Increasing Citizen Participation in Supervision of Public Finances (Public Audit) (GE0055)
Overview
At-a-Glance
Action Plan: Georgia National Action Plan 2016-2018
Action Plan Cycle: 2016
Status: Inactive
Institutions
Lead Institution: State Audit Office
Support Institution(s): Advisory group comprising of the representatives of the State Audit Office and civil sector, working on the citizen participation issues in the public finance management supervision
Policy Areas
Anti-Corruption, Audits, Capacity Building, E-Government, E-petitions, Fiscal Openness, Oversight of Budget/Fiscal Policies, Public Participation, Publication of Budget/Fiscal Information, Social AccountabilityIRM Review
IRM Report: Georgia End-of-Term Report 2016-2018, Georgia Mid-Term Report 2016-2018
Starred:
Yes
Early Results:
Major
Design i
Verifiable: Yes
Relevant to OGP Values: Access to Information , Civic Participation , Public Accountability , Technology
Implementation i
Description
Increasing citizen participation in supervision of public finances (Public Audit); In cooperation with the civil sector, the State Audit Office plans to enhance citizen participation in the supervision process of public finances (public audit), that will build their trust in the State Audit Office. At the initial stage a strategy will be drafted, in close cooperation with the civil sector. Considering the best practice of various countries, the strategy will provide mechanisms to ensure constructive citizen participation in the complete audit cycle, including the monitoring stage of recommendation implementation. In addition, by means of an innovative ICT webplatform mechanism, citizens will receive complete information about the state budget, public finance management, audit findings, given recommendations and the status of its implementation. Various methods of visualization will be applied to make information easily perceivable on the web-platform. The webplatform will form a channel for bilateral communication between the State Audit Office and citizens. On the one hand, citizens will become familiar with the information provided by the Audit Office, on the other hand, they will be able to notify the Office about a concrete malefaction, as well as the drawbacks of government services identified by them. Furthermore, citizens will be able to submit proposals based on professional surveys on the improvement of the identified shortcomings. The information received from a citizen will be analyzed and taken into consideration if recommended in the drafting and implementation process of the audit plan. Citizens’ participation in the public audit process will rise public awareness on the budgetary processes and will rise their demand for transparent management of the public resources. Thorough information will improve the quality of citizen supervision of the governance processes. Date ofImplementation: 2016-2017; Issues to be Addressed: Low demand on the transparency and accountability of public finance management resulting the risk of the direction of inefficient public administration. Main Objective: Improving transparency and accountability by citizen participation in the process of public audit; which will promote efficient, productive and economic disposal of budget resources
IRM End of Term Status Summary
✪14. Increasing citizen participation in supervision of public finances (public audit)
Commitment Text:
In cooperation with the civil sector, the State Audit Office plans to enhance citizen participation in the supervision process of public finances (public audit), that will build their trust in the State Audit Office.
At the initial stage a strategy will be drafted, in close cooperation with the civil sector. Considering the best practice of various countries, the strategy will provide mechanisms to ensure constructive citizen participation in the complete audit cycle, including the monitoring stage of recommendation implementation.
In addition, by means of an innovative ICT web platform mechanism, citizens will receive complete information about the state budget, public finance management, audit findings, given recommendations and the status of its implementation. Various methods of visualization will be applied to make information easily perceivable on the web-platform.
The web platform will form a channel for bilateral communication between the State Audit Office and citizens. On the one hand, citizens will become familiar with the information provided by the Audit Office, on the other hand, they will be able to notify the Office about a concrete malefaction, as well as the drawbacks of government services identified by them. Furthermore, citizens will be able to submit proposals based on professional surveys on the improvement of the identified shortcomings. The information received from a citizen will be analyzed and taken into consideration if recommended in the drafting and implementation process of the audit plan.
Citizens’ participation in the public audit process will raise public awareness on the budgetary processes and will rise their demand for transparent management of the public resources. Thorough information will improve the quality of citizen supervision of the governance processes.
Milestones:
Conducting public consultations with the representatives of civil sector for developing and improving various mechanisms of citizen participation in the public audit process
Drafting the citizen participation strategy in the public audit process
Finishing and approving the citizen participation strategy in the public audit process
Defining the concept of webplatform and agreement with the representatives of civil sector
Technical development of a webplatform and its presentation to the society
At least 15 workshops with the representatives of the municipalitites, students and media are organized by the State Audit Office to rise awareness on the right to request public information and webportal
Shooting a short video on webplatform and its distribution through social media
Responsible institution(s): State Audit Office
Supporting institution(s): Advisory group comprising representatives of the State Audit Office and civil sector, working on the citizen participation issues in the public finance management supervision
Start Date: August 2016 End Date: December 2017
Editorial note: This commitment is clearly relevant to OGP values as written, has transformative potential impact, and is substantially or completely implemented and therefore qualifies as a starred commitment.
