Action plan – Santa Catarina, Brazil, 2021 – 2022

At-a-Glance

Duration

October 2022

Date Submitted

5th August 2021

Foreword(s)

The construction of an open government is essential for building citizen trust, as well as being a key contributor to achieve results in various government areas, like public sector integrity and anti-corruption, modernization of the public sector, civic freedom, digital government, public procurementTransparency in the procurement process can help combat corruption and waste that plagues a significant portion of public procurement budgets globally. Technical specifications: Commitments that aim t... More, public sector innovation, public financial management, and human resources management, in addition to the socio-economic goals of the 2030 Global Agenda for sustainable development.

In the context of contemporary public administration it is expected that the state opens space for more intersectional articulation and multi-professional involvement of its technicians As well as, for the participation of organized civil Society in the problems solving and in the elaboration of economic and social-environment strategies. With such understanding, centralized and individualized practices become decentralized and begin to allow the participation of Other governmental and social actors, under the sign of cooperation and interaction. The democratic process widely debated in the world has brought a demand for bigger transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More to the forum of public policy, aligned to accountability.

From this perspective, the executive branch of the State of Santa Catarina is proud to present the 1st Action Plan of the SC Open Government Program, hoping to obtain significant results after the biennium of this current mandate. Santa Catarina’s First Action Plan has 4 commitments, which were created between May and July 2021 by 67 persons, representing 31 institutions (17 civil society organizations and 14 Public Administration bodies) oriented by the principles of the Open Government PartnershipThe Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving government transparency, ensuring opportunities for citizen participation in public matters, and strengthen... More (OGP).

Open Government Challenges, Opportunities and Strategic Vision

This subsection details the Open Government Strategic Vision in your local area that should guide the commitments for the action plan period.

What is the long-term vision for open government in your context and jurisdiction?

The State of Santa Catarina has a history of collaboration between society and public sector that contributed to open up the government. Many steps have already been taken to institutionalize this agenda, however, it is necessary to adopt a long-term vision as a government practice and instrument that enables the achievement of superior performance or significant leaps in the levels of transparency, social participation, and accountability.

In this sense, recognizing the open government  principles as key to the evolution of government and society, the government of the state of Santa Catarina reaffirms its commitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... and establishes a long-term vision to guide its actions:

Santa Catarina: reference in innovation at management transparency and social participation for preventing and fighting corruption and for the continuous improvement of public goods and services.

What are the achievements in open government to date (for example, recent open government reforms)?

The government has made significant progress to institutionalize the open government agenda, which includes anti-corruption measures, open dataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici..., open contractingA transparent procurement process, known as open contracting, increases competition, improves public service delivery, and ensures governments better value for their money. Technical specifications: C... More, among others. In this spirit, a broad administrative reform was implemented in 2019, with multiple initiatives that open up the public sector. These include the creation of a body – the Comptroller General of the State – CGE. This is the first time that the competence over transparency and the effective fight against corruption throughout the state executive are in the same body.

Co-creation and co-production of public policies and programs have a long track record in Santa Catarina, including in the open government space. There are a number of programs and policies that are codesigned with active citizen participationAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, citizen participation occurs when “governments seek to mobilize citizens to engage in public debate, provide input, and make contributions that lead to m... More. Examples span a large number of sectors and include, but are not limited to 27 legally established sectoral councils that enable participation in government affairs.

Open government initiatives co-created with Civil Society organizations include the Best Practice Award (State University of Santa Catarina); Database COVID-19 (Social Good Brasil); Mirim Observatory (Social Observatory of Santa Catarina), Participation Integrity Program in the States (Transparency International Brazil). Additionally, the construction of the SC 2030 plan, which established long-term planning, was the result of the broad participation of representatives of the public state administration, Civil Society, and experts.

What are the current challenges/areas for improvement in open government that the jurisdiction wishes to tackle?

Through participation in the OGP Local Program, the Executive Branch intends to advance in the following OGP policy areas: anti-corruption, Public Procurement and Open Procurement, Fiscal Openness, Public Services and Open Data.

