National Electronic System/ATI implementation (BR0110)

Commitment 11: Develop a National Electronic System for information requests (e-Sic) in order to implement the Access to Information Law (LAI) in states and municipalities.
Lead government institution Ministry of Transparency and Comptroller General of Brazil – CGU
Civil servant in charge for implementing at lead government institution Adenísio Álvaro de Souza
Position - Department General Coordinator/Federative Cooperation and Public oversight Coordination
E-mail adenisio.souza@cgu.gov.br
Telephone (61) 2020-6516
Other involved actors Government Ministry of Transparency and Comptroller General of Brazil – CGU
Transparency Secretariat/Brazilian Senate
Federal Court of Accounts - TCU
National Council for Internal Control - CONACI
Comptroller General of the Federal District
Civil Society Article 19
Agenda Pública
Getúlio Vargas Foundation
Status quo or problem/issue to be addressed Lack of established channels to follow up and referral to access to information requests on state and municipal levels.
Main objective Create a unified platform for access to information requests, available with no cost for states and municipalities.
Commitment short description The commitment intends to increment the access to information on state and municipalities levels by, mostly, creating and implementing a unified platform for access to information requests, with no cost for subnational entities.
OGP Challenge addressed by the Commitment Increase the availability of information about governmental activities
Support civic participation
Expand the access to new technologies in order to disclosure and promote accountability.
Commitment relevance Increase the access to information on state and municipalities levels
Goal Increase the level of implementation of LAI between federated entities.
Situation Initiated in October 2018.
Results description Not available.
Implemented until July/2020

Verifiable and measurable milestones to fulfill the Commitment Start date: End date: Responsible:
LAI diagnoses on states and municipalities
10/01/2018
03/31/2020 Public Agenda
FGV*
TCU
Identification of partners (managers and society) to promote engagement.

10/01/2018

10/31/2018 CGU/CFECS
TCU
Article 19*
FGV
Public Agenda
Development of an analyses over the technical viability of the System 10/01/2018 10/31/2018
CGU*
Develop a survey about the System
10/01/2018
10/31/2018 Brazilian Senate/ Secretariat for Transparency*
CGU
Definition of requirements and demands of the System 10/01/2018 12/31/2018 CGU*
CGDF
Establishment of the System

01/01/2019
06/30/2019
CGU*
Execution of articulation actions with transparency fostering programs

01/01/2019

06/30/2019 CGU*
Brazilian Senate/ Secretariat for Transparency*
FGV
Creation of support materials for managers and society
03/01/2019
06/30/2019 Article 19*
TCU
Brazilian Senate
Public Agenda

Creation of advertising campaigns over the System/LAI

10/01/2018

07/31/2020 CGDF
Brazilian Senate/ Secretariat for Transparency
CGU*
Article 19
TCU
Public Agenda

Design Report

11. Governmental Transparency—Access to Information Act in States and Municipalities

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

“Create a unified platform for access to information requests, available with no cost for states and municipalities.”

11.1. LAI diagnoses on states and municipalities

11.2. Identification of partners (managers and society) to promote engagement.

11.3. Development of an analyses over the technical viability of the System

11.4. Develop a survey about the System

11.5. Definition of requirements and demands of the System

11.6. Establishment of the System

11.7. Execution of articulation actions with transparency fostering programs

11.8. Creation of support materials for managers and society

11.9. Creation of advertising campaigns over the System/LAI

Start Date: January 2018                                                                           End Date: July 2020

Editorial note: to see the complete text, visit https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/brazil-national-action-plan-2018-2020/.