Commitment Aim:
In order to increase transparency and accountability of public finances and involve citizens in decision-making, the State Audit Office (SAO) committed to establish a web platform budgetmonitor.ge. Through this platform, the SAO’s would present up-to-date information on state and municipal budgets in an easily understandable manner; publish audit findings in a user-friendly format; allow citizens to select budget priority areas to be audited by SAO and enable citizens to report cases of corruption confidentially or anonymously.
Status
Midterm: Complete
The commitment was fully implemented as of September 2017. SAO formed a working group with CSO involvement, conducted 14 focus groups to identify end-user preferences, and launched the platform in March 2017. Budgetmonitor.ge offers different sub-pages, including “State Budget,” “Municipal Budget,” “Audits,” “Citizen Page,” and more. By the midterm, SAO conducted 13 out of 15 meetings across Georgia as indicated in the commitment to raise awareness of the portal. For more information, please see the 2016–2017 IRM midterm report. [42]
After the midterm, SAO conducted numerous meetings with different target groups in order to raise awareness about the portal, including meetings with different Parliament committees and staff, media representatives, students, and others. In total, SAO presented the platform at 11 meetings. [43] Additionally, with the help of USAID, SAO collected feedback from budgetmonitor.ge users on the deficiencies and possible improvements of the portal. SAO also hired an external consultant to analyze the platform and develop an outreach strategy to further promote this resource. [44]
Did It Open Government?
Access to Information: Major
Civic Participation: Marginal
Public Accountability: Marginal
Since launching the platform, SAO estimates more than 15,000 unique visitors, with an average of 400-500 unique users each month. SAO’s current efforts are directed at increasing returning users. [45] The platform contains multiple features, with information, a corruption-reporting feature, and assistance when being audited. According to end-users of the platform, budgetmonitor.ge simplified access to basic financial data including the state budget, details of the Legal Entities of Public Law, and municipal budgets. [46] CSOs positively assess both the simplicity of the data, and the user-friendly interface of the platform. [47]
The “Citizen Page” enables citizens both to suggest government bodies for auditing as part of the following year’s Annual Audit Plan and to select priority areas for examination–both features providing citizen participation. While the platform offers citizens a direct opportunity to get involved in audit planning and corruption reporting, there is still a low level of citizen participation based on statistics to date.
The “Fight Corruption” sub-page allows citizens to report cases of corruption, which are further studied by a specific auditor, thereby giving citizens a mechanism for holding the government accountable. According to CSOs, the creation of the platform in itself is already an indicator of strong political will to increase accountability. [48] According to SAO, citizen requests are received from various customer modules (e.g., annual audit planning, disclosing corruption, or selecting budget priority areas for examination) and initially screened for relevance. While many requests were received within one year, after initial screening, 25 were deemed relevant to SAO’s work and competences. [49] Out of the 25, 7 identified corruption risks. In total, around 9 requests were taken into consideration in the audit plan. As the annual audit plan is decided at the end of the year, all suggestions received during the year can be potentially incorporated into the plan. It is challenging to make amendments to the existing plan for suggestions received after the plan is adopted, although it has been done. [50] As of September 2018, SAO had submitted 29 reports to the Prosecutor’s Office for further investigation.
According to a researcher at ISET, the platform is a big step however, popularization of it remains problematic. [51] CSO representatives positively assess SAO’s earlier efforts to promote the platform, and stress that meetings organized by the agency to introduce the platform were helpful. The platform was actively promoted through ads on Facebook. According to a Senior Analyst at Transparency International Georgia (TIG) using social media would further help. [52]
Carried Forward?
Based on IRM recommendations, SAO included a related commitment in the 2018−2019 Action Plan (Commitment 11), with a specific focus on citizen engagement in the audit process. Namely, SAO plans to establish a feedback mechanism for citizen input received through budgetmonitor.ge, which will improve the efficiency and timeliness of responses to citizen notifications (audit planning suggestions or corruption case reporting). This will increase citizen trust in the platform. SAO plans to conduct five working groups to increase awareness regarding the platform.
[42] Lasha Gogidze and Tamar Gzirishvili, Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM): Georgia Progress Report 2016-2017 (OGP, 30 Apr. 2018), https://bit.ly/2NIr097.[43] Tsotne Karkashadze (Head of the State Budget Analysis and Strategic Department), e-mail correspondence with IRM researcher, 15 Oct. 2018.
