Open Budget Initiatives (UA0054)

Partner implementation of pilot initiatives related to provision of budget information in an open and accessible form on the national, oblast and local levels

22. Open budget initiatives

Commitment Text: 22. Partner implementation of pilot initiatives related to provision of budget information in an open and accessible form on the national, oblast and local levels.

Expected result: “How much does the State cost?” web-portal created; Open City platform implemented in 15 administrative-territorial units; at least 5 pilot initiatives implemented for public awareness-raising on budgeting and creating user-friendly budget information.

Lead institution(s): Ministry of Finance

Supporting institution(s): Ministry of Regional Development

Start Date: Not specified                                            End Date: 31 December 2015

Commitment aim

This commitment attempted to pilot initiatives on open budgets at different levels using online instruments. NGOs in Ukraine pioneered the preparation and publication of information on local budgets and their execution in a user-friendly manner. In the OGP action plan, the government committed to supporting this work and making budget information available in an accessible format for the first time, including through data visualisation.

Status

Midterm: Completed

The commitment and its deliverables, as originally worded, did not produce transformative reforms. They included some important steps and pilot projects. However, the government managed to exceed its plan and launch a far-reaching initiative to open up information on all budgetary transactions. Civil society organisations in Ukraine originally supported the idea of opening budgetary information, but in a user-friendly manner through visualisation and explanation, not just in bulk disclosure. The local self-government authorities and national government followed suit, providing access to data and publishing visualised data on official websites. The OGP process further promoted innovative tools under this commitment, for example, “The Price of the State” and “Open City” websites.

The commitment was successfully implemented, and even exceeded targeted results. The government reported that an NGO—the Centre for Political Studies and Analytics—with donor support, launched a website and developed an open budget software tool for local self-government authorities (http://www.openbudget.in.ua). The web portal allowed for the creation of an interactive visualisation of local budgets, based on the financial and statistical data of local authorities, and their publication on the websites of local councils. A number of local authorities joined the project in 2015.^{[Note 108: Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) Progress Report 2014-15: Ukraine, 69.]}

The website, “The Price of the State” (http://costua.com), was successfully launched and administered by the NGO, CASE-Ukraine, with donor support. It provided visualised, accessible data on state budget revenues and expenses, debt, taxes paid, etc. As of October 2015, the platform, “Open City” (http://opencity.in.ua), contained about 18 cities, with more than 30,000 reports per year and about 300 improvements per month as a result of citizen reports.^{[Note 109: Ibid, 69.]}

Also, in February 2015, Parliament passed an advanced Law on the Openness of Use of Public Funds. The law required publication of all data related to public expenses on a single web portal, including real-time data on treasury transactions. In September 2015, the government adopted regulations required for the launch of the relevant web portal,^{[Note 110: Instruction of 14 September 2015 #911 on the set up and functioning of the single web portal on public money use, http://bit.ly/1KQGltn; Resolution of 14 September 2015 #694 on the procedure for administering the single web portal on public money use, http://bit.ly/1hfJBE4; and Resolution of 14 September 2015 #676 on the procedure for publication on the single web portal on public money use of information on payment transactions of the treasury account, http://bit.ly/1Ocw9zf.]} and allocated funds. On 15 September 2015, the Ministry of Finance, with support from NGOs and donors, launched a test of the web portal (http://edata.gov.ua).^{[Note 111: See official announcement about the launch of the portal at: http://bit.ly/1YucqYM. ]}

Initiatives described in the previous report have been further developed. According to the website, http://opencity.in.ua, 27 cities are connected to the platform, 34 messages are posted weekly, 414 improvements are accomplished monthly, and more than 29,000 comments are left on the website each year. The Open Budget IT tools to visualise local budgets (available at http://www.openbudget.in.ua) has been used by 50 cities and regions.^{[Note 112: http://openbudget.in.ua/?locale=uk.]}

Did it open government?

Access to information: Major

Public Accountability: Did not change

The website, “The Price of the State,” educated citizens about their taxes and how they are spent by the state, thereby providing information in user-friendly format and explaining complex financial concepts. According to a representative of the Centre for Political Studies and Analytics Eidos, the ability to track public finances through the portal has provided citizens with usable, quality information about state spending.^{[Note 113: Interview with Volodymyr Tarnay, Centre for Political Studies and Analytics Eidos, 20 June 2017.]} The website, “Open City,” led to real-time reporting of hundreds of local problems, and identified the relevant municipal services that resolved the issues.

The 2015 Law on the Openness of the Use of Public Funds was transformative as it required publication of detailed information on public expenditures by every budgetary unit, including real-time data on treasury transactions. This was a commendable achievement, though it was not part of the OGP action plan. A significant amount of budgetary data has been published, which resulted in a much higher level of openness and public scrutiny over the use of public funds. For example, open data introduced through the public finances web portal have been useful to journalists and private sector organizations, such as Youcontrol and Liga. It was also important that the Ministry of Finance introduce access to data through APIs. This allowed the development of further services from the open data available on the portal.^{[Note 114: Ibid.]} The government has yet to ensure full compliance with the law’s requirement.

Carried forward?

The commitment was carried over to the new action plan as a more specific task focused on the Transparent Budget information system.