Open Data (LV0041)

What are the major national and societal challenges that this commitment will address?
Significant progress was made in the implementation of Latvia's Third National Open Governance Action Plan Open Data Portal - Latvian Open Data Portal was created data.gov.lv and new data published sets, guidelines for supporting open data publishers, and a set of priority data sets to be openedthe definition shall involve the information and communication technologies industry.During the development of this Action Plan, in collaboration with the public, it was found that open dataThere are still a number of data corruption cases that are important for public disclosurecombating, legal, financial, budget, government payments, tax and government activitiesin the area of ​​transparency. If the information were more widely available in the form of open data, it would provide the public the opportunity to analyze data and engage in improving public governance processes to reduce corruptionrisks and fostering trust in public administration.According to the Freedom of Information Law, Article 10, paragraph 2, 1 part of the open data approach applies only togenerally available information will be taken into account when assessing the widest possible access to databoth personal data protection and other regulatory requirements, in case of uncertainties, requestEvaluation of the Data State Inspectorate.

What is the commitment?
Commitment is the opening of , and within the framework of, significant data setsmore extensive data will be evaluated in cooperation with data set holders and members of the publicOpening opportunities in the following areas:
1. Tax payment: SRS paid by taxpayers (merchants) in the tax yeartotal amount of taxes administered (State Revenue Service)
2. Publicly available parts of government officials' declarations, including the Statethe President, the Members of the Saeima, the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister,Minister of Special Assignments, Parliamentary Secretary and Deputy Town Councilordeclarations of officials (State Revenue Service)
3. Political party finances and donations to the parties (Prevention of and Fight against Corruption)office)
4. Payments of State Budget Expenditure * (Treasury)
5. Information on the implementation of the budgets of the national regulatory authorities ** (Treasury)
6. Court work, speed in courts, instances and categories of cases, work of judges (Courtadministration)
7. Work of medical institutions and queues for services, work of doctors, financingbreakdowns and other data to analyze and improve health sector governance health service)
8. Complaints about purchases, violations of procurement practices appliedadministrative penalties (Procurement Monitoring Bureau)
9. Field of education: educational institutions, number of students in educational institutions, number of studentsin higher education institutions, the number and distribution of academic staff,accredited education programs, including higher education (Education and Scienceministry)
10. Human Resources and Remuneration in Public Administration, Payroll Accounting System (AUS) Open Datamodel development (State Chancellery)

After evaluating the datasets, recommendations will be developed defining data for each datasetthe extent of the opening, the steps required for opening the data and the time limits, if any,proposals for amendments to regulatory enactments that ensure the opening of data.Recommendations will be developed taking into account the availability of open data in each area and the opening of dataplans, respecting personal data and other data protection requirements and world best practicesareas for data opening.The commitment is to make the open data in these areas as accessible as possible.

How will the commitment help to address the issues identified?
The commitment will initially be implemented under the leadership of MEPRD, in consultation with the parties concerneddevelop recommendations for opening data sets.More open data will build trust in public administration and enable everyone to get involved andensure transparency of public sector activities.

Why is this commitment consistent with OGP values?
The commitment shall comply with the following OGP values:
• openness , by providing more information to the public and helping to improve itquality of information provided and availability of information;
• accountability , as it focuses on the accountability of public authorities for decisions made and decisions taken.

Additional informationA
vailable commitment ornecessary financing
Recommendations will be developed to assess whether datathe opening of the clusters will be provided by the State grantedbudget or will require additional fundingfunding, including which data sets to opennecessary. Accordingly, the question of what is necessaryadditional state budget funding is available in 2021in the budget preparation process.

Relationship with other documents
Opening of data is based on informative report “ LatvianOpen Data Strategy, ” which sets out to move towards the principle"Open by default" implementation of public administration.

Compliance with UN sustainable developmentgoals
Data opening is in line with the UN Sustainable DevelopmentGoal 16 - Promote peaceful and inclusivefor a sustainable society, to ensure a justaccess to justice for all and create effective,responsible and inclusive institutions at all levels'(16.6. Develop effective, accountable and transparentinstitutions at all levels; 16.10 ensure publicaccess to information and protection of fundamental freedoms under thewith national legislation and internationalagreements)

2. Opening of data sets important to the freedom of information

Main Objective

The commitment constitutes opening of the data sets of importance to the freedom of information, and involves, in cooperation with the holders of data sets and representatives of the public, evaluation of wider possibilities for the opening of data in the following areas:

1. Payment of taxes: the total amount of taxes paid by taxpayers (merchants) in the taxation year and administered by the SRS (State Revenue Service);
2. The publicly accessible parts of the declarations of public officials submitted by the public officials, including the President, members of the Saeima, the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, ministers, ministers for special assignments, Parliamentary Secretaries, and declarations of public officials of councillors of councils of republic cities (State Revenue Service);
3. Finances of political parties and donations to parties (Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau);
4. Payments of the State budget expenditure* (Treasury);
5. Information regarding the implementation of budgets of State administration institutions** (Treasury);
6. Work of courts, speed in courthouses, instances, and types of cases, work of judges (Court Administration);
7. Work of medical treatment institutions and waiting times for services, work of doctors, allocation of funding and other data which allow to analyse and improve management of the health sector (National Health Service);
8. Complaints on procurements, on administrative sanctions imposed for infringements in procurement activities (Procurement Monitoring Bureau);
9. Field of education: educational institutions, number of educatees in educational institutions, number of students in higher education institutions, number of the academic staff and their division according to positions, accredited educational programmes, including higher education programmes (Ministry of Education and Science);
10. Human resources and remuneration in State administration, development of open data model for the remuneration registration system (RRS) (State Chancellery).