[44] Karkashadze (State Budget Analysis and Strategic Department), phone interview with IRM researcher, 10 Oct. 2018.
[45] Karkashadze, interview, 10 Oct. 2018.
[46] Lasha Senashvili (Senior Analyst at Transparency International Georgia), phone interview with IRM researcher, 26 Dec. 2018.
[47] Irakli Barbakadze (Researcher at ISET), phone interview with IRM researcher, 26 Dec. 2018; Giorgi Topouria (Senior Analyst at Transparency International Georgia), phone interview with IRM researcher, 23 Aug. 2018.
[48] Senashvili, interview, 26 Dec. 2018.
[49] Citizens often find it hard to distinguish competencies of different government agencies. Therefore, a lot of the suggestions submitted to SAO through the website are irrelevant to SAO’s work (e.g., they refer to tax authorities or other unrelated bodies). SAO screens these suggestions and deals with those that refer to their work. Currently, there is no monitoring mechanism in place to oversee how suggestions are screened. Generally, the agency is assessed positively by local CSOs, and SAO’s will to launch such a platform was commended as a step toward accountability.
[50] Karkashadze, interview, 10 Oct. 2018.
[51] Barbakadze, interview, 26 Dec. 2018.
[52] Senashvili, interview, 26 Dec. 2018.
Commitments
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Improved Public Services
GE0066, 2018, Capacity Building
-
Citizen Engagement Platform
GE0067, 2018, Capacity Building
-
Unified Authentication System
GE0068, 2018, E-Government
-
Economic Governance
GE0069, 2018, E-Government
-
Environment Portal
GE0070, 2018, E-Government
-
Strengthen Anti-Corruption Institutions
GE0071, 2018, Anti-Corruption
-
Monitor SDGs
GE0072, 2018, Capacity Building
-
Citizen Engagement Legislation
GE0073, 2018, Legislation & Regulation
-
Publish Court Decisions
GE0074, 2018, E-Government
-
Increasing Transparency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
GE0075, 2018, E-Government
-
Citizen Participation in Public Finance
GE0076, 2018, Anti-Corruption
-
Transparent Public Funding System
GE0077, 2018, Fiscal Openness
-
Public Procurement Improvements
GE0078, 2018, Access to Information
-
Housing Policy Planning
GE0079, 2018, Land Rights & Spatial Planning
-
Openness and Accountability of State-Owned Enterprises
GE0080, 2018, E-Government
-
Transparency and Good Governance
GE0081, 2018, Legislation & Regulation
-
Open Data Collection and Publication
GE0082, 2018, Access to Information
-
Participation for Disabled Individuals
GE0083, 2018, Infrastructure & Transport
-
Participatory Budgeting
GE0084, 2018, Capacity Building
-
Your Idea for the Zugdidi Mayor
GE0085, 2018, Capacity Building
-
Electronic Services
GE0086, 2018, E-Government
-
I. Gov. Zugdidi
GE0087, 2018, Capacity Building
-
Service and Citizen Satisfaction Assessment
GE0088, 2018, Capacity Building
-
Promoting and Monitoring SDGs
GE0089, 2018, Open Parliaments
-
Citizen Involvement in Budget
GE0090, 2018, E-Government
-
Technology for Transparency
GE0091, 2018, E-Government
-
Citizen Engagement Center
GE0092, 2018, Capacity Building
-
Raising Public Awareness About Parliamentary Democracy
GE0093, 2018, E-Government
-
Electronic Innovations for More Transparency and Efficiency of Public Procurement
GE0056, 2016, Anti-Corruption
-
Adoption of the Environmental Assessment Code
GE0057, 2016, Anti-Corruption
-
Introduction of a Mobile App as an Alternative Channel to Connect to “112”
GE0058, 2016, E-Government
-
Development of Local Councils for Crime Prevention
GE0059, 2016, Justice
-
Development of a Guidebook for Economic Agents
GE0060, 2016, Capacity Building
-
Development and Introduction of the Quality Control Program of Commercial Service
GE0061, 2016, Capacity Building
-
Presentation of Company Reports in an Electronic Form and Provision of Their Accessibility
GE0062, 2016, Capacity Building
-
Introduction of an Electronic Petition Portal and “Zugdidi-INFO” on the Webpage of Zugdidi Municipality Assembly
GE0063, 2016, Capacity Building
-
Transparency of Ozurgeti Municipality Assembly Meetings
GE0064, 2016, Capacity Building
-
Creation of Electronic Mechanism for Local Budget Planning in Kutaisi, Ozurgeti, Batumi and Akhaltsikhe
GE0065, 2016, E-Government
-
Adapting the Public Service Hall to the Needs of the People with Disabilities
GE0042, 2016, Capacity Building
-
Launch of the Unified Healthcare System Information Portal
GE0043, 2016, Capacity Building
-
Introduction of Electronic Licensing System in the Field of Natural Resources Application
GE0044, 2016, Anti-Corruption
-
Creation of Spatial (Geographic) Data Web-Portal for the Energy Sector
GE0045, 2016, Capacity Building
-
Creation of Innovation Ecosystem
GE0046, 2016, Capacity Building
-
Electronic Portal for Registering and Disposal of State Property – Customer’S Module
GE0047, 2016, E-Government
-
Development of the Freedom of Information Law
GE0048, 2016, Access to Information
-
Development of a Monitoring and Assessment System of the Government Policy and Legislative Acts
GE0049, 2016, Capacity Building
-
Introduction of the Public Officials’ Asset Declarations Monitoring System