What are the medium-term open government goals that the government wants to achieve?

The medium-term goals are:

• implementing international open contracting standards, focusing on disclosure, participation, and monitoring across the state procurement chain;
• openness to the budget and public expenditure cycle, enabling citizens to control the public expenditure and have the conditions to reflect on their interests and needs.;expanding active and passive access to information, including the availability of open data;
• Having active citizens and encourage their participation in the evaluation of public services, to improve them
• enhancing the role of the state government in opening up the government;
• broaden the relations among government and civil society, to promote the open government principles across the state.

How does this action plan contribute to achieve the Open Government Strategic Vision?

The commitments of this first action plan were designed to reflect the guidelines, challenges, and principles that guide the concept of open government once they strengthen initiatives focused on transparency, citizen participation, social control, and the fight against corruption.

Among the initiatives there are the adoption of international criteria for transparency in procurement and contracting of the executive branch, restructuring of transparency channels, implementation of the council of public services users, adoption of a tool for service evaluation by the population, implementation of the new integrated system of ombudsman and access to information, and the initiative of open government articulation with municipalities.

The commitments represent a significant step forward. The proposed government actions, guided by the Strategic Vision, also serve to accelerate the government’s opening movement in SC.

How does the open government strategic vision contribute to the accomplishment of the current administration’s overall policy goals?

The Open Government Strategic Vision contributes to the current administration’s policy objectives by including relevant aspects presented in the SC 2019-2022 Government Plan, that aims to combat corruption, turning the state more efficient, and also to promote transparency and internal monitoring at public management.

The Government Plan presents the most sensitive points and deserve special attention for public policies that will guarantee a more competitive, fair, transparent, and effective state. Among the guidelines for government programmatic actions, there are the implementation of anti-corruption mechanisms and the promotion of alliances with the various sectors of society.

The Strategic Vision of Open Government reaffirms the campaign intentions, already implemented actions by the current administration, and guides future actions.

Engagement and Coordination in the Open Government Strategic Vision and OGP Action Plan

Please list the lead institutions responsible for the implementation of this OGP action plan.

• Comptroller General of the State – CGE
• State Secretary of Administration – SEA
• Santa Catarina State University – UDESC
• Development Agency of Santa Catarina – BADESC
• Social Observatory of Santa Catarina – OSB-SC
• Politeia Research Group

What kind of institutional arrangements are in place to coordinate between government agencies and departments to implement the OGP action plan?

The SC Open Government Program established a Motor Group to coordinate the process of co-creation and implementation of commitments in the State Executive Branch. The group was constituted by representatives from direct and indirect management bodies and civil society organizations, in order to:

• discuss the strategy and methodology to improvement the social participation process at the Executive Branch’s work in the OGP;
• define the objectives and methodology of the co-creation processCollaboration between government, civil society and other stakeholders (e.g., citizens, academics, private sector) is at the heart of the OGP process. Participating governments must ensure that a dive... of the Action Plan;
• propose adjustments to formulation, implementation and evaluation processes of the Action Plan;
• organize the co-creation, implementation and evaluation steps of the action plan, including the availability of consultation tools, research and study;
• collaborate at formulation, implementation and evaluation process of the commitments of the Action Plan; and

• build up civil society responsibility actions in the Action Plan commitments.

What kind of spaces have you used or created to enable the collaboration between government and civil society in the co-creation and implementation of this action plan? Mention both offline and online spaces.

Due to the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic, the collaboration process between government and civil society was carried out online. Santa Catarina’s entire participation process in the OGP Local Program, from the application to the co-creation of this Action Plan, was conducted using digital platforms to enable this interaction.

The same group that conducted the application of Santa Catarina to the OGP Local Program also formed the Motor Group. Regular meetings were carried out to decide on the progress of the program.

Another important co-creation space were the thematic workshops. Also online, representatives of different organizations inside and outside the government discussed the topics and commitments that would be the subject of the Action Plan.

Finally, an online public consultation was held and all citizens could evaluate the commitments and actions proposed at the thematic workshops.

What measures did you take to ensure diversity of representation (including vulnerable or marginalized populations) in these spaces?

