Open National Defense Data (GR0068)

Commitment 4: Open access to data of the Ministry of National Defence

Current situation
The information is now covered by Law 4305/2014 on the «Open access and re-use of documents,
information and public sector data, amendment of Law 3448/2006 (Α΄ 57), adaptation of national
legislation to the provisions of Directive 2013/37/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council,
further strengthening of the transparency, regulation of issues regarding the recruitment competition
of the National School of Public Administration and Local Government and other provisions» (Official
Gazette Α’ 237/31.10.2014), with the differentiations provided for under the Directive regarding
libraries, museums and archives, and a specific provisions regarding the protection of cultural
heritage.

Description of Commitment
A wealth of data falling within the scope of Law 4305/2014 is available to the Ministry of National
Defence and its supervised entities and will be made available for re-use in order to contribute to the
development and participation of citizens.

OGP Principles
Access to public information

Implementation entities, stakeholders

Implementation: Ministry of National Defence
Cooperation with supervised entities.

Contact details: Ministry of National Defence, ΓΔΟΣΥ/ΔΙΣΤΥ/ΤΠΕΝΤ

Objective
1) Anonymisation and creation of new datasets
2) Integration of new datasets
3) Mobilisation of entities of the Ministry of National Defence for data publication
4) Improvement of the quality of datasets
5) Open data release decisions

Key milestones - Timetable
Milestone Completion
1) Anonymisation and creation of new datasets
2) Integration of new datasets.
3) Mobilisation of entities of the Ministry of National Defence data publication
4) Improvement of the quality of datasets
5) Open data release decisions

4. Open access to data of the Ministry of National Defence

Main Objective

The published NAP mentions (p.20) the main objective for this commitment as follows:

"Description of Commitment: A wealth of data falling within the scope of Law 4305/2014 is available to the Ministry of National Defence and its supervised entities and will be made available for re-use in order to contribute to the development and participation of citizens."

"Objectives: 1) Anonymisation and creation of new datasets

2) Integration of new datasets

3) Mobilisation of entities of the Ministry of National Defence for data publication

4) Improvement of the quality of datasets

5) Open data release decisions."

Milestones

The published NAP mentions (p.20-21) the milestones for this commitment as follows:

"1) Anonymisation and creation of new datasets

2) Integration of new datasets.

3) Mobilisation of entities of the Ministry of National Defence for data publication

4) Improvement of the quality of datasets

5) Open data release decisions."

Editorial Note: For the complete text of this commitment, please see Greece's action plan at https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Greece_Action-Plan_2019-2021_EN.pdf, p.20-21.

Commitment analysis

This commitment aims to publish data held by the Ministry of National Defence (MND).

The commitment is considered verifiable because it specifies that 100 datasets will be published in 2019 but does not clarify any specific details or criteria to determine the kind of data that may be considered for publishing. The commitment has sufficient relevance to the Access to Information OGP value because, if implemented fully, it will lead the government to disclose more information (milestones 1, 2 and 5), although it is not clear on which topics or how the data will be chosen.

As of May 2019, no datasets nor open data policies had been published by the Ministry of National Defence (MND) on open data portals nor on its own website. [38] [39] [40] The MND confirmed that no anonymised datasets were published prior to release of the action plan, no such datasets existed already upon release of the action plan, there were no awareness meetings and uptake of open data efforts before the action plan, no data quality concepts existed prior to release of the action plan and no data release decisions already existed upon release of the action plan.

The commitment, if fully implemented, is expected to make available for reuse some datasets curated by the lead agency and supervised entities. The relative significance of these datasets is unclear, and consequently, these improvements cannot be safely expected to respond to the needs of citizens for development and participation, as per the commitment objective. Concerning the rationale behind choosing datasets to open, MND mentioned that these choices are based on what is perceived by the agency as interesting to the citizens, while taking into consideration national security and national defence issues, and stated that no relevant stakeholders outside the public sector are involved in this process. In terms of government practice, it is unclear what impact it may have, as the commitment does not move beyond what is already mandatory according to legislation; thus, it cannot be considered ambitious.

The potential impact of all the commitment's milestones and of the commitment as a whole is coded as minor. [41] While the commitment in many ways is no different from other commitments in this action plan, it will introduce a step change in that the MND will publish datasets for the first time. This, coupled with the quality check and standardisation that will be needed for internal data-generating processes, and with a level of public-facing transparency that will be created, and which it will be difficult to take back once established, can be expected to make the ministry's internal process quality and policies better subjected to public oversight. However, the lack of clarity around what datasets or processes may change means that it is not possible to code the potential impact as more than minor.

Any changes to planned implementation would benefit from considering datasets to open according to citizens' priorities and by bringing CSOs and other external stakeholders into the process. That said, it is noted that interviews have not revealed specific high-value datasets that they would like to see published through this commitment's implementation. Desktop research [42] however revealed a number of topical issues for this ministry's domain of responsibility for which publishing open data would have value and could help to improve policies and processes. An indicative example is publishing information on anti-corruption auditing of military procurement contracts.

Commitment 4. Open access to data of the Ministry of National Defence

● Verifiable: Yes

● Relevant: Yes, access to information

● Potential impact: Minor

● Completion: Substantial

● Did it open government? Marginal

This commitment sought to increase the quantity and quality of data publicly available from the Ministry of Defence and supervised entities as the Ministry had not published any datasets prior to the action plan. During the implementation period, it published 100 datasets, which can be accessed through a metadata table on the old open data portal. [10] The datasets contain information on issues such as public procurement regulations and procedures, contracts with public bodies, staff promotions and transfers, salary rankings, and ministerial decisions. This process was supported by a ministerial decision on data release, according to the head of the Digital Governance Agency of the Ministry of Defence. IRM has been unable to verify that the decision is available on the Ministry’s website. [11] The OpenGovMonitor states that the other two intended decisions on data release were completed, and that milestones to improve the quality of datasets were ongoing, but it did not provide evidence of these developments. Overall, this commitment made a marginal improvement to the transparency of the Ministry of National Defence because it began publishing data, although it is not clear whether the data is useful for stakeholders, has been reused, or is high quality. [12]