Fiscal Transparency Portals Workshop

FISCAL TRANSPARENCY PORTALS WORKSHOP

DIALOGUE FOR A FRIENDLY & MEANINGFUL OUTCOME

Jakarta, Indonesia, September 13-14. 2016

Summary notes

The two-day workshop on “Fiscal Transparency Portals, looking at the models of Brazil and Mexico’, took place in Jakarta on September 13-14, engaging participants from 10 countries: Benin, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Mexico, Paraguay, Philippines, South Africa, Uruguay & Vietnam. It was organized by SeknasFitra, the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia andGIFT, with the support of the Ford Foundation-Indonesia and the OGP Support Unit.

It was aimed at government representatives from four countries (Indonesia, Paraguay, Uruguay and Vietnam) who work on issues related to the implementation of fiscal transparency policies and the use of information technologies and open data for budget information disclosure, along with civil society experts in these matters from six countries (Benin, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, and Vietnam). The main objectives of the workshop were to provide a platform for peer to peer sharing and learning; familiarize staff of the ministries of finance with the implementation strategy, contents and operation of successful Fiscal Transparency Portals, looking at the experience from Brazil and Mexico, and contributing to the improvement of fiscal transparency contents and tools at the international level.

The workshop in Jakarta was successful in reaching these goals. A key factor was to have very high level and engaged representatives from the Mexico and Brazil ministries in charge of the transparency portals in their countries. This allowed for a better understanding of good practices of fiscal transparency and innovative tools at the international level. A high point of the exchange was the soft launch of the Indonesian Fiscal Transparency Portal, with the presence of Prof. Mardiasmo, Vice Minister of Finance, PurwiyantePranotoSuwiryo, Assistant Minister for State Expenditure, Kunta W.D. Nugraha, Director of Budget Formulation, and all of the staff in charge of budget and fiscal policies at the ministry. This launch was the beginning of a countdown for the Ministry to present publicly the portal before the end of year.

Another important component of the workshop was the work around the Open Fiscal Data Package, with the participation of Open Knowledge International (OKI) that shared the easy steps to use the open spending tool that the Mexico’s Ministry of Finance has adopted to disclose the 2017 federal budget, which was officially launched in early September in Mexico. OKI and the Mexico team showed how they used the tool and shared tech information of their website’s backend, to help countries generate extra budget visualizations on their fiscal transparency portals. By the end of the workshop,five countries committed to explore ways to use the tool for budget information disclosure in open sources after discovering the ease of piloting the Open Fiscal Data Package.Finally, the workshop included a presentation by Open North on their Citizen’s Budget Simulator, a tool used by over 50 cities that helps to build better community relations, educate residents and solicit their feedback on budget issues.

Throughout the two days and a half of workshop, all participants engaged in break out groups discussions about fiscal transparency improvements through intensive use of information technologies. The Indonesian Ministry of Finance, at the highest level (Vice Ministry of Finance) was an engaged, generous and efficient host of the meeting.

Summary of the meeting

The workshop was framed under the OGP Fiscal Openness Working Group. On behalf of OGP, Richard “Bon” Moya, former Under-Secretary of the Department of Budget and Management of the Philippines, reflected on the new dynamics of public participation in the era of information technologies: when 31% of world’s populations are social media users, the potential of people’s involvement is high.

Brazil and Mexico presented the operation and innovations of their transparency portals. Eduardo Soaresdescribed the main contents of the Brazilian site (including a dedicated space with the costs of the Olympic games and the World Cup) and explained the updating system by means of data-ware house fed by different systems, which is reviewed by a team prior to publishing. Lorena Riveropresented the case of Mexico and focused on the new features of theirfiscal transparency portal, where changes derive largely from the constant interaction with the users as well as the analysis of citizens demands. The goal is to make the information more responsive to people’s needs, and more accessible and understandable.These examples illustrated how fiscal transparency portals are internet based responses to transparency regulations and citizen’s needs, but they also showed that there are important differences in objectives and operation.

For instance, Brazilfocuses mainly on information to combat and/or prevent corruption, while the Mexican case is more related to efficient use of resources and impact evaluation of the budget. While the Brazilian site involves a data-warehouse solution for updates, the Mexican site relies on information views, web-services, APIs or similar solutions.The Brazilian site has daily updates of certain information in accordance with legal requirements, while the Mexican experience shows a dynamic communication with users, with intense use of social media.

During the breakout group discussions, participants shared how countries have determined a national citizen representation through CSOs selection or via public sectorial consultations. Experience has shown that it is challenging for governments to be able to communicate to users the broad range of information that they have, and for users to express what information is needed and used. An adequate consultation process should be able to address this issue.

Lorena Rivero (MexicoMoF) suggested that UX design was needed, not only to communicate the budget information, but also “even the consultation needs to be UX, otherwise it will not drop results”. She also mentioned that if MoFare looking for more complete information in order to generate citizen engagement, they will need to work with other ministries, like Health, Education, etc. that is, those directly engaged in service delivery.

Richard Bon Moya facilitated a “ping-pong” fast Questions and Answers which allowed to share and analyze the basic technology tools and challenges that countries encounter in keeping their portals. Challenges include consolidating the information, security options in connecting the information, specific budget for the portals, and infrastructure challenges, among others. One common observation is that old website systems need to be practically rebuilt if the goal is to present the information in a standardized format.

As the workshop discussion continued, TarickGracida, GIFT’s Technology and Communications Coordinator presented tips, tools and how to develop citizen language to generate budget citizen understanding in his “How to Communicate Budget?” presentation. Then countries representatives explained how they are planning their promotion strategies, including whether they will use social networks, surveys, mass media, etc.

