Open data and participation in the Legislature. (BUE0009)

Link with the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 (SDG) SDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions

Status quo / Issue to be Addressed In general terms, citizens do not find the functions and activities of the different branches of government easy to understand. This complexity makes difficult the interaction between citizens and the government in terms of citizens’ requests and co-creation as well as the follow-up, monitoring and control of public policies. Below are some different issues identified: • Lack of unified criteria for the publication of public information. Currently, information is dispersed, it is not completely clear and there is a lack of access to data. • Lack of information about data generated by each area and inexistence of a protocol established to ease the exchange of such data. While individual efforts are made by Ministries to exploit the data, there is no unified strategy nor coordination between the areas. There is a need to promote the reuse of open data through the participation of several actors in the processes. • The Executive Branch drives different citizen participation stages: virtual, on-site, at public works, etc. There is a need to systematize the information and its indicators to be able to conduct a follow-up, measure the impact in the public policies in an open manner and see the results of these stages. • There is a lack of systematised information in an open format within the Legislative Branch. Likewise, while the Legislature – and the Constitution of the City- promote diverse citizen participation stages, there is no virtual space that systematises the information generated in the Legislature in an open data format, nor an office that centralises citizens’ claims and suggestions or promotes proximity to citizens. • Deficiency in intra-institutional communication of the Judicial Branch. By innovating and making the processes transparent, we will be able to bring them closer to the citizens who normally do not know in detail how Justice works due to its legal technicalities and the limited openness of information on how justice operates.

General objective Make the functions of the three branches of Government more understandable and bring them closer to the citizens, facilitate the follow-up and participation of neighbours in citizen participation stages. Strengthen data openness and generate innovative mechanisms for accountability through the creation of indexes which allow for the assessment of public policies.

Brief description of the initiative The commitment “Openness and Innovation for an Open Government” has different lines of action aimed at improving institutions and their relationship with citizens. These lines of action are: Access to information and assessment – Generate unified publication standards. Elaborate a diagnosis of relevant information related to civil society demand. Create tools and methodologies to assess the public policies on transparency. Open data and reutilisation - The commitment will seek to enhance the open data policy through 3 stages: one internal stage on redefinition of standards and normalisation of criteria; another one aimed at the promotion of use, reuse and openness on request; and another stage for the increasement of published datasets and its displays. Strengthening and follow-up of citizen participation – we will work towards the openness of information on indicators and data about the citizen participation practices carried out by the Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. We seek to ease the tracking process to show the public the results of the different processes and practices opened, and promote different participation spaces within the public policies cycle. Open data and participation in the Legislature - Analyse the information generated in the Legislature, systematise it and make it available in a centralised open data platform. Create a centralised office to act as a direct link with citizens, which can serve as a tool to increase transparency and proximity to society. Open Courts - Generate an openness space in the Judicial Branch through an Innovation Laboratory which allows for the co-creation, development and diffusion of open government policies leading to the opening of a new extra- and inter- judicial participation channel.

Describe the way in which this commitment is relevant to strengthen OGP values of transparency, access to information, public accountability, civic participation, and technology and innovation for openness and accountability. The generation of unified standards together with the creation of a diagnosis of relevant information related to civil society demand as well as the creation of assessment tools will strengthen civil society’s capacity to monitor and assess the City’s public policies in terms of transparency. Openness of more data contributes to transparency, access to information and accountability. Furthermore, the promotion of use, the reuse and openness on request promote citizen participation, technology and innovation. The participation initiative will make citizen participation processes more transparent and it will provide feedback since it discloses the results, thus it generates a feedback circle between the government and citizens. The improvement of the access to parliamentary information by facilitating the analysis and electronic access to parliamentary information to all citizens and institutions, will allow for the improvement of performance accountability. In addition to enhancing the civil society’s monitoring capacity, the centralised spaces for access to virtual information and the OAC (Citizen Services Office) will promote the effective participation of citizens in the decision-making processes. The creation of a Judicial Innovation Laboratory will facilitate citizens’ access to legal information, moreover, the establishment of openness practices will contribute to accountability.

