Disclosure of Data from the Execution of the Union Budget and from Government Purchases (BR0048)

to disclose data from the Annual Budget Law (LOA), budget execution and government purchases in compliance with the open data principles, as well as data from the Integrated System of General Services Administration (SIASG). This commitment aims at releasing platforms to ensure citizen access to updated information on budget execution and on Federal Government purchases, including data from procurements and price registrations. The platform shall also provide for the development of new visions, applications and services from the open data on the budget and public purchases. This action shall facilitate the integration of budget and governmental purchases data in structuring and sectorial information systems, thus providing for the increased development of mechanisms to ensure the aforementioned systems’ data integrity and for the development of assessments and management reports. Furthermore, the disclosure of data from these systems in an open format shall provide for deeper analysis, thus ensuring a more effective social control.

Commitment 2.11. Disclosure of data from the execution of the Union budget and from Government purchases

Commitment Text: To disclose data from the Annual Budget Law (LOA), budget execution and government purchases in compliance with the open data principles, as well as data from the Integrated System of General Services Administration (SIASG). This commitment aims at releasing platforms to ensure citizen access to updated information on budget execution and on Federal Government purchases, including data from procurements and price registrations. The platform shall also provide for the development of new visions, applications and services from the open data on the budget and public purchases. This action shall facilitate the integration of budget and governmental purchases data in structuring and sectorial information systems, thus providing for the increased development of mechanisms to ensure the aforementioned systems’ data integrity and for the development of assessments and management reports. Furthermore, the disclosure of data from these systems in an open format shall provide for deeper analysis, thus ensuring a more effective social control.

Responsible institution: Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management

Supporting institution: None

Start date: Not specified                          End date: 14 April 2014

Commitment aim

This commitment looked to create APIs for procurement and budget databases as a way to strengthen social oversight of public resources. It aimed to ensure citizens’ access to updated information on budget execution, and on Federal Government purchases, data integrity for the development of assessments and management reports, and better social control.

Status

Midterm: Completed

Both the API for Procurement Data (SIASG/compras.dados.gov.br) and the API for the Budget (LOA/orçamento.dados.gov.br) were completed. Access to the budget data is user-friendly, and a technical manual was created for the developer community. For additional details, please see the IRM Midterm Progress Report.

Did it open government?

Access to information: Major

The data released in open format are a major source of information for social oversight. Although the focus of the commitment was on data release, and not necessarily data use, the developed API is a major contribution to access to information, given the scale of information released. The new APIs include data on government suppliers, payments, contract details, intended use of funds, types of purchases, and contracting government institutions. They provide incentives for other institutions to use the system and to share datasets in an integrated manner. The transparency portal also allows integrated searches by citizens and the private sector. According to the Ministry of Planning, Budget, and Management, companies are using the system to check the back history of suppliers, and suppliers are using it to improve their services to clients. As for citizens, this is an area in high demand. Transparency Hacker and other CSOs have run hackathons to promote data use. Some of those events were conducted in partnership with other Latin American CSOs.^{[Note 57: Hacks/Hackers Sao Paolo, “O rastro do dinheiro-Hackatona Latino-Americana,” 7 June 2014, http://bit.ly/2hA2jM1. ]} There is also evidence of usage of the new data, though uptake has been limited thus far.^{[Note 58: Cirilo Max Macedo and Díbio Leandro Borges, Extração de dados da Web relativos a licitações e contratos públicos para inferência por reconhecimento de padrões estatísticos: estudo de caso, 2015, http://icofcs.org/2015/ICoFCS-2015-013.pdf. ]} Other recent innovations by the ministry in this field include a mobile app for citizens to understand how their city compares with others in the spending of public funds.^{[Note 59: Diferentona, http://portal.convenios.gov.br/aplicativo-as-diferentonas. ]}

Carried forward?

The commitment is not included in Brazil’s third action plan. If carried forward in the future, the IRM researcher recommends creating milestones to incentivise data use. Integrating these databases with the National Open Data Meeting, for example, and using the data in hackathons could be a more systematic way of promoting synergy across initiatives.