Rafael Palau (Paraguay’s planning and budget office) facilitated the breakout groups discussion on “Measuring usage / success and adjustment”. Country representatives had a chance to learn about the citizen engagement measuring tools they are using to enhance their portals. Paraguay announced the establishment of a collaborative space for IT ministries' developers to share code as part of the GIFT community of practice. This was a follow up from Paraguay and Mexico initiative to communicate and work together on these issues that emerged during the GIFT – workshop in Mexico (April 2016).

Jean-Noé Landry, from Open North, presented the Citizen Budget Simulator, a tool used by over 50 cities that helps to build better community relations, educate residents and solicit their feedback on budget consultation.

Public Participation

The GIFT work and principles on public participation were discussed. R. Bon Moyaand Lorena Riveroshared recent public participation initiatives and experiences in their countries. In the case of the Philippines examples like the “Budget Partnership Agreement”, the “Participatory Audit” in very specific types of programs and the Bottom up Budgeting program were mentioned. In the case of Mexico programs, like the Education Reform and the new initiative “You Evaluate” (“TúEvalúas”) .

Ministries of finance representatives were invited by GIFT to join a high level global commitment on public participation. GIFT is calling on Ministries of Finance to join the public participation commitments in OGP National Actions Plans to take place at the OGP - Paris Global Summit (December 2016).

Fiscal Open Data Package

As part of the collaboration between GIFT, Open Knowledge International (OKI) and the World Bank (BOOST platform), Victoria Vlad and Juan Pablo Guerrero presented the Open Fiscal Data Package (OFDP), as a Fiscal Data Standard to be used in a broader scale, which represents a global tool for publishing budget information in open data formats. Lorena Rivero shared Mexico’s recent experience to disclose budget information using that tool, and becoming the first country to formally adopt the OFDP. The use of the API, its benefits and how it looks like on their fiscal transparency portal were presented to participants.

Soft launch of the Indonesia Fiscal Transparency Portal

A remarkable moment of the workshop was the Official Soft Launching / Presentation of the Fiscal Transparency Portal of the Indonesian Government conducted by Prof. Mardiasmo, Vice Minister of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia. This is an effort to enhance the fiscal transparency and citizen engagement in Indonesia, disclosing additional information online in order to help citizens engage and eventuallyhold its officials accountable for how they spend taxpayer money.

Open data and budget information

On a third day in a Peer-to-Peer learning session, Victoria Vlad (OKI) presented the steps to use the Open Fiscal Data Package. The MX-MoF Team showed how they used it and shared tech information of their website's backend, to help countries generate extra budget visualizations on their fiscal transparency portals. Finally, 5 countries piloted successfully the Open Fiscal Data Package (Paraguay, Uruguay, Indonesia, Vietnam and South Africa).

Annex 1: Workshop Agenda

September 13th , Day 1

• Expected impacts
• Expected uses
• Your own expectations with respect to the fiscal transparency portal

1. Consultation with users of budget information process (LR)

• How was the information to be published defined, through a public consultation? Or are you planning one?
• How to build a relation with civil society and users of information?
• What is the objective of having a portal?
• What are your plans in this respect? Identify opportunities, challenges and solutions.

• Experience accessing and using fiscal information
• Examples of success and failure (cases in which the lack of fiscal information in a portal has compromised a research or advocacy activity)

1. Contents, reach, sources of information (LR)

• What is the information already published? What is the information you plan to publish?
• Have you identified and located the data bases?
• Have you run into problems in consolidating data?
• What are your plans in this respect? Identify opportunities, challenges and solutions.

1. Information Technology for interactive platforms, functionality and programming (YN)

• How is the portal being developed: with a dedicated IT team to build and maintain it or through external providers specifically contracted for this purpose?
• Do you have a specific budget for this?
• What are your plans in this respect? Identify opportunities, challenges and solutions

1. Communication and promotion strategies (LR)

• Are you planning a promotion strategy?
• Are you using mass media, social media, surveys?
• What are your plans in this respect? Identify opportunities, challenges and solutions

1. Measuring usage/ success and adjustments (EP)

• Are you planning to measure the use of the portal?
• What metrics will you be using?
• How will this feed an adjustments phase?
• What are your plans in this respect? Identify opportunities, challenges and solutions

Annex 2: List of Participants

Workshop Participants

1. Mr. Mardiasmo

1. Bon Moya

1. NursodikGunarjo

1. ErvynKaffah

1. LukmanOesman

1. FithyaFindie

1. Diego Gonnet

1. WawanSunarjo

1. Lorena Rivero del Paso

1. HouinsouDieudonne

1. Luong Thi Hong Quyen

1. Victoria Vlad

1. Zukiswa Kota

1. Bernard Myers

1. Noriko Toyoda

1. Enda Ginting

1. YennySucipto

1. Carmela Zigoni

1. Esteban I. Regules

1. Diego de la Mora

1. A. MuhHidayat

1. CarlousTuah

1. RusítaNingrum

1. Wahyudi M. Tohar

1. Jean-Noé Landry

1. Rarael Palau

1. Nguyen Van Minh

1. Ngo Thi Minh Huong

1. Esther Parapak

1. PrasetyaDwicahyaJar

1. Alexander Irwan

1. Joshua T. Jackson

1. DidikKusnaini

1. Nguyen Thu Ha

Participants from the Ministry of Finance of Indonesia (Transparency Portal Launch)