Increasing the Quality and Quantity of Published Open Data (RO0047)

Status quo or problem addressed by the commitment Publishing open data from the public authorities and institutions represents one of the modern means to increase transparency and efficiency in public administration. Law 109/2007 on the re-use of public information, that was the first regulation of the open data framework in Romania, is not widely known nor implemented, and Romania’s open data publishing and reuse commitments are deemed unsatisfactory by both civil society and international researchers. Main objective The main objective of this commitment is to promote and increase transparency in public administration and improve citizen dialogue by improving the means and procedures to publish open data from the public institutions and authorities. Brief description of commitment The commitment is part of the project ”Improving the quality and number of datasets published by public institutions” that will be funded through the European Social Fund 2020 and aims to: A) improve the open data publishing methodology; B) provide a series of training sessions and support documents for open data management for the staff in public central and local institutions; C) improve the quality of data published on data.gov.ro; D) Encourage the re-use of data; E) increase the number of datasets published on data.gov.ro OPG challenge addressed by the commitment Increasing public integrity; More effectively managing public resources Relevance Access to information; Public Accountability; Civic participation; Technology and Innovation Ambition 1. Development of an open data methodology and a public policy that would represent landmarks for the public institutions publishing open data; 2. Training for 200 persons from the local and central public administration 3. Improve the quality and number of open datasets; 4. Advance the re-use of available datasets in the benefit of both public institutions and citizens.

18. Increasing the quality and quantity of published open data

The commitment is part of the project” Improving the quality and number of datasets published by public institutions” that will be funded through the European Social Fund 2020 and aims to: (1) improve the open data publishing methodology; (2) provide a series of training sessions and support documents for open data management for the staff in public central and local institutions; (3) improve the quality of data published on data.gov.ro; (4) Encourage the re-use of data; (5) increase the number of datasets published on data.gov.ro.

Main Objective:

Promote and increase transparency in public administration and improve citizen dialogue by improving the means and procedures to publish open data from the public institutions and authorities.

Milestones:

6. • Improve the open data publishing methodology by updating and improving the 2015 Guide and assessing the framework for a public policy proposal that would ensure implementation of procedures in all public institutions, publication of datasets on a regular basis and correlation with the linked governmental strategies.
   • Organize 13 training session for staff in local and central public administration (200 persons)
   • Pilot the automatic publishing on the data.gov.ro portal of open data from public procurement (open contracting), tax registers and air quality (through APIs)
   • Encourage and assist public institutions in organizing competitions (hackathons) using open data, to develop solutions for specific issues. At least 4 hackathons will be organized, in sectors where institutions already showed interest in promoting the re-use of data, and civil society representatives agreed on the utility of such competitions (culture, education, local government, anticorruption, citizens’ budgets etc.)
   • Centralized publishing on the national open data portal of priority, high value datasets (budget, education, culture, health, labor, environment and others). Monitoring of regular updates of datasets that are already published. Identify and publish new datasets, in collaboration with civil society.

Responsible institution: Chancellery of the Prime-Minister/ Secretariat General of the Government (SGG)

Supporting institution(s): Ministries; Local public authorities, Coalition for Open Data

Start date: September 2016                                                  End date: June 2018

Editorial Note: The commitment text is abridged. The full text can be found in the OGP 2016–2018 national action plan.

Commitment Aim

The commitment aimed to improve the methodology, train national and local government staff, and improve the quality and quantity of data published on data.gov.ro (Milestones 1 and 2). It envisions piloting automatic publishing of data on procurement, tax registers, and air quality (through application programming interfaces [APIs]) (Milestone 3), and organizing thematic hackathons (milestone 4), while centralizing and improving access to high value datasets as determined through consultation with civil society (Milestone 5).

STATUS

Midterm: Limited

The first three milestones were not started at the time of the IRM progress report, due to delays in the procurement of consulting services. Milestone 4 was substantially completed; three hackathons were organized in 2016 and 2017 with the goal of creating apps for healthcare, social policies, environment, smart cities, policies/strategies, education, and culture. The IRM progress report noted that the number of opened datasets increased, although the quality remained uneven.

