End of Commitment Report – To co-create a budget transparency platform

Name of Evaluator

Magda Eugenia de Jesús Lozano Ocman

Email

mlozano@idaipqroo.org.mx

Member Name

Quintana Roo, México

Action PlanAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... Title

Action plan – Quintana Roo, Mexico, 2021 – 2022

CommitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action...

To co-create a transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More platform on the budget cycle of public policies and programs at the state level, with visibility for budget programs and cross-cutting genderOGP participating governments are bringing gender perspectives to popular policy areas, ensuring diversity in participatory processes, and specifically targeting gender gaps in policies to address gov... and anti-corruption annexes.

Action

To co-create a transparency platform about the budget cycle of public policies and programs with an emphasis on access to information through the cross-cutting annexes of gender and anti-corruption. (Co-created with Civil Society in the development of terms of reference for the contracting of the service).-Requested budget: 1 MDP in the Ninth ordinary session of the Observatory of Commitments and Public Policies on July 16th, 2021.

Problem

There is not enough accessibility to detailed information on budgetary programs, accessibility and budgetary transparency must also involve the citizen approach and not only the institutional one, that is, but it must also be granted in accessible formats for its analysis and in a language that can be understood by citizens, as far as possible. There is insufficient information published within the framework of obligations such as those described in the General Law of Governmental Accounting, such as indicator matrices, expenditure, income, etc., but it is also desirable that ciizens know the validation sheets made by SEFIPLAN and the problems trees and objectives behind each budgetary program, its quarterly progress reports on goals and objectives and budgetary exercise, etc., that is to say, additional elements to the programs and applications that by regulationGovernment reformers are developing regulations that enshrine values of transparency, participation, and accountability in government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or reforming ... must be generated but are not always transparent, or at least are not available in easily accessible spaces.

1.1 What was the overall level of progress in the commitment implementation at the time of this assessment?

Complete

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

Most of the citizens did not know how resources are being used to solve their problems. Therefore, citizens should appropriate this instrument to co-create in the planning and programming of social programs to evaluate budget traceability based on results.

Co-creation roundtables were held to identify institutional and citizen needs for the construction and implementation of a budget transparency platform for the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. A budget transparency was created and made available to provide strategic information on the budget cycle, in open dataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici..., with emphasis on access to information through the crosscutting annexes on gender and anti-corruption. Specific guidelines on the use and maintenance of the budget transparency platform published in the Official State Gazette were also crated.
Link: http://transparenciapresupuestariaqroo.gob.mx/

Provide evidence that supports and justifies your answer:

• Captura de Pantalla 2022-09-08 (1)
• Captura de Pantalla 2022-09-08 (2)
• 4.1-Ficha-Técnica – PLATAFORMA DE TRANSPARENCIA PRESUPUESTARIA

1.2 Describe the main external or internal factors that impacted implementation of this commitment and how they were addressed (or not).

An internal factor was the political will, especially on the part of SEFIPLAN, who assumed the commitment and worked with the support of civil society.

Also, it was investigated if similar platforms existed, at state level there were none, but at federal level there were, which served as a reference to promote this platform.

1.3 Was the commitment implemented as originally planned?

Most of the commitment milestones were implemented as planned

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

With the exception of the guidelines milestone, everything went as planned. For the next action plan, it is recommended that the guidelines be co-created and that the opinions of other stakeholders be incorporated, this was not possible but it is planned that for the next action plan there will be co-creation to strengthen these guidelines.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• 4.1 Ficha Técnica – PLATAFORMA DE TRANSPARENCIA PRESUPUESTARIA
• 3. Dominio Plataforma

2.1.1. – Did the government disclose more information; improve the quality of the information (new or existing); improve the value of the information; improve the channels to disclose or request information or improve accessibility to information?

Yes

Degree of result:

Outstanding

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

This platform has helped citizens to know the origin and destination of public resources with a simple and clear language, they have also received the tools to analyze basic concepts related to this subject in the workshops that have been conducted within the project “Prevention of corruption risks in Quintana Roo”, carried out by the civil society organization “Ciudadanos por la Transparencia” and USAID Mexico.

Citizens have been provided with information and materials to consult and analyze the exercise, destination, and results of public resources.

It also ensures and promotes the right of access to information of Quintana Roo’s public entities by using technological innovation in the processes, since the information is accessed in real time.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Captura-de-Pantalla-2022-09-08 (1)
• Captura-de-Pantalla-2022-09-08 (2)
• Captura-de-Pantalla-2022-09-08 (3)

2.1.2. – Did the government create new opportunities to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation inform or influence decisions; improve existing channels or spaces to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation/ inform or influence decisions; create or improve capabilities in the government or the public aimed to improve how the government seeks feedback from citizens/enables participation/ or allows for the public to inform or influence decisions?

Yes

Degree of result:

Outstanding

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

Through the budget platform, people can access public information on the subject more easily and in a citizen’s language. This guarantees the right of access to information.

In addition, this platform contemplates the proposals of the civil society who have expressed the need to have this tool on government spending.

This platform benefits accountability and makes it possible to observe the results of the execution of programs and resources that exist in public entities.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Captura-de-Pantalla-2022-09-08 (1)
• Captura-de-Pantalla-2022-09-08 (2)
• Captura-de-Pantalla-2022-09-08 (3)

2.1.3 Did the government create or improve channels, opportunities or capabilities to hold officials answerable to their actions?

Yes

Degree of result:

Outstanding

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

This platform is the result of the government’s need to make information on public resources transparent, so a channel was created through which citizens could access the necessary information.

This action was a priority in the State Development Plan of the State, so the government always gave importance to make this exercise visible and make available to the people other tools and materials related to state public resources.

The platform is structured in the following sections:
a) Home
b) Budget Cycle
c) legal framework
d) Information systems
e) Open data

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Resumen Ppto ciudadano 2022

2.1.4 Other Results

Not Applicable

Degree of result:

– Select –

2.2 Did the commitment address the public policy problem that it intended to address as described in the action plan?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

Yes, the problem that was described in the Action Plan, was that there was not enough accessibility to detailed information on budget programs, accessibility and budget transparency must also involve the citizen approach and not only institutional. It must be granted in accessible formats for analysis and in a language that can be understood by citizens, as far as possible. In addition, the validations performed by SEFIPLAN as well as the problem trees and objectives behind each budget program with their quarterly reports showing the progress and objectives should be known. The above were additional elements to the programs and applications that should be generated as a rule but are not always transparent or easily accessible.

The platform solved the problems described above.

3. Provide at least one lesson or reflection relating to the implementation of this commitment. It can be the identification of key barriers to implementation, an unexpected help/hindrance, recommendations for future commitments, or if the commitment should be taken forward to the next action plan.

This commitment should continue in the next action plan to follow up and update the budget platform in order to allow citizens to receive the necessary information on the use of public resources.

Also, before citizens use the platform, they must have the necessary tools to learn and analyze basic concepts of budget transparency, so there should be workshops in which they can learn these concepts, since there could be users who are approaching a platform of this type for the first time.

The information should also be integrated in another language, for example in Mayan. This was not possible for this edition, but it will be integrated in the future.