Milestones

1. Evaluation of data sets and development of recommendations
2. Opening of data sets

Editorial Note: For the complete text of this commitment, please see Latvia’s action plan at: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Latvia_Action-Plan_2019-2021_EN.pdf

Commitment Analysis

This commitment aims to continue with the process of opening more data sets held by Latvian public bodies. The previous action plan contained a commitment on open data which increased the number of data sets published on Latvia’s open data portal as well as the number of publishing public institutions.

The legal framework for open data management in Latvia is shaped by the Freedom of Information Act ^[11] and by the Cabinet Regulation 611 ^[12] (2018), which prescribes institutions to publish open data at their disposal to the Open Data Portal ^[13] in a machine-readable format. In 2019, Latvia adopted an Open Data Strategy ^[14] outlining actions for an open data transformation ^[15] with an overall aim to follow the principle of ‘open by default’. It also made a commitment to provide grants to foster the development of data-based innovations. Many institutions, such as the Procurement Monitoring Bureau, ^[16] Enterprise Register ^[17] and the Riga City Council ^[18] had already opened their data before these regulations and strategies existed. The central Open Data Portal now contains 395 data sets from 76 institutions. ^[19] More than 75% of the local/regional governments conduct open data initiatives. ^[20]

Currently, most of the information within the proposed data sets is only publicly available in non-open formats. The remuneration registration system data are not publicly available at all. The information is published in a mix of formats, including .docx, .xlsx and PDF formats. For example, the Ministry of Education publishes its data on student numbers in both .xlsx and PDF formats. State budget expenditure by the Treasury and speed of courts by Court Administration uses .xlsx format, whereas KNAB data on party financing are available through an interactive online database ^[21] that allows the user to search data for a specific period. Overall, there is a lack of consistency in how the data are published and stored and what formats are used by different institutions. It was also noted by a ministry representative ^[22] that in many cases, there are also considerable technical issues to address, such as lack of suitable infrastructure to work with open data formats. ^[23] Not all institutions are familiar with the concept of open data, and in some cases, they may not be able to easily publish their data in the correct format. ^[24]

Representatives from public institutions also noted ^[25] that a lack of funding may present a problem to make the proposed data sets freely available, as making the data publishing automatic and training staff in using open data both bear costs. It was noted that this question would be explored when assessing the feasibility of opening the data sets.

Opening the data sets listed in the commitment is seen by the involved stakeholders [26] as an important step towards increasing government efficiency and also allowing the public to not just access to information but also to be able to reuse the data. Furthermore, opening these data sets is also seen as indirectly targeting socio-economic issues, such as reducing waiting times for health services, ensuring transparency in the educational sector and ensuring that the speed of courthouses is monitored. Political financing information has been identified as information that could be published in machine-readable formats. ^[27]

The first part of the commitment foresees a consultation process (reflected in milestone 1), whereby each identified data set would be evaluated in a joint discussion process between the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development (the lead ministry for this commitment) and the responsible institution. Where data are not already available to the public in open formats, the criteria for opening the data sets will be based on data sensitivity and ethical availability (e.g. whether the data set includes any medical data, personal data and other relevant information which may be seen as private), judicial criteria (e.g. protection of trade secrets), machine readability and whether the institution has the capacity to open the data. ^[28]

The commitment will identify the feasibility of opening data and locate obstacles to this process. If successfully implemented, this commitment will have a moderate impact, as information will be available to the public for the first time in open formats. The reform does not go as far as ensuring data are collected or published in a isstandardised way across state institutions nor foster active use of open data to boost their economic and societal impact, which might have made it a transformational commitment.

2. Opening of datasets important to the freedom of information

Complete

The main aim of the commitment was to evaluate wider possibilities for opening data in a number of important datasets, [20] identifying the feasibility of opening data, and determining obstacles to this process.

According to the self-assessment and the informative report published by the Ministry of Environment and Regional Development (MEPRD), [21] all the datasets outlined in this commitment were fully evaluated and assessed. Representatives from the Court Administration [22] and MEPRD [23] confirmed that the listed datasets (which included taxes, public-official declarations, data on employees in public administration and their remuneration, political party finances, state budget payments, and councilor declarations) were evaluated. In addition, some datasets are now open, such as court data, education data, and data on medical institutions in connection with COVID-19. [24]