End-of-term: Substantial

The SGG wrote the open data publishing methodology and published it under open license in July 2018. [129] According to the government’s self-assessment report, the SGG analysis revealed that designing a public policy for open data is not desirable in the context of the current European and national technical and legal frameworks. [130] 200 public servants, in particular leadership, and 200 IT experts (20 from local administrations, and 180 from the central public administration, including the subordinated institutions [131]) were trained in June–July 2018. [132] According to the OGP representative, the target group was members of the central public administration to consolidate the SGG’s prior efforts to stimulate and incentivize them to open public interest data. [133] Moreover, training course materials were published under open license in May 2018. [134] Milestone 3 is not started, according to the government’s self-assessment report. [135] The OGP representatives, however, argued that the data.gov.ro portal already offers an API that public institutions can use to upload and download data, but that the problem lies with the IT departments of the public institutions that do not have the ability to handle large datasets through APIs. [136]

Milestone 4 was partially completed, as three hackathons were organized in September 2016, [137] March 2017, [138] and March 2018 [139] on the following themes: health, public policies, environment, smart city, culture, and education. According to the government’s self-evaluation report, Milestone 5 is also partially completed as, in March 2018, data.gov.ro contained approximately 1,400 datasets (an increase from 633 datasets in 2016). Moreover, 217 of the 259 datasets that public institutions committed to have been published. [140] Moreover, the government’s self-assessment report [141] finds that datasets that need updating monthly are updated, but that those that require a more frequent update lag behind. Finally, the OGP representative stated that the quality of the data published on the national portal has also increased, though datasets that are not of high quality, and that may include errors, still exist. [142]

Did it Open Government?

Access to information: Major

According to OGP representatives, changing the mentality of public servants, as well as the development of their know-how (i.e. how to open datasets or which IT system allows this best) is a cumbersome and lengthy process. Consequently, training public servants on how to exercise the opening of new datasets that are relevant for the public has been instrumental for the current (and future) increase in new opened datasets. [143] The opened datasets already doubled during the implementation of the third national action plan (from 633 in 2016 to approximately 1400 in 2018), and 83.8% of the designated datasets were opened. Furthermore, data from the national portal has been used by an NGO to build an app (baniitai.info) that has been instrumental in uncovering the hospitals that bought the counterfeit detergent in the landmark corruption case Hexi Pharma. [144]

Civic participation: Marginal

In spite of the progress noted on the organization of three hackathons to engage the public in the development of custom solutions for the public administration, these activities did not succeed in generating long-term engagement. For instance, The Ministry of Culture and National Identity (MCNI) representative argued that political changes impeded a deeper collaboration between civil society and the MCNI, and that the MCNI did not monitor the development of the applications that won the hackathon. [145] Moreover, a civil society representative argued that hackathons can only be a first step to stimulate the building of new products on the open data. [146]

Carried forward?

This commitment will be continued in the 2018–2020 national action plan as Commitment 18: “Publication of open data.”

[129] Metodologie de publicare a datelor deschise – v. 02.2019 is available [in Romanian] at https://goo.gl/GbBTz7.

[130] “National Action Plan 2016-2018: Self-assessment report”, Open Government Partnership, 2018, page 67, available [in Romanian] at https://bit.ly/2vv2yw7.

[131] “Sesiuni de instruire date deschise”, Open Government Partnership, 6 June 2018, press release available [in Romanian] at https://bit.ly/2LEvmNZ.

[132] Larisa Panait and Angela Benga, OGP Romania, interview by IRM researcher on 6 November 2018.

[133] Larisa Panait and Angela Benga, OGP Romania, interview by IRM researcher on 6 November 2018.

[134] Open Data Resources are available at https://goo.gl/vbdAHr.

[135] “National Action Plan 2016-2018: Self-assessment report”, Open Government Partnership, 2018, page 68, available [in Romanian] at https://bit.ly/2vv2yw7.

[136] Larisa Panait and Angela Benga, OGP Romania, interview by IRM researcher on 6 November 2018.

[137] “Diplohack – 9 septembrie 2016”, OGP Romania, 11 August 2016, press release available [in Romanian] at https://bit.ly/2CcxIMw.

[138] “ZiuaDatelorDeschise – București, 4 martie 2017”, Open Government Partnership, 24 February 2017, available [in Romanian] at https://goo.gl/j1v4FN.

[139] “Înscrie-te la Culture Hack! Scoatecultura din tipare!”, OGP Romania, 21 November 2017, available [in Romanian] at https://bit.ly/2Uu2rfr.

[140] “National Action Plan 2016-2018: Self-assessment report”, Open Government Partnership, 2018, page 68, available [in Romanian] at https://bit.ly/2vv2yw7.

[141] “National Action Plan 2016-2018: Self-assessment report”, Open Government Partnership, 2018, page 68, available [in Romanian] at https://bit.ly/2vv2yw7.

[142] Larisa Panait and Angela Benga, OGP Romania, interview by IRM researcher on 6 November 2018.

[143] Larisa Panait and Angela Benga, OGP Romania, interview by IRM researcher on 6 November 2018.

[144] Andrei Nicoara, Open Data Coalition, interview by IRM researcher on 15 November 2018.

[145] Cristina Cotenescu and Mihai Monoranu, Ministry of Culture and National Identity, interview by IRM researcher on 8 November 2018.

[146] Ovidiu Voicu, Centre for Public Integrity, interview by IRM researcher on 8 November 2018.