Restructuring of the Brazilian Federal Government Transparency Portal (BR0067)

to improve the Transparency Portal by refining its usability, by adjusting it to the open data principles and by making it more interactive and accessible, thus facilitating navigation for its several users. All information currently disclosed on the website shall be maintained and tools to facilitate the search for information shall be developed. Additionally, the new Portal shall incorporate innovative technologies, thus meeting the society expectations. Furthermore, the Portal’s databases shall be restructured by integrating them, thus ensuring the handling of large volumes of data in a more efficient and dynamic way.

Commitment 3.1. Restructuring of the Brazilian Federal Government Transparency Portal

Commitment Text: To improve the Transparency Portal by refining its usability, by adjusting it to the open data principles and by making it more interactive and accessible, thus facilitating navigation for its several users. All information currently disclosed on the website shall be maintained and tools to facilitate the search for information shall be developed. Additionally, the new Portal shall incorporate innovative technologies, thus meeting the society expectations.

Furthermore, the Portal’s databases shall be restructured by integrating them, thus ensuring the handling of large volumes of data in a more efficient and dynamic way.

Responsible institution: Office of the Comptroller General

Supporting institution: None

Start date: Not specified                          End date: 14 December 2014

Commitment aim

This commitment attempted to restructure the transparency portal to improve its navigability, integration with social networks, and search tools, as well as support more options for visualising data and content. The transparency portal is a hub for most federal transparency data, and provides citizens access to key open datasets and other information records. In spite of its pioneering record (it was released in 2004 as the first portal of its kind in the country), the technical aspects of the website had not been updated considerably since then. For example, the portal was unavailable for smart phones and tablets (the fastest growing means of Internet access in the country, particularly for the lower classes).

Status

Midterm: Limited

The commitment had a limited level of completion, due to new international financial regulations requiring changes to the data warehouse, and a new contracting process for the communications firm in charge of implementing the changes. Government information suggests that there were deliverables and verified progress, including information from usability tests with citizen volunteers, meetings with organised civil society, an online interface usability survey with the University of Brasilia (UNB), and an internal survey carried out via feedback received from the ‘Talk to Us’ channel over the last five years.

End of term: Limited

There have been several internal improvements to the portal since the midterm evaluation, for example, data extraction, storage and processing improvements, and new prototypes (e.g., web page layouts). However, the transparency portal is not fully ready for citizen use. There are no results as described in the commitment, that is, the use of interactive, accessible, and innovative technologies aimed at facilitating navigation for general users. It is important to note the ongoing participatory nature of the project, as civil society members and organisations are involved in testing and designing the tools.

Did it open government?

Access to information: Did not change

The portal is the most important of its kind at the federal level. The main technical areas addressed by the commitment, however, were not completed, resulting in no change to the status quo for end users. This is the second time the government has included a commitment to modernise the transparency portal, and the second time it has not been completed. Nevetheless, it is worth recognising the government’s effort to achieve progress in this area, as well as civil society’s collaborative role in trying to move forward on the commitment.

Carried forward?

The commitment was not carried forward to the third Brazilian action plan. If it is carried forward in the future, the IRM researcher recommends trying to achieve the commitment’s aim: to make the portal more interactive and accessible. This could include integrating the portal with mobile applications, data visualisation tools, public accountability institutions, and civil society or private sector third-party developers.