GE0050, 2016, Anti-Corruption
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Establishing Unified Regulations to Publish Court Decisions
GE0051, 2016, Judiciary
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Development of Transparency and Integrity Strategy and Action Plan in the Field of Regional Development and Infrastructure
GE0052, 2016, Capacity Building
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Improvement of the Database of the Convicted and Transfer of the Penitentiary Department Entirely Onto the Electronic Workflow Management
GE0053, 2016, Capacity Building
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Publication of Phone Tapping Data According to the Nature of the Crime and Geographic Area
GE0054, 2016, E-Government
-
Increasing Citizen Participation in Supervision of Public Finances (Public Audit)
GE0055, 2016, Anti-Corruption
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"Voice of the Consumer"
GE0013, 2014, Public Participation
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JUSTdrive
GE0014, 2014,
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Educational Services
GE0015, 2014, Education
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Citizen's Portal (Www.Mygov.Ge)
GE0016, 2014, Capacity Building
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Transformation of Public Libraries for Regional Development
GE0017, 2014, Capacity Building
-
Digital Signature and Online Authentication
GE0018, 2014, E-Government
-
Open Data Portal (Data.Gov.Ge)
GE0019, 2014, Access to Information
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Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Draft
GE0020, 2014, Access to Information
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Georgia's OGP Forum
GE0021, 2014, Public Participation
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I-Change.Ge
GE0022, 2014, E-Government
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Transparency of Public Service Recruitment
GE0023, 2014, E-Government
-
Asset Declaration Monitoring System
GE0024, 2014, Anti-Corruption
-
Political Party Financial Declarations
GE0025, 2014, Access to Information
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Accessibility of Ministry of Interior's Webpage to People with Special Needs
GE0026, 2014, E-Government
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Proactive Publishing of Surveillance Data
GE0027, 2014, Civic Space
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Public Awareness of the Electoral Process
GE0028, 2014, Capacity Building
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Transparency of Budgetary Processes
GE0029, 2014, E-Government
-
Electronic System of Procurement
GE0030, 2014, Anti-Corruption
-
Digital Human Resource Management System
GE0031, 2014, E-Government
-
Digital Preservation System: E-Archive
GE0032, 2014, E-Government
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Openness and Accessibility of National Archives
GE0033, 2014, E-Government
-
Electronic Catalogues of Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) Archives
GE0034, 2014, E-Government
-
Public Finance Management System
GE0035, 2014, E-Government
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Alternative Channels to "112"
GE0036, 2014, E-Government
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Interactive Statistics and Crime Mapping
GE0037, 2014, E-Government
-
Travel Insurance Services
GE0038, 2014, Citizenship & Immigration
-
State Property Registration
GE0039, 2014,
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Development of Community Centers in Georgia
GE0040, 2014, E-Government
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Introduction of e-Governance in Local Self-Governments
GE0041, 2014, E-Government
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Public Service Hall-Hub of Public Services
GE0001, 2012, Access to Justice
-
e-Governance in Local Governments
GE0002, 2012, E-Government
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Citizens’ Portal
GE0003, 2012, E-Government
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Easily Accessible and Better Healthcare
GE0004, 2012, E-Government
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Launch Ichange.Ge and Data.Gov.Ge
GE0005, 2012, E-Government
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Platform for Participating in the Legislative Process
GE0006, 2012, E-Government
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Citizens and Justice
GE0007, 2012, Access to Justice
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Transparent Party Financing
GE0008, 2012, Anti-Corruption
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Home-Grown Concept of E-Procurement
GE0009, 2012, Anti-Corruption
-
e-Declarations
GE0010, 2012, Anti-Corruption
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Technology Cares for Safety: ICCMS, Crime Mapping, and Safety in Your Neighbourhood
GE0011, 2012, E-Government
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NGO Forum
GE0012, 2012, Capacity Building