Transparency of Public Funds (BR0085)

Lead government institution: Ministry of Transparency, Oversight and Comptroller General of Brazil. Civil servant in charge for implementing at lead government institution: Otávio Moreira de Castro Neves. Position - Department Director/Transparency and Control Department: E-mail otavio.neves@cgu.gov.br. Telephone: 55 61 2020 6538. Other involved actors: Government: Ministry of Transparency, Oversight and Comptroller General of Brazil Ministry of Justice and Citizenship Ministry of Planning, Development and Management Ministry of Finance Central Bank of Brazil City Hall of São Paulo. Civil society, private sector, group of workers and multilateral actors: Brazilian Institute of Tributary Planning Institute for Socioeconomic Studies (Inesc) Social Observatory of Brazil Open Knowledge Transparency Brazil. Status quo or problem/issue to be addressed: Legal and cultural constraints, which do not allow society to have data access and unrestricted information. Main objective: To enhance active transparency mechanisms about federal public resources Commitment short description Establishing ways of assuring information will be appropriated and effectively used by society, which will allow greater understanding and will also broaden social participation, providing a more effective monitoring. OGP Challenge addressed by the Commitment: Increase of Public Integrity Increase of corporative accountability. Commitment relevance: The strategic matrix will assure a greater effectiveness on ensuring access and effective use to data and public resource information. Goal: Disseminated and published unified actions of the Federal Government, with a structured governance model, which will foster effective use to data and public resource information by society

Commitment Text:

Formulate a strategic matrix of transparency actions, with broad citizen participation, in order to promote better governance and to ensure access and effective use of data and public resource information

The commitment aims to enhance active transparency mechanisms on federal public resources, that is, to improve actions related with information the State must disclose, without being demanded for. It establishes ways of assuring information will be appropriated and effectively used by society, which will allow greater understanding and will also broaden social participation, providing a more effective monitoring.

2.1 – Development of a Plan of Mobilization and Disclosure, in order to enhance participation, assuring best practices dissemination, related to public resource information

2.2 – Transparency Council restructuring

2.3 – Survey of initiatives, rules, systems and data (public or not), related to transparency and federal public resources

2.4 – Formulation of a strategic matrix, related to transparency actions, with identification of those in charge and deadlines

2.5 – Plan approval and dissemination

2.6 – Final report launch

Responsible institution: Ministry of Transparency, Oversight and Comptroller General of Brazil

Supporting institutions: Ministry of Justice and Citizenship, Ministry of Planning, Development and Management, Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Brazil, City Hall of São Paulo, Brazilian Institute of Tributary Planning, Institute for Socioeconomic Studies (Inesc), Social Observatory of Brazil, Open Knowledge, Transparency Brazil

Start date: December 2016.. End date: November 2018

Context and Objectives

The commitment addresses the need to improve active transparency mechanisms at the federal level. The government aims to achieve this goal by improving the government disclosure of data in key active transparency initiatives, such as the Federal Transparency Portal. Specifically, the government expects to design a governance-model strategic matrix of key transparency actions. The matrix will highlight actions that promote the proactive disclosure of government information (i.e., the release of information before it is requested), as well as the appropriate and effective use of government information by civil society in monitoring government activities.

In December 2015, the government released an index of active transparency, the Escala Brasil Transparente (Brazilian Transparency Index).[1] The government based the index on its agencies’ responses to information requests at the federal, state, and municipal levels. The report makes clear that cities, in particular, need to improve their active transparency processes. In the 2017 index, only 2 percent of cities achieve the maximum score.[2] At the state level, the results were also poor: the state of Amapá had a score of zero, and Rio de Janeiro had the second lowest score (5 points out of 10).

The commitment’s level of specificity is medium. The commitment lists several deliverables. These include the formulation and publication of a strategic matrix with transparency actions, a restructuring of the Transparency Council, and a survey of transparency initiatives related to federal public resources. However, the full scope of many of the milestones is unclear, which makes it difficult to properly assess the activities.

The commitment has a minor potential impact, due to its mostly strategic nature. From civil society, the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies reported to the IRM that the commitment could have a major impact. It noted that current active transparency portals do not include (or include only limited) information about fiscal data and the composition of federal budget expenses. However, while the commitment could lead to important improvements in the future, most of the milestones refer to preliminary steps. For example, the main deliverable—the published matrix and report with key transparency actions—would include reforms to be implemented after the end date of the action plan.

