Transparency of Local Govs Plans and Budgets (PH0030)

Uninformed local government constituents on how the local budget is managed, disbused and utilized. There is a need to create ways on how to effectively and efficiently utilize the uploaded data in the FDP Portal. Main objective is to Increase public access to financial documents/transactions of local government units to ensure transparency and accountability among LGUs. This commitment is relevant in promoting transparency as it provides public access to financial documents of the local governments for more intensive data processing of the LGU financial reports. The intended result is the culture of transparency among local government units built by ensuring regular public disclosure of key financial documents. Public access to this information is a pre- requisite to effective citizen engagement.

For Commitment details, see https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/philippines-mid-term-progress-report-2015-2017.

2. Transparent local government plans and budgets

Commitment Text:

· Uninformed local government constituents on how the local budget is managed, disbursed and utilized

· There is a need to create ways on how to effectively and efficiently utilize the uploaded data in the FDP Portal.

Main objective is to Increase public access to financial documents/transactions of local government units to ensure transparency and accountability among LGUs. This commitment is relevant in promoting transparency as it provides public access to financial documents of the local governments for more intensive data processing of the LGU financial reports. The intended result is the culture of transparency among local government units built by ensuring regular public disclosure of key financial documents. Public access to this information is a pre- requisite to effective citizen engagement.

Responsible institution: Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG)

Supporting institutions: Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), Budget Advocacy Group (BAG)

Start date: 1 January 2015

End date: 31 December 2017

Commitment Aim

This commitment aimed to continue to promote transparent disclosure policies at the local government level through the Full Disclosure Policy (FDP) of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). The FDP requires provinces, cities, and municipalities (PCMs) to fully disclose certain financial transactions and inform their constituents how local government budgets are managed, disbursed, and used. Specifically, the commitment set out to raise the percentage of local governments that comply with FDP requirements to 85 percent, to encourage local government units (LGUs) to upload documents in open formats (machine readable), and to ensure that civil society makes use of the data available on the portal. This commitment is intended to improve local governance, deter corruption, and build trust.

Status

Midterm: Substantial

By the Midterm assessment, substantial progress had been made toward completing this commitment. There was a considerable increase in the number of local governments complying with FDP (1,216 PCMS in 2016), though additional work was needed to ensure that FDP data was published in useful and usable formats for citizens (open formats).[Note: Focus Group Discussion, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Officials. Held on 24 October 2016 at DILG Office, Quezon City.] The online portal remained up-to-date since it was launched in November 2012.[Note: Full Disclosure Policy (FDP) Data Portal http://fdpp.blgs.gov.ph/. ] The Budget Advocacy Group, a coalition of CSOs, had begun to use FDP data to produce data visualizations and reports, a process that was still ongoing.

End of term: Substantial

The online portal remains active. One of the pending deliverables was accomplished in the second year of the action plan: recently uploaded documents (the third quarter of 2016) are now available in open format. According to the end-of-term self-assessment report, the targeted number of PCMs[Note: Excluding those PCMs in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)] (1,592) are uploading the required documents in open format via the FDP portal. INCITEGov, who convenes the Budget Advocacy Group, the co-commitment holder from civil society, reported that they did not reach the target of training civil society groups in five regions. This was because of funding constraints.[Note: INCITEGov. Response to the Questionnaire of the IRM Researcher for the End of Term Report. Sent on October 13, 2017.] Though trainings have been conducted, it is not yet clear how these data are being used and whether they have improved the capacity of CSOs to engage with the government.

Did It Open Government?

Access to Information: Major

The previous end-of-term report indicated that 79.1 percent of all LGUs were in compliance with the FDP as of the second quarter of 2015.[Note: Philippines Self-Assessment Report: national action plan 2013-2015: Year 1 Report, (October 2015), http://www.gov.ph/governance/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/PHL-OGP-2nd-plan_assessment-report_as-of-October-2015_v2.pdf.] By June 2017, the compliance rate had increased to 98 percent of the target number. The increasing number of FDP-compliant LGUs indicates that the practice of proactively disclosing information is becoming more common across LGUs all over the Philippines. The Budget Advocacy Group’s efforts to use the information on the FDP portal for advocacy indicates that there is an awareness among civil society that data are available that can be utilized for engagement. This is a major step toward transparency at the local level, which used to be largely closed and unresponsive to the public. However, the usefulness and usability of information remains a problem. As Adrienne Alquiros of De La Salle University’s Jesse M. Robredo Institute of Governance (DLSU-JRIG) shared in the focus group discussion, the creation of the online portal was an innovative idea. It assumed that if government information was available online it could be easily accessed by the public. However, this idea suffers from two weaknesses: (1) poor Internet connectivity in the Philippines, and (2) ordinary citizens being unable to understand the documents that are available because they are too technical.[Note: Documentation Report. Roundtable discussion on ‘Did it Open Government’ organized by Government Watch. October 12, 2017.] Therefore, while public uptake is not strictly speaking a determining factor in the question of “Did it Open Government,” it is recommend that improving the usability of disclosed data be carried forward in the next action plan.

Carried Forward?

This commitment has not been carried forward in the next action plan. For this commitment to contribute to a more significant impact, local government financial information must be used by capable citizens to check performance and to hold public officials to account. If this was achieved, it could be a major step forward in enhancing public integrity and stimulating effective and efficient use of public resources, leading to improved public services delivery. It is crucial to sustain the compliance of local government to FDP and find sustainable ways for citizen use of the FDP data that can start by improving awareness of local/grassroots ownership of this program.