Citizen Involvement in Cour Des Comptes (FR0048)

Involving citizens further in the work carried out by the Cour des comptes
Lead institution(s):
Cour des comptes
Other stakeholders:
High Council of Public Finance (HCFP),Budgetary and Financial Discipline Court (CDBF),andCouncilofMandatoryContributions(CPO)
Commitment extending Commitment 5 of the 2015-2017 NAP “Involving citizens further in the work carried out by the Cour des comptes”
OGP principles with which the commitment is associated:
Access to information, participation, accountability
Challenges
Tasked by the Constitution and the law to provide free, independent and collegial assessments of the use of public funds, the Cour des comptes is one of the Republic’s key institutions. It is an independent court situated midway between Parliament and the Government, and provides assistance to both. It plays an essential role in the functioning of our democracy and transformation of public action.
The Cour’s continued efforts to open up public data, encourage analysis based on data sciences and involve citizens more closely in its work, in accordance with its principles and procedures, evidence its commitment to the French open government initiative.
Objectives
Publication of more data on financial courts and innovation in ways of involving citizens in the Court’s work.
In the context of the first National Plan for an Open Government, financial courts undertook to involve citizens more closely in their work, in particular by making available growing numbers of quantitative datasets used or produced in the context of their controls, investigations and assessments, along with data bearing on their own activities. This major commitment was an extension of initiatives already undertaken by financial courts (some of them longstanding), through publication of their work and, in 2014, making the first datasets available.
2016 and 2017 saw further opening of data, which became normal practice for financial courts, with the publication of several hundred datasets on data.gouv.fr. Two “datasessions” were held in 2016 and 2017 to encourage reuse of data. An Entrepreneur d’Intérêt Général (EIG – Entrepreneur of General Interest) spent ten months at the Court working on opening up the work carried out by financial courts to citizens.
By renewing the commitment made in the context of the 2017-2019 National Action Plan for an Open Government, the Cour des comptes seeks to continue and bolster the ongoing momentum. Wishing to ensure continuity and because the aim of the commitment made for
2015-2017 still applies, the original commitment and the two actions it encompassed have been retained in the same form.
They will be accompanied, however, by fresh or increased efforts, for example: in order to increase dissemination of certain data in an open format: diversification of
types of data and their channels of dissemination, and encouragement of its reuse;
in order to further develop citizens’ interest in the Court’s work: deployment of new ways of informing and consulting citizens, in accordance with financial courts’
principles and procedures;
the new ways of informing and consulting citizens will take account of the digital
divide and try to adapt to the various uses to which citizens may put digital tools.
The road map in detail

Disseminating certain data resulting from work carried out by financial courts in opening data, reinforcing data quality and diversification requirements at the same time;
Diversifying data dissemination channels and encouraging reuse, in particular by:
organising open events;
developing tools and applications (APIs) facilitating reuse. 2017-2019
Further developing citizens’ interest in the Court’s work, in accordance with the institution’s principles and procedures, by trying out new ways of informing and consulting citizens 2018-2019

19. Involving citizens further in the work carried out by the Cour des Comptes

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

In the context of the first National Plan for an Open Government, financial courts undertook to involve citizens more closely in their work, in particular by making available growing numbers of quantitative datasets used or produced in the context of their controls, investigations and assessments, along with data bearing on their own activities. This major commitment was an extension of initiatives already undertaken by finan cial courts (some of them longstanding), through publication of their work and, in 2014, making the first datasets available.

2016 and 2017 saw further opening of data, which became normal practice for financial courts, with the publication of several hundred datasets on data.gouv.fr. Two “datasessions” were held in 2016 and 2017 to encourage reuse of data. An Entrepreneur d’Intérêt Général (EIG – Entrepreneur of General Interest) spent ten months at the Court working on opening up the work carried out by financial courts to citizens.

By renewing the commitment made in the context of the 2017-2019 National Action Plan for an Open Government, the Cour des comptes seeks to continue and bolster the ongoing momentum. Wishing to ensure continuity and because the aim of the commitment made for 2015-2017 still applies, the original commitment and the two actions it encompassed have been retained in the same form.

