Budget or the release of detailed / raw data on public
finance operations - would be in foreseeing a fully public involvement since its planning.
That would imply, from the government side, the organization of consultation with
civil society groups and periodical public polls during which citizens are asked to
express their wishes about what data they are interested in.
In this context, civil society organizations play an important role as facilitators of a broad
policy dialogue. For this reason, it is important to involve these organizations in the
consultation processes. Being the budget an issue, which affects many sectors of the
society, it should be particularly encouraged a coherent approach to representation of civil
society organizations at all level.
A consultation relationship between the Government and interested parties should be
underpinned by certain fundamental principles. These principles define the environment
within which they will both operate. They also constitute the basis for any future
developments in the area of consultation policy. The principles should include the
following principles:
Participation: to ensure wide participation throughout the policy chain from
conception to implementation
Openness and accountability: The policy-making process must be visible to the
outside world if it must be understood and have credibility. Thus consultation
processes have to be transparent, both to those who are directly involved and to
the general public. It must be clear:
what issues are being developed
what mechanisms are being used to consult
who is being consulted and why
what has influenced decisions in the formulation of policy.
It follows that interested parties must themselves operate in an environment that is
transparent, so that the public is aware of the parties involved in the consultation
processes and how they conduct themselves. Openness and accountability are thus
important principles for the conduct of organizations when they are seeking to contribute
to the budget policy development. It must be apparent:
which interests they represent
how inclusive that representation is.
All communications relating to consultation should be clear and concise, and should
include all necessary information to facilitate responses. The information in publicity and
consultation documents should include:
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A summary of the context, scope and objectives of consultation, including a
description of the specific issues open for discussion or questions with particular
importance for the Government
Details of any hearings, meetings or conferences, where relevant
Contact details and deadlines
Explanation of the Government's processes for dealing with contributions, what
feed-back to expect, and details of the next stages involved in the development of
the policy
If not enclosed, reference to related documentation
The exact time limit for the consultation
Finally, the receipt of contributions should be acknowledged. Results of open public
consultation should be displayed on websites linked to the single access point on the
Internet. Depending on the number of comments received and the resources available,
acknowledgement can take the form of:
an individual response (by e-mail or acknowledgement slip), or
a collective response (by e-mail or on the Government's single access point
for consultation on the Internet).
Results of other forms of consultation should, as far as possible, also be subject to public
scrutiny on the single access point on the Internet. The Government should then provide
adequate feedback to responding parties and to the public at large. To this end,
explanatory memoranda accompanying the decisions taken following the consultation
process should include the results of these consultations and an explanation as to how
these were conducted and how the results were taken into account.
4.1 Promoting data use and re-use through websites and competitions
An important step for citizen involvement is to encourage them to make use of the data.
This is particularly true when it comes to “open data”. A first step is setting up a
dedicated website (see Box 10).
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Box 10: Suggestions for a dedicated website
The Website should include two main sections: a public page to be accessed by
everyone, and an Intranet devoted to specific target groups like the media and other
key stakeholders which can be involved by the administration’s staff.
The typical focus of the web site may include
A description of the data contents and structure of the data files (“metadata”)
The data files (preferably in a comma-separated, tab-separated values or
xml formats)
Some key documentation, for further information
Link to aggregate or summary tables and figures
News and Events related to the budget data presentation
A devoted newsletter and automatic emailing list
A section devoted to Media relations
FAQs and Ask-the-Expert
Links
Contacts
Forums to allow the interaction with the citizens
The Documentation section should contain all the official documentation related to the
budget a kind of specifics related to the budget explanation.
The News and Events section should contain information on any major news related to
the budget presentation to the public (conferences, press conferences, workshops).
The Media section should be devoted to the interaction with journalists. It could be
organised as an Intranet provided with some public information. The Intranet should
contain press releases and information on initiatives exclusively addressed to
journalists. The public section should provide useful links and a glossary of the most
commonly used terms that could be of interest also to other Target Groups.
The Newsletter section should make newsletters available if foreseen as a
communication tool for the data being disseminated and be arranged by publication
date, starting from the most recent. It can be available on the website and automatically
send to a emailing list.
FAQs and Ask-the-Expert section (FAQs) should provide the most common questions
and related answers. If the user does not find answers to his/her question in the FAQ
list, he/she can access the “Ask-the-Expert” section, where to ask questions through
on-line forms. The “Ask-the-Expert” section should be organized as a feedback section,
in which general public can pose questions, make comments, and receive answers.
The Links section should contain a list of useful links to other relevant websites, both at
national, European and international level.
The Contact section should provide the names and respective roles of the staffs in
charge..
The Website could also be provided with discussion forums in order to collect general
public opinions and feelings toward the issue.
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Another very popular way to promote data use is to set up competitions and prizes
where citizens and programmers can work together on the data and make it more
meaningful.
The typical structure of these competitions is that a number of datasets are released and
programmers then have a short time-frame - running from a couple of days to to a few
weeks - to develop applications using the data. A prize is then awarded to the best
application. Competitions have been held in a number of countries including the UK, the
US, Norway, Australia, Spain, Denmark, Finland and Italy.
Examples of open data competitions
Apps for Democracy, one of the first competitions in the United States, launched in October
2008 by Vivek Kundra, at the time Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the District of Columbia
Government
http://www.appsfordemocracy.org/
Abre Datos (Open Data) Challenge, first held in Spain in April 2010, where developers where
invited to to create open source applications making use of public data in just 48 hours.
http://www.abredatos.es/
Nettskap 2.0 launched In April 2010 by the Norwegian Ministry for Government Administration
where Norwegian developers – companies, public agencies or individuals – were challenged to
come up with web-based project ideas in the areas of service development, efficient work
processes, and increased democratic participation
http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad/kampanjer/nettskap.html?id=635971
Apps4Itlay, a competition open to all EU citizens, associations, developer communities and
firms willing to develop innovative applications based on the re-use of Public Sector Information
(Open Data) launched in 2011.
http://www.appsforitaly.org/
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These Guidelines were drafted as part of Activity 1.7 of the EU Twining project “Improving
Data Quality in Public Accounts”.
Resident Twinning Advisor: Mauro Barbini
Component responsible: Yusuf Akkoyun
The document was prepared by:
Aline Pennisi (Ministry of economy and finance - Italy; e-mail: [email protected])
Giuseppe Florio (Ministry of economy and finance -Italy; e-mail: [email protected])
Claudia Salvi (FormezPA - Italy; e-mail: [email protected])
Carlo Vaccari (FormezPA / Istat - Italy; email: [email protected])
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