The commitment focuses on using technology (such as the Transparency Portal and open data processes) to increase active transparency mechanisms, such as the Electronic System of Information Services to the Citizen and ombudsman channels such as the e-OUV (federal ombudsperson system). Thus, the commitment is relevant to the OGP values of access to information and technology and innovation. In addition, the commitment is relevant to civic participation because the government plans to 1) develop the strategic transparency actions together with civil society and 2) restructure and strengthen the Transparency Council, a forum that includes both government and civil society organizations.[3]

Completion

The commitment’s level of completion is limited.

As stated in the July 2017 implementation report,[4] the Ministry of Transparency, Oversight, and Comptroller-General produced the mobilization plan (milestone 2.1). The plan was submitted for public consultation among the civil society partners listed as supporting institutions in the commitment text. Nonetheless, the government received no feedback on the proposed content.

As for the restructuring of the existing Transparency Council (milestone 2.2), the government submitted a policy proposal for civic consultation at the Participa.br portal in September 2017.[5] The new proposal aims to give the council a more active role and enable it to demand other agencies reply to its inquiries. The proposal was open for public consultation between 25 September 2017 and 24 October 2017. During this period of time, the proposal received more than 40 comments.[6] However, since the government proposed the policy after the cut-off date for this evaluation (June 2017), the milestone will be considered complete in the next IRM report.

The mapping of initiatives, norms, systems, and datasets related to federal resources (milestone 2.3) is underway. The open data portal Dados.gov.br stores an updated list of datasets available for download.[7] The Transparency Portal stored a set of norms and initiatives on federal transparency processes prior to the start of the action plan.[8] The government still has to update the list of initiatives at the state and city levels.

Milestone 2.4 has limited progress. This milestone refers to the elaboration of a strategic matrix to promote transparency initiatives. The milestone also includes initiatives related to the future delivery of a new transparency portal, a working group on data standards, and an event in Brasilia to advance the matrix debate. According to a government representative, these activities are planned. While discussions have begun, the activities have not been executed.

Milestones 2.5 and 2.6 have not started.

As mentioned in the action plan, milestones 2.1-2.3 were expected to be delivered by October 2017. Thus, the commitment is currently behind schedule.

Early Results (if any)

Due to the limited completion of the commitment, there is little evidence of early results. A civil society representative from the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies reported that the commitment’s implementation started in July 2017. However, it is important to mention that the government did carry out preliminary steps beforehand, such as hosting a monitoring meeting in February 2017 that included discussion of the commitment, as well as e-mailing minutes to and requesting suggestions from stakeholders in April 2017. The representative noted that the previously designed milestones are expected to be redefined by adopting a broader focus. The new milestones shift the focus from detailed fiscal transparency data.

Next Steps

The IRM researcher recommends completing the commitment. As next steps, the government should refine the focus of the commitment, because there is limited time left in the action plan. This means that beyond mapping possible areas for action, the government should be more specific about which challenges and opportunities the commitment will address.

2. Transparency of Public Funds

Commitment Text:

Formulate a strategic matrix of transparency actions, with broad citizen participation, in order to promote better governance and to ensure access and effective use of data and public resource information.

The commitment aims to enhance active transparency mechanisms on federal public resources, that is, to improve actions related with information the State must disclose, without being demanded for. It establishes ways of assuring information will be appropriated and effectively used by society, which will allow greater understanding and will also broaden social participation, providing a more effective monitoring.

More specifically, the commitment was set out to achieve the following milestones:

2.1 – Development of a Plan of Mobilization and Disclosure, in order to enhance participation, assuring best practices dissemination, related to public resource information

2.2 – Transparency Council restructuring

2.3 – Survey of initiatives, rules, systems and data (public or not), related to transparency and federal public resources

2.4 – Formulation of a strategic matrix, related to transparency actions, with identification of those in charge and deadlines

2.5 – Plan approval and dissemination

2.6 – Final report launch

Responsible institution: Ministry of Transparency, Oversight and Comptroller General of Brazil

Supporting institutions: Ministry of Justice and Citizenship, Ministry of Planning, Development and Management, Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Brazil, City Hall of São Paulo, Brazilian Institute of Tributary Planning, Institute for Socioeconomic Studies (Inesc), Social Observatory of Brazil, Open Knowledge Brazil, Transparência Brasil

Start Date: December 2016               End Date: November 2018

Commitment Aim:

The commitment addressed the need to improve active transparency mechanisms at the federal level. The government aimed to achieve this goal by improving disclosure of data with key initiatives, such as the Federal Transparency Portal.

