Online Accountability of Resources for Education Within the National Fund for Education Development (BR0040)

to develop an online application for the Accountability Managing System – Online Accounts with the aim of disclosing information on the transfer of resources of the National Fund for Education Development for the implementation of public policies through educational programs and projects. The interface shall provide for the exchange of data between systems, for the automation of accounts analysis, for the standardization of rules and procedures, thus rationalizing and integrating the stages of accountability. Furthermore, the application shall disclosure to the society reports and graphics on the execution of resources.

Commitment 1.4 Online Accountability of Resources for Education within the National Fund for Education Development

Commitment Text: To develop an online application for the Accountability Managing System – Online Accounts with the aim of disclosing information on the transfer of resources of the National Fund for Education Development for the implementation of public policies through educational programs and projects. The interface shall provide for the exchange of data between systems, for the automation of accounts analysis, for the standardization of rules and procedures, thus rationalizing and integrating the stages of accountability. Furthermore, the application shall disclosure to the society reports and graphics on the execution of resources.

Responsible institution: Ministry of Education (MEC)

Supporting institution: None

Start date: Not specified                          End date: 14 December 2014

Commitment aim

This commitment addressed the need for a new accountability model to enhance the capacity and efficiency of the National Fund for Education Development. The previous model had long processing times and a backlog of unanalyzed account reports. The commitment aimed to reduce the time it took to process account reports, automate tasks, help government agencies collaborate, implement real-time control of the budget process, and publish reports and graphics on the use of public resources.

Status

Midterm: Limited

The new online system was developed, and is operational. The application contains systematic data on goods and services, expenditures and payments, creditors, and statements on the allocation of funds in financial markets. It drastically reduced the average processing time and eliminated the backlog of account reports. However, a key milestone of the commitment — the public disclosure of reports and graphics on the use of resources — was not achieved.

End of term: Limited

The IRM researcher found no additional progress on this commitment since the midterm evaluation.

The system is still not available to the public, and civil society cannot access reports and graphics as to how resources are being used. They can, however, submit formal information requests to the agency.^{[Note 3: Please see https://www.fnde.gov.br/sigpc/login.seam.]}

Did it open government?

Access to information: Did not change

The commitment sought to build an online application for the National Fund for Education Development to enhance educational resource accountability, and included a milestone to open the application data to the public. Data disclosure was the only element that was relevant to the OGP value of open government. Since it was not achieved, the commitment did not change the status quo. The information is now more organized than before, and citizens can submit information requests to access the internal account data. However, the public does not know how the data are organised, or what it should look for. In addition, as the data are not available online, only few people know of their existence. It is not possible, then, to conclude that there is now greater public access to information.

Carried forward?

The commitment was not included in the next action plan. For the future, the IRM researcher recommends implementing an online mechanism for accessing the information, as well as enabling budget expenditure tracking by civil society.