They will be accompanied, however, by fresh or increased efforts, for example:

• in order to increase dissemination of certain data in an open format: diversification of types of data and their channels of dissemination, and encouragement of its reuse;
• in order to further develop citizens’ interest in the Court’s work: deployment of new ways of informing and consulting citizens, in accordance with financial courts’ principles and procedures; the new ways of informing and consulting citizens will take account of the digital divide and try to adapt to the various uses to which citizens may put digital tools. [80]

Milestones

19.1 Disseminating certain data resulting from work carried out by financial courts in opening data, reinforcing data quality and diversification requirements at the same time;

Diversifying data dissemination channels and encouraging reuse, in particular by organising open events; developing tools and applications (APIs) facilitating reuse.

19.2 Further developing citizens’ interest in the Court’s work, in accordance with the institution’s principles and procedures, by trying out new ways of informing and consulting citizens

Start Date: 2018

End Date: 2019

Context and Objectives

The Cour des Comptes, France’s supreme audit institution, holds responsibility for assessing the use of public funds, auditing the state and social security accounts, and evaluating public policies. Transparency and accountability are at the core of its mission, but the institution is often perceived as complex by the general public. The Cour des Comptes has been involved and active in the government’s open government efforts since France joined the OGP. [81] Its commitment in France’s 2015–2017 action plan was only partly completed by the end of the implementation period and marginally opened government. That commitment involved opening inspection and evaluation data and involving citizens in the institution’s work. This commitment is a continuation of the previous action plan and aims to open new data, disseminate data via new channels, and experiment with new ways of informing and involving citizens.

The commitment aims to improve public access to data and information held by the Cour des Comptes and improve ways of informing and consulting citizens. Thus, the commitment is relevant to the OGP values of access to information and civic participation.

This commitment is not specific enough to be verifiable. The milestones read as objectives rather than concrete activities. They do not contain sufficient detail to indicate the type of information and data that the Cour des Comptes plans to open. They also do not specify the type of events the institution wants to organize and for what purpose. The milestones, too, lack specificity on the means through which the institution plans to inform and involve citizens. The commitment mentions the problem of digital inequalities (facture numérique) but does not point to any other issues that the institution plans to solve through this commitment.

This initiative would have a minor impact, given the lack of specificity and information regarding the current problem of citizen involvement. As indicated in the IRM report on the 2015–2017 action plan, there seems to be very limited reuse of the data published by the Cour des Comptes. [82] The focus thus appears to be on the data scientist community and the hosting of hackathons. [83] The importance of the Cour the Comptes in the control of the use of public funds makes its involvement in open government efforts and any additional information and data published a positive step toward more transparency.

Next steps

The IRM researcher recommends that the commitment be carried on in the next action plan and that:

• The commitment clearly specify what new data will be published and clarify the limits of usability;
• An evaluation of the impact of the open data policy of the Cour des Comptes be carried out to inform efforts “to citizens’ interest in the Court’s work” (Milestone 19.2) and to better understand what data and dissemination channels should be prioritized;
• The commitment text be more specific regarding how the agency plans to generate more interest from the public; and
• The commitment text requires a mechanism allowing the public to play a more active role, such as commenting on the information published, providing feedback, and holding the Cour des Comptes as well as other agencies accountable.

19. Involving citizens further in the work carried out by the Cour des comptes

Completion: Substantial

The Cour des comptes has opened 172 datasets on budget implementation of government institutions, on specific inquiries conducted by the court and on the activities of financial courts, and opened the source code of its financial analysis software OpenAnafi. [lvii] The government self-assessment indicates that the Cour des comptes has invested in its communication means through a new website, social media presence (87,000 followers on Twitter, 9,000 likes on the Facebook page) the recruitment of dedicated staff and physical events during the European Heritage Days. Despite these outreach efforts, most open datasets have never been reused (the ones that have been reused concern the anonymized jurisprudence of the Cour des comptes, reports on regional audit chambers, the postal service and reform or the cost of high schools), according to the statistics published on data.gouv.fr. [lviii] The vagueness of the commitment makes it hard to assess whether all the milestones have been completed.