A more diverse representation is a point to move forward in the coming cycles. However, at all development stages of the Action Plan, including the composition of the Motor Group and the thematic workshops, we seek to maintain the balance between representatives of civil society and government. The invitation to participate was addressed to civil society organizations, which indicated their representatives.

At the final stage, a public consultation was conducted to promote even more citizen participation and a wide variety. The consultation was publicized by different media, such as local radio, print media, institutional portal of the State Executive Branch and the Comptroller General of the State, as well as, through civil society organizations, municipalities, among others, thus resulting in the participation of people from different regions and institutions across the state.

Who participated in these spaces?

The co-creation process was carried out at the thematic workshops to discuss and improve the projects presented by the governmental bodies. Different groups participated in these spaces, such as: public sector agencies of federal, state, and municipal levels, from both executive and control bodies; civil society organizations; professional councils; industry federation; municipalities association; journalists; researchers; universities; city halls; and research groups.

In the public consultation we observed the involvement of many different actors, like: citizens, universities, state and municipal government bodies and entities, civil society organizations, city councillors, companies, and other private entities.

How many groups participated in these spaces?

31

How many public-facing meetings were held in the co-creation process?

30

How will government and non-governmental stakeholders continue to collaborate through the implementation of the action plan?

The implementation of the action plan must maintain the consolidated principles at the elaboration phase, expanding the participation of civil society segments and government sectors.

Participants of the thematic workshops proposed actions to solve the public problems using brainstorming and other co-production methods. In addition, stakeholders from civil society who wished could also volunteer as partners of the proposed actions implementation.

Government and non-governmental stakeholders will continue to collaborate in specific actions, such as: co-creation of procurement transparency protocols, prototype testing, development and implementation of training, interaction with open government processes already underway, incentive to social control, and alliances to promote transparency and participation channels.

Please describe the independent Monitoring Body you have identified for this plan.

According to the last meeting with Mr. Rudi Bormmann, the independent Monitoring Body will be sent latter.

Provide the contact details for the independent monitoring body.

To be determined.

What types of activities will you have in place to discuss progress on commitments with stakeholders?

The SC Open Government Program Motor Group will hold periodic meetings to discuss the progress of the commitments activities. These meetings will evaluate the development of the actions, verifying if the deadlines set in the Action Plan are being met, guiding corrective actions if necessary, and aligning activities to ensure that actions are initiating at the expected time.

In addition, some stakeholders will be monitoring the commitments signed, once they will exercise roles of support and oversight.

How will you regularly check in on progress with implementing agencies?

A State Executive (ProjetaSC) software will be used to monitorate the actions implementation. The responsible bodies will update the status of the action and the information will be available on an online platform that provides full transparency, and allows the monitoring in real time, both for the external evaluator, and the general public. The official channel that shows all information is at the following link: https://cge.sc.gov.br/governo-aberto/

The Motor Group will play an active role alongside the bodies responsible for the implementation of the plan, in order to support and facilitate the articulation of all the actors involved, overcoming obstacles, seeking alternatives and ensuring compliance with the proposed actions.

The Motor Group will also hold regular follow-up meetings with the responsible bodies in order to ensure the implementation of the actions within the right time.

How will you share the results of your monitoring efforts with the public?

As part of the communication plan, different tools will be used to share the program results with the public. Regular reports will be sent by email to the participants of thematic workshops and public consultation, in order to inform the stakeholders about the progress of the program. Social media of government and partner institutions will be used for a wider dissemination of results.

In addition, the “SC Open Government” website will be updated about the progress, allowing any citizen to track the implementation of the commitments. In this way, the links and documents necessary to verify the outputs and respective fulfillment of the commitments will be shared as well.

Endorsement from Non-Governmental Stakeholders

• Alexsandro Schu, President, Social Observatory of Santa Catarina
• Paula Chies Schommer, Leader, Politeia Research Group – UDESC/Esag
• Florencia Guerzovich, Co-Founder, #ACT4Delivery

Governo Aberto Website

Action Plan 2021-2022