Parliamentary Transparency (HR0032)

INCREASING THE AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORK OF THE CROATIAN
PARLIAMENT
Implementation of the measure is underway until December 2018
Leader of the measure CROATIAN PARLIAMENT
Description of the measure
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Which public issue does the measure address? The measure responds to the issue of the outdated technical aspects of the
Croatian Parliament website, its relevant presentation of information of
interest to the general public, poor search mechanisms of the content, and
access to information in open code.
What does the measure include? The measure involves improving the website of the Croatian Parliament
through technical improvements and redesign, and the addition of an
electronic voting system with the aim of simplifying multiple searches,
filtering and sorting, as well as overall better access to the content on the
Croatian Parliament website.
How does the measure contribute to resolving the
public issue?
The measure will achieve the implementation of stable search mechanisms
and integrate the contents of the Parliament website, while details of voting
records by individual members of Parliament will be published on their
personal pages.
Building up the web system will include many other new functions for
searching plenary sessions of the Parliament, its members and working
bodies, by various criteria, with the aim of simplifying access to information,
filtering and sorting data, and downloading it in open format (for example,
searching members by surname, calling, party affiliation, electoral
constituency, term of office, ballot paper, members' clubs, gender,
qualifications, education, duties, etc.). For the purpose of improving access
to information on plenary sessions, the aim is to achieve swifter, more
integrated data searches with the option to download. In terms of working
bodies, improvements will include the ability to monitor the work of a
working body according to the calendar, searching its documents more
easily, and monitoring the history of its membership, etc.
Why is this measure relevant to the values of the
Open Government Partnership?
The measure is relevant to transparency, because it improves the quality of
information published on the Croatian Parliament website and access to it
in open format, and its reuse, among other things.
Furthermore, it encourages the strengthening of mechanisms to control the
exercise of public authority on the part of the public.
Additional information The totals costs of building up the web system and redesigning the website
are around HRK 200,000, while the updating of the electronic voting system
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will be carried out separately, as part of internal development, and will
therefore require no extra funding.
The measure is in accordance with the e-Croatia 2020 Strategy.
Activities Implementation start date Implementation end date
7.1. Improve access to the contents of the
Croatian Parliament website Underway November 2018
7.2. Building up the electronic voting system Upon adoption of the Action Plan November 2018
Contact information
Person responsible in the body which is Leader of
the measure
Jasna Vaniček Fila
Function, department Advisor, Office of the Prime Minister
Email and telephone jasna.vanicekfila@sabor.hr, +385 1 4569 444
Other
participants
involved
State participants n/a
NGOs, private sector, multilaterals,
working groups
n/a

7. Parliamentary Transparency

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

"Measure 7. Increasing the Availability of Information about the Work of the Croatian Parliament" [57]

"The measure will achieve the implementation of stable search mechanisms and integrate the contents of the Parliament website, while details of voting records by individual members of Parliament will be published on their personal pages. Building up the web system will include many other new functions for searching plenary sessions of the Parliament, its members and working bodies, by various criteria, with the aim of simplifying access to information, filtering and sorting data, and downloading it in open format. (....) For the purpose of improving access to information on plenary sessions, the aim is to achieve swifter, more integrated data searches with the option to download. In terms of working bodies, improvements will include the ability to monitor the work of a working body according to the calendar, searching its documents more easily, and monitoring the history of its membership, etc. (…) The totals costs of building up the web system and redesigning the website are around HRK 200,000, while the updating of the electronic voting system will be carried out separately, as part of internal development, and will therefore require no extra funding."

Milestones:

7.1. Improve access to the contents of the Croatian Parliament website The Croatian Parliament website improved by building up the web system in accordance with the Act on the Right to Access Information and linked to sublegal acts, relevant EU regulations, the recommendations of the Inter-parliamentary Union on parliamentary websites, and in terms of supporting access to information which can be reused (technological utilisation, open data, open code)

• Data on voting by each member made available
• Simple, stable search mechanisms via xml web service implemented on the Croatian Parliament website
• Option introduced to download video recordings of plenary sessions of the Parliament

7.2. Building up the electronic voting system

• Building up the electronic voting system completed
• Information on voting by all members of Parliament made available

Start date: Underway

End date: December 2018

Context and Objectives

The last major redesign of the official parliamentary webpage occurred in 2003. [58] Since then, Croatian Parliament has continuously worked developing its official web pages. From 2005 and 2007 when a new website was launched. The next systematic improvement of the web system was in 2011 and again in 2018. [59] This commitment arises from a need to align the parliamentary website with the provisions of the Act on the Right to Access Information, [60] relevant EU regulation, recommendations of the Inter-Parliamentary Union on parliamentary websites, [61] and the Open Data Policy. [62] The objective is to improve functionality and user-friendliness of the website to support access to information and reuse of data (technical use, open data, open code, etc.).

This commitment upgrades a commitment from the second OGP action plan, [63] which promised inclusion of the following functionalities in the new website: voting data for each parliamentarian, searches via XML web service, and downloadable videos of plenary sessions. The activities are specific and verifiable and will directly influence access to information, as they offer data that was previously unavailable, and it will be better organized for reuse.

Its potential impact is minor, as a lot of parliamentary information is already available on their existing website, although in a less functional and user-friendly manner. For example, technical aspects are outdated, information is not presented clearly, search functions are poor, and data is unavailable in open code. Parliament members do not have their voting records available on their webpages and parliamentary working bodies do not publish their activities, membership, or discussion.

Next steps

The IRM researcher suggests the following:

• During the redesign, provide a clearly visible link to an archive of the old website for continuity of data;
• Ensure API functionality in the new webpage;
• Strive for 5^th star-level of data design when publishing data for reuse; and
• In the next action plan, Parliament could commit to publish the "legislative footprint" of each MP, linked with lobbying activities and business interests, as publicized in their declaration of assets.

7. Parliamentary Transparency

Completion: Substantial

The Croatian Parliament introduced the new webpage ^[47] in December 2018, offering most of the envisaged features, such as including new data in an open format, simplifying multiple searches, filtering and sorting data, and greater user-friendliness. Parliament services said they held several meetings with relevant representatives in preparation for the new website. Technical preconditions for publishing data via Application Programming Interfaces (API) were provided, although planning, building, and publishing the API have yet to be realized. Other datasets in open formats (CSV, TXT, XLSX) are available to users. [48] However, a few features do not yet meet the Government’s Open Data Policy. For example, access to data via API is only offered for archive data from the former webpage ^[49] and voting information is only offered for plenary sessions (disrupted due to COVID-19 and earthquake damage), ^[50] both of which have been criticized by GONG. ^[51] The Parliament’s press release ^[52] listed available APIs and stated that other datasets are awaiting publication.