Status

Midterm: Limited

The commitment saw limited completion, and the implementation was behind schedule. The government completed Milestones 2.1 and 2.2. They involved the development of a mobilization plan (2.1) and the restructuring of the existing Transparency Council (2.2). Milestones 2.3 and 2.4 were underway. These milestones involved the mapping of initiatives, norms, systems, and datasets related to federal resources (2.3) and a strategic matrix to promote transparency initiatives (2.4). The government completed Milestone 2.3, but survey details and updates are not made public yet. Milestone 2.4 was started but not completed. Milestones 2.5 and 2.6 had not started.

End of term: Limited

Milestones 2.1–2.3 were completed. Milestone 2.4 is underway, and Milestones 2.5–2.6 were not started. Thus, the level of completion is limited.

Milestone 2.3 involved mapping strategic information and processes related to the transparency of public resources. At the time of the midterm report, the open data portal Dados.gov.br [6] stored databases available for download. At that time, the Transparency Portal [7] also stored a set of norms and initiatives on federal transparency processes. The new transparency portal features a series of updates representing considerable advances in access to information compared to the previous version that dated from the 2000s. The creation of the portal also related to previous incomplete milestones from the first and second action plans. The implementation monitoring report [8] states that the material will be compiled and included in the fourth edition of the transparency ranking index developed by the Ministry of Transparency, Oversight, and Comptroller-General. [9] The About section of the new transparency portal provides details on the mapping and transparency of public funds processes. [10]

Milestone 2.4 is ongoing and involves the elaboration of a strategic matrix to promote transparency initiatives. As the implementation monitoring report by the Ministry of Transparency, Oversight, and Comptroller-General states, [11] the Transparency Council holds responsibility for completing it. The council stopped meeting in 2015, [12] but a new decree in August 2018 has reinstated and reinforced the council’s role with new powers and competencies. [13]

Milestones 2.5 and 2.6 involve plan approval, dissemination of the Transparency Council and the commitment final report. The government did not complete these milestones.

Did It Open Government?

Access to Information: Marginal

Civic Participation: Marginal

The commitment improved transparency mechanisms at the federal level by improving governmental disclosure of data through the Federal Transparency Portal. The portal is accessed more than 20 million times every year (based on 2017 data). This frequency makes it the largest and most important of all Brazilian government portals. It is too soon to know if the changes made due to this commitment helped increase the access number rates. Nevertheless, the information is more clearly displayed and more accessible. A government representative’s survey response (Otavio Neves, from the Comptroller-General of Brazil) revealed key improvements: (a) There is a notification tool for citizens to receive information on their topics of interest. [14] (b) There now exist organizing links and information from state and municipal transparency and accountability services (i.e., Electronic System of Information Services to the Citizen portals). [15] (c) Finally, the portal features tailor-made infographics and provides mobile phone access.

In terms of civic participation, this representative argued that the status quo improved mainly due to two factors: (a) The government created a crowdsourcing tool for citizens to report inconsistency in data (this option is included as a specific task in the “contact” information to identify the responsible for the issue). (b) The government increased its sharing tools, using social media (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) and employing a QR code for a unique URL generation.

A major transformation would involve the reform of the Transparency Council, due to be composed by members from government and civil society. The council has a track record of collaboration that has led to advances in freedom of information, open data, and anti-corruption. [16] According to the government representative, a new council was due to be created in December 2018 (i.e. The decree to implement it was published in August, but the formation of the council was still pending by the time the end-of-term report was written). According to the CSO representative Paula Odo, CSO/REPTS [17], interviewed by the IRM researcher, the development of the Transparency Council during the implementation plan has mixed results. As Oda argues, at the begin of the commitment the Council was subordinated to the Presidency, what lead to a greater impact. During President Temer period however it was realocated to CGU, a Ministerial subordination, what lead to a period of lower activity impact, but at the end of the implementation period lead to an increase of Council’s importance.  

The government launched the portal at the end of the action plan and CSO representatives had limited time to evaluate the changes (despite the positive reception of the improvements done). Thus, the IRM researcher assesses that the implementation of the commitment led to a marginal change of status quo.

Carried Forward?

This commitment was not included in the fourth action plan. Considering that completion is limited, next steps for the commitment should focus on finishing the strategic matrix related to transparency actions. The matrix’s completion could lead to a better system to monitor improvements on the transparency portal.