Context and Objectives

The commitment aims to address the lack of established channels to follow up on access to information requests at the state and municipal levels. In the executive branch at the federal level, access to information portals have become well established since the Access to Information Law (LAI) passed in 2012. These portals are supervised by the Comptroller-General’s Office of the Union and include support for data sharing and capacity building for public actors. [73] Outside the executive branch, other agencies are responsible for the same process, and states and municipalities are required to pass their own legislation and implement similar models. Through these efforts, freedom of information has improved considerably in the past several years in both states and municipalities across the country. [74]

However major challenges remain. Academics have shown that 50 percent of the responses to information requests exceed the time limits established by law and that information to track progress is limited to generic quality indexes, such as time stamps of decisions made during the process. [75] In a study of information requests made between 2013 and 2017, the response rate at the federal level was significantly higher than that at the state and municipal levels—91 percent, compared to 53 percent and 44 percent, respectively. Furthermore, only 37 percent of all state-level and 54 percent of all municipal-level responses scored as minimally accurate or better, compared to 74 percent at the federal level. [76]

To address the challenges resulting from LAI implementation, this commitment aims to create a unified platform for access to information requests. The platform would be available at no cost to states and municipalities.

The commitment proposes a set of policy activities to develop the new platform (Milestones 11.1−11.3) and tools for designing system specifications (11.4 and 11.5), and for the platform’s launch along, with an accompanying awareness campaign (11.6−11.9).

The commitment is specific enough to be verifiable and addresses access to information through the use of technology.

The IRM researcher received feedback from three stakeholders regarding this commitment, all of whom highlighted the importance of the initiative in standardizing access to information in Brazil. Joara Marchezini, of the civil society organization (CSO) Article 19 Brasil, believes the quality of service delivery is an urgent issue in advancing transparency in Brazil. Valdênia Santos Souza, from the Comptroller-General’s Office of the Union, argued civil society expertise can improve mechanisms of social control. Gregory Michener, from Fundação Getulio Vargas [77] stated that a unified portal is critical for progress in service delivery at subnational levels.

The commitment is an important step to help state and local governments improve their access to information portals. It could provide them with the tools and capacity building support necessary to bring their performance in processing information requests to the same level or above that of the federal government. It could make it easier for citizens to start an access to information request. Three clicks or less is a criterion that Article 19 considers key in the implementation of LAI. [78] And such platforms would also allow participating portals to be seamlessly monitored and their data compared, which is currently not possible.

In spite of these positive potential outcomes, the commitment is limited to the creation of the platform and is limited in scale. Without the platform’s uptake, implementation is uncertain. And with an uncertain assessment of the platform’s uptake, the commitment’s potential impact is considered moderate.

Next steps

The commitment is highly relevant to open government efforts in Brazil. It continues a trend of including commitments to strengthen access to information standards, a trend followed by all of the country’s previous action plans. This commitment addresses a critical area: improving transparency across municipalities and states by means of transparency portals. [79]

To increase the commitment’s impact, its offerings should be widely advertised with governments and civil society across the country, as its impact will ultimately depend on the update of the platform the commitment proposes. Besides increasing awareness, capacity building among state and municipality officials will be critical. Researchers have attributed poor performance in the processing of information requests, in part, to lack of awareness of both the access to information law and the agency responsible for implementing the law within their jurisdictions. [80] Addressing this knowledge gap could help propel this commitment into having a significant impact in the country.

Transitional Results Report

Commitment 11. Access to Information Act in states and municipalities

Completion: COMPLETE

For details regarding the implementation and early results of this commitment, see Section 2.3.

Aim of the commitment

One of the major transparency issues faced by states and municipalities in Brazil is the Access to Information Law (LAI) regulation, [150] which includes the need for an adequate system to facilitate the population's exercise of their right to access information. At the commitment co-creation, there was a significant absence of specific channels to monitor and process requests for information at the state and municipal levels. [151]

This commitment aimed to address the lack of an efficient, accessible, and established system for handling information requests at the state and municipal levels. To address these challenges, it sought to create a unified platform for access to information requests, which is now publicly available. [152]

Did it open government?

Major

The commitment was fully completed and generated major early results. The most significant outcome was observed under Milestone 6, which led to the integration and refinement of the Electronic Citizen Information System (e-SIC) system via the newly created Fala.BR (i.e., ‘Talk Brazil’) platform, which fulfills the implementation of the Access to Information Law in states and municipalities and improves the federal system in place. This initiative created new opportunities for citizens to access information and be informed while guaranteeing its sustainability, as subnational governments do not incur the cost of the platform.