Milestones Ongoing or new commitment Start date End date 4. Open data and participation in the Legislature. Portal on open data of the Legislature 4.1 Systematisation of new assets and responsible agents of parliamentary and administrative information produced by the Legislature, differentiating the information already published in the web site from the information that is not published. Indicator: list of new assets to be published. New October 2018 December 2019 4.2 Layout of the Portal on Open Data with the development of different datasets in open formats which include a form for “request for access to public information” New November 2018 March 2019 4.3 Comprehensive development and implementation of the Portal on Open Data, with a communication/awareness-raising campaign to promote its use. New March 2019 August 2019 Oficina de Atención Ciudadana (Citizen Services Office) of the Legislative Branch of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires 4.4 Conduct a study, as a base line, on the Citizen Services Offices of the different branches of State at a national, provincial and municipal level. Ongoing March 2018 October 2018 4.5 Selection of the location for the office within the Legislature, purchase of furniture and electronic equipment. Ongoing May 2018 February 2019 4.6 Selection of the staff that will work in the office. Ongoing June 2018 December 2018 4.7 Conduct a study on the areas of the Legislature which generate useful information for the citizens and create the procedure guide of the Citizen Services Office. New September 2018 March 2019 4.8 Opening of the Citizen Services Office (OAC). New March 2019 April 2019

4. Datos abiertos y participación en la Legislatura

Objetivo del compromiso

Uno de los hitos del compromiso 1 del primer plan de acción de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires aspiraba a mejorar la apertura gubernamental en el Poder Legislativo. Sin embargo, tal y como se sostuvo en el reporte final del IRM (2017-2018) [11], los resultados fueron insatisfactorios, en tanto los datos publicados carecían de funcionalidades estándares que permitieran un seguimiento de las consultas parlamentarias y un calendario de sesiones por parte de la ciudadanía. En esta oportunidad, el compromiso tenía como objetivo fortalecer las capacidades institucionales actuales, sistematizando la información existente y realizando un diagnóstico de la información faltante; a la vez de elaborar un estudio de las oficinas de atención ciudadana y diseñar un manual de procedimiento para dichas oficinas. Finalmente, el compromiso también proponía la implementación de un portal de datos abiertos, la realización de actividades de sensibilización sobre la utilización de estos datos y la apertura de una oficina de atención ciudadana dentro de la legislatura porteña [12].

¿Contribuyó a la apertura del Gobierno?

Significativamente

Antes de la implementación del compromiso, no existía un espacio virtual que sistematizara —en formato de datos abiertos— la información generada en la Legislatura, ni una oficina o canal virtual que centralizara los reclamos, sugerencias y que promoviera la cercanía con los vecinos.

El compromiso contribuyó significativamente a la apertura del Gobierno en materia de acceso a la información pública y participación ciudadana, a través de la creación y comunicación de un portal de datos abiertos legislativos; y el establecimiento de una oficina de atención ciudadana para ingresar reclamos y sugerencias. Ninguna de las iniciativas existían con anterioridad a la implementación del compromiso y habían sido solicitadas en repetidas ocasiones por organizaciones de la sociedad civil, tales como Directorio Legislativo, ACIJ, entre otras [13]. Cabe destacar que el portal de datos abiertos de la Legislatura permite el acceso a bases de datos claves para la transparencia legislativa, tales como los vinculados a la ejecución presupuestaria, nómina del personal, tipos de contratación, entre otras, que además habían sido sugeridas por la organización Directorio Legislativo en anteriores informes. Al respecto, la organización Directorio Legislativo informó a la Investigadora del MRI que a pesar de los avances respecto al primer plan de acción, aún continúa pendiente la explicación detallada y publicación de los siguientes sets de datos: Escala salarial (indicando con claridad a qué se refieren las categorías T1, T2, T3), Nómina de personal (discriminado por nombre, género, escala salarial, fecha de ingreso, función y área asignada), Licitaciones generales, licitaciones de obra y contrataciones (información sobre montos, estado de pago y contratantes); y Ejecución presupuestaria (en lenguaje claro que permita su reutilización).

Detalles sobre la implementación:

Los dos hitos del compromiso se cumplieron por completo durante el primer año de implementación [14]. En primer lugar, el área de datos abiertos de la legislatura porteña realizó una campaña de comunicación para difundir el primer “Portal de datos abiertos de la Legislatura”, una herramienta tecnológica centralizada con sets de datos en formatos abiertos y reutilizables, que se lanzó́ el 25 de junio de 2019. Dicho portal facilita el acceso digital y el análisis de la información legislativa a la ciudadanía, a través de la puesta a disposición de 23 sets de datos, incluyendo información generada por todas las áreas de la institución, organizadas en ocho temas: administrativo contable; bloques; diputados; estructura orgánica; juntas y comisiones; leyes; proyectos; y sesiones y votaciones [15]. En segundo lugar, se realizó un estudio como línea de base de las oficinas de atención ciudadana de los distintos poderes del estado a nivel nacional, provincial y municipal y se seleccionó la entrada de Hipólito Yrigoyen 564 como el espacio de cercanía al Palacio Legislativo para que funcione la Oficina de Atención Ciudadana (OAC). También, se seleccionó a cuatro agentes y un coordinador para que se capacitaran en atención al público y se armó un manual de procedimientos para la OAC. [16].