Access to Information on Public Officials (FR0050)

Improving access to public information on elected representatives and public officials
Lead institution(s):
High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (HATVP)
Commitment extending Commitment 6 of the 2015-2017 NAP “Facilitating access to data regarding transparency obligations of public officials”
OGP principles with which the commitment is associated:
Access to information, participation, accountability, transparency
Challenges
As it undertook to do in the context of the National Action Plan for 2015-2017, the High Authority now publishes, in XML format under open license, the content of public officials’ asset and interest declarations. In a context of strict transparency and accountability requirements, opening such data greatly facilitates its exploitation by citizens and enables the development of innovative tools which, by crossing them with other datasets, provide a more accurate picture of political staffs and their ecosystem.
In addition, as can be seen from the High Authority’s contribution on open data and public integrity published in December 2016 on the occasion of the OGP Summit in Paris, opening such data enables better interaction between institutional monitoring and actions on the part of citizens’ watch bodies. A number of foreign examples (United States of America, Argentina, Croatia, etc.) evidence the new potentialities provided by digital technologies.
Objectives
Improving accessibility of data contained in public officials’ asset and interest declarations.
Faced with the challenges connected with citizens’ appropriation of information contained in declarations, the High Authority plans both to add to published data and to stimulate and encourage its exploitation.
As from 2018, the High Authority will develop data visualisation tools and produce analyses likely to arouse public interest in these complex findings. It will associate civil society with such work, above all with a view to widening possibilities of data reuse.
On 24 May 2017, the High Authority organised a workshop devoted to the opening of data contained in public officials’ asset and interest declarations. It brought together participants with a wide range of profiles (including data journalists, developers, researchers in the social sciences and engineers) and provided an opportunity to explain the institution’s approach to open data and get to know the reuser community’s expectations.
The road map in detail

Improving clarity of data provided to the public by accompanying its publication with production of data visualisation and analyses 1st half 2018
Widening the choice of exportable formats by also publishing declarations in CSV format 2nd half 2018
Organising a “datasession” on transparency in public life in order to associate the reuser community with exploitation of declaration data. The event could be held in collaboration with other public institutions working in the same field. 2nd half 2018

21. Improving access to public information on elected representatives and public officials

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

As it undertook to do in the context of the National Action Plan for 2015-2017, the High Authority now publishes, in XML format under open license, the content of public officials’ asset and interest declarations. In a context of strict transparency and accountability requirements, opening such data greatly facilitates its exploitation by citizens and enables the development of innovative tools which, by crossing them with other datasets, provide a more accurate picture of political staffs and their ecosystem.

In addition, as can be seen from the High Authority’s contribution on open data and public integrity published in December 2016 on the occasion of the OGP Summit in Paris, opening such data enables better interaction between institutional monitoring and actions on the part of citizens’ watch bodies. A number of foreign examples (United States of America, Argentina, Croatia, etc.) evidence the new potentialities provided by digital technologies.

Improving accessibility of data contained in public officials’ asset and interest declarations.

Faced with the challenges connected with citizens’ appropriation of information contained in declarations, the High Authority plans both to add to published data and to stimulate and encourage its exploitation.

As from 2018, the High Authority will develop data visualisation tools and produce analyses likely to arouse public interest in these complex findings. It will associate civil society with such work, above all with a view to widening possibilities of data reuse.

On 24 May 2017, the High Authority organised a workshop devoted to the opening of data contained in public officials’ asset and interest declarations. It brought together participants with a wide range of profiles (including data journalists, developers, researchers in the social sciences and engineers) and provided an opportunity to explain the institution’s approach to open data and get to know the reuser community’s expectations. [88]

Milestones

21.1 Improving clarity of data provided to the public by accompanying its publication with production of data visualisation and analyses

21.2 Widening the choice of exportable formats by also publishing declarations in CSV format

21.3 Organising a “datasession” on transparency in public life in order to associate the reuser community with exploitation of declaration data. The event could be held in collaboration with other public institutions working in the same field.

Start Date: 2018

End Date: 2018

Context and Objectives

Since 2014, certain public officials’ asset and interest declarations have been made public online by the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life. The authority published this information to prevent and detect conflicts of interest and illicit enrichment, following the adoption of the 2013 Laws on Transparency of Public Life. Since 2016, the High Authority has been required to publish this information in XML format under open license, as the government committed to in the 2015–2017 action plan. This commitment aims to further open information on certain public officials’ interests according to the legal framework created in 2013. It would also open data on ministers’ assets by publishing the data in a CSV format and by encouraging the reuse and visualization of the published data.

This commitment is principally relevant to improving access to information. Raw data can be hard for the public to handle. Thus, the aim to find creative ways to reuse and visualize the data constitutes a welcome initiative. The commitment also contains an element of public participation. The government will host a data session to involve data scientists in exploring ways to reuse the data, although, as written, the commitment refers only to the participation of the “reuser community” (see commitment text).

The commitment is, overall, specific enough to be verifiable. While Milestones 21.2 and 21.3 should be easily verified, the same cannot be said about Milestone 21.1. Indeed, the text reads like a goal rather than an activity and contains only broad information about the provision of data visualization.

This commitment could have a minor effect. The commitment from the previous action plan significantly improved the quality and accessibility of information regarding public officials’ declarations. It was considered as a major step forward in opening government. This commitment appears more incremental and does not require any new information to be made available. Indeed, it requires only a change of format. The IRM researcher believes the commitment could lead to positive changes, since it contributes to improving the public’s reuse and understanding of the data published by the High Authority.

Next steps

Given that this commitment is already significantly underway, the IRM researcher suggests that this commitment not be carried forward to the next action plan. The government could, however:

• Facilitate public access to relevant officials’ asset declarations;
• Further its efforts to inform the public and the media about the purpose of the declarations (to avoid too much focus being put on officials’ wealth); and
• Continue to support efforts to reuse and visualize High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life data, to make it understandable to a wider audience and to allow for the data to be linked to data from the lobby register.

21. Improving access to public information on elected representatives and public officials

Completion: Substantial

The HATVP, responsible for controlling and publishing the declarations of over 15,000 public officials at national and local level, publishes the list of declarations and its appreciations in CSV format, while the content of interest/asset declarations in published in XML. [lix] It regularly produces data visualizations on the demographics of declarations received. [lx] The government self-assessment indicates that the HATVP had not organized any data sessions due to the COVID-19 crisis.