All of the commitment’s 9 milestones were completed and followed a sequential logic that facilitated the creation and dissemination of the system. Milestone 1 aimed to implement a diagnosis of the Access to Information Law in states and municipalities to enhance the planning and development of the national electronic system for requesting information from municipalities and states. The Comptroller-General of the Union (CGU) and the Getulio Vargas Foundation conducted in-depth studies on the implementation level of the LAI at the subnational level and of the key determinants for local level transparency, finding that compliance was overall significantly deficient and attributable to a lack of compliance supervision. [153]

Milestone 2 identified partners (public managers and society) for engagement in the initiative. By October 2021, 198 subnational entities had registered to adopt the developed tool. [154] Milestone 3 was conducted internally by the IT team within CGU, which concluded that implementing the system was technically feasible. [155] For Milestone 4, CGU and Instituto de Pesquisa DataSenado of the Federal Senate conducted a public consultation to gather inputs from various stakeholders in improving and adapting the national e-SIC system. [156] This goal was successfully achieved with significant civil society participation and the involvement of 532 individuals. [157] Finally, the system requirements were fully defined, given the inputs from previous activities, and taken as the basis the national e-SIC system (Milestone 5). [158]

Milestone 6, which pertains to the development of the system, had the most potential for impact as it was the main outcome of the commitment’s goal. It was also achieved and subsequently implemented with the Fala.BR platform in March 2020. [159] On Fala.BR, public managers can implement several activities to enhance transparency and improve interactions between citizens and the government. These included (1) managing the reception of information requests, complaints, feedback, suggestions, and compliments from citizens; (2) enabling automated deadline control for responses to ensure timely and efficient handling of requests and inquiries; (3) facilitating the forwarding of manifestations between Information Services to Citizens and Ombudsman Offices, therefore streamlining communication and coordination between these entities; and (4) customizing the system to meet the specific needs of the subnational governments, allowing for tailored configurations that suit specific structures and requirements. [160]

The Fala.BR platform also allows for the registration of subnational entities in the Ombudsman system. [161] In this sense, registered states and municipalities can provide citizens with tools in a single platform to make information requests and express their feedback on services provided by these local governments. [162]

According to the government self-evaluation report, a total of 198 organizations had adopted the tool as of 19 October 2021 (124 municipal executive organizations, 17 municipal legislative organizations, 57 state executive organizations, and 4 autonomous social services. [163]

The remaining commitment milestones (7, 8, and 9) sought to build actions that fomented transparency, provide support material to public managers and society, and disseminate the system's existence. Milestone 8 focused on the development of support materials for managers and society. The Fala.BR platform includes comprehensive wiki manuals for its LAI and Ombudsman modules. [164] A webinar that further supports users in using the platform was also developed. [165] Milestones 7 and 9 were achieved through the development of the Time Brazil Program.

Time Brazil focuses on open government principles to support and guide states, municipalities, and the Federal District in adopting policies for integrity promotion and corruption prevention, creating transparent and accountable institutions, and ensuring representative, inclusive, and responsive social participation. The program also directly encourages the adoption of the Fala.BR platform. Additionally, the program has a strong component of dissemination of transparency initiatives, not limited to Fala.BR. It offers subnational entities the opportunity to participate in in-person and distance training and to benefit from a network of local partners to facilitate access to solutions and dissemination of best practices. [166] Furthermore, it has several resources to educate and inform the public on these initiatives. [167] As a result of these efforts, the number of adoptions each month has increased noticeably. [168]

The existence of Fala.BR and supporting programs such as Time Brazil empower public managers to effectively handle information inquiries and interactions from the public, enhancing the overall transparency and accountability of government actions. By providing a user-friendly and efficient platform, Fala.BR encourages citizen engagement and participation, leading to a more informed and engaged public to promote accountability of government actions. Overall, the commitment's multi-faceted approach improved transparency, accountability, and participation with a major and measurable improvement [169] in opening government at the subnation level.

Moving forward the questions, complaints, and suggestions sent by citizens through Fala.BR can serve as valuable input for identifying their needs and informing decision-making processes. If this commitment evolves into subsequent commitments in future action plans, it has the potential to better inform commitments and lead to the development of public policies that address citizens' demands.