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Georgia

Citizen Participation in Public Finance (GE0076)

Overview

At-a-Glance

Action Plan: Georgia Action Plan 2018-2019

Action Plan Cycle: 2018

Status: Active

Institutions

Lead Institution: Administration of the GoG

Support Institution(s): Parliament of Georgia, Ministry of Finance Civil Society Institute

Policy Areas

Anti-Corruption, Audits and Controls, Capacity Building, E-Government, Fiscal Openness, Public Participation, Public Participation in Budget/Fiscal Policy, Social Accountability Measures & Feedback Loops

IRM Review

IRM Report: Georgia Design Report 2018-2019

Starred: Pending IRM Review

Early Results: Pending IRM Review

Design i

Verifiable: Yes

Relevant to OGP Values: Civic Participation , Technology

Potential Impact:

Implementation i

Completion: Pending IRM Review

Description

Commitment 11: Increasing citizen participation in oversight of public finances

Within the framework of the OGP Georgia Action Plan 2016-2017, the State Audit Office (SAO) an innovative analytical platform “Budget Monitor”, by means of which wide public has a unique possibility to obtain comprehensive information about the state budget, public resources management issues, audit findings, issued recommendations nd the state of their implementation. In addition, the platform will enable every citizen to address the SAO in connection with existing shortcomings in the management of public finances and to participate in the next year’s audit plan completion.
For increasing citizen partuicipation in this process and the platoform efficiency, the SAO shares the recommendation of the OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) and aims to introduce a feedback mechanism for citizen addresses and notifications. This will make it possible to constantly track the status of responding to citizen addreses and notifications (including anonymous).

To ensure co-participation, the SAO plans to introduce an additional tool – preparation of audit results in the form easily accessible by society.

Commitment 11: Increasing citizen participation in oversight of public finances: implementation of effective tools for citizens feedback
Lead Agency State Audit Office
Other Involved Actors Public Agency
Civil Society/Private Sector Advisory group comprised of the representatives of the SAO and civil sector working on the issues of citizen participation in the supervision of public finance management.
Issues to be Addressed The low index of citizen participation in the budgetary process remains a challenge, which is evidenced by the 2017 Open Budget Survey assessment of citizen participation score (22 points out of 100). The reasonof the abioe can be both mistrust on the part of citizens and the lack of necessary effective means for their participation.
In response to the above, the SAO aims to cteate such mechanism of citizen participation, which will make it possible to condtantly track the status of responding to citizen addreses and notifications. The introduction of a transparent system will contribute to increaste public trust in the SAO and to create an effective mehanism for timely responding to citizen requests/claims. The SAO plans to integrate said mechanism into the Budget Monitor, which is a clear example of continuation of the OGP commitments.
Main Objective Promotion of better management through citizen participation in the oversight of public fianances.

OGP Principles Transparancy Accountability Citizens Participation Technology and Innovation
   
Milestones to Fulfill the Commitment New or ongoing commitment Start date End date
Creation and introduction by the Budget Monitor of a feedback mechanism for citizen notifications New May 2018 December 2018
Organization by the SAO of 5 working meetings at least with duifferent focus groups for raising awareness. Ongoing January 2018 December 2018
Indicator The feedback mechaism for citizen appeals and notifications has been introduced, through which constant track of the status of responding to the addresses and notifications (including anonymous) is possible.

IRM Midterm Status Summary

Commitment 11: Increasing Citizen Participation in Oversight of Public Finance

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

“Within the framework of the OGP Georgia Action Plan 2016-2017, the State Audit Office (SAO) an innovative analytical platform ‘Budget Monitor’, by means of which wide public has a unique possibility to obtain comprehensive information about the state budget, public resources management issues, audit findings, issued recommendations and the state of their implementation. In addition, the platform will enable every citizen to address the SAO in connection with existing shortcomings in the management of public finances and to participate in the next year’s audit plan completion. 

For increasing citizen participation in this process and the platform efficiency, the SAO shares the recommendation of the OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) and aims to introduce a feedback mechanism for citizen addresses and notifications. This will make it possible to constantly track the status of responding to citizen address and notifications (including anonymous)”.

Milestones: 

  1. Creation and introduction by the Budget Monitor of a feedback mechanism for citizen notifications 
  2. Organization by the SAO of 5 working meetings at least with different focus groups for raising awareness.

Start Date: May 2018

End Date: December 2018

Editorial note: For the full text of this commitment, please see https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/georgia-action-plan-2018-2019/.

Context and Objectives

This commitment builds on Commitment 14 from Georgia’s third action plan (2016–2017). During the third action plan, the State Audit Office of Georgia (SAO) launched the online platform budgetmonitor.ge. The platform consolidates previously dispersed information on state and municipal budgets. It also includes a “Citizen” page, where the public can suggest government bodies for auditing, and a “Fight Corruption” page, where citizens can report cases of corruption. Those reported cases are then reviewed by an auditor. [63] The IRM End-of-Term Report for the third action plan found that, despite providing the public with opportunities to participate, public participation remained low. Accordingly, to improve public participation in the audit process, SAO has committed to introduce a new feature for tracking and responding to citizen input received through budgetmonitor.ge. SAO also plans to conduct five focus groups to raise awareness of the new feedback feature. The commitment is relevant to the OGP value of civic participation. It employs web technologies for citizens to submit feedback and track the status of their feedback.

This commitment provides two verifiable milestones: the creation and introduction of a feedback mechanism for citizen notifications and the organization of five focus groups to raise awareness. However, providing more detailed information about the purpose and composition of working groups would make the commitment more specific and measurable. If fully implemented, the new feedback mechanism could result in a minor but positive improvement to the existing feedback feature on budgetmonitor.ge. The commitment could also result in improvement to participation in the auditing process more broadly. In particular, the new feature would allow citizens to track the status of their feedback via budgetmonitor.ge platform, even if they provide feedback anonymously. It is worth noting that the 2016–2017 IRM Progress Report recommended that SAO conduct a widespread awareness-raising campaign for budgetmonitor.ge. However, this commitment’s text refers to organizing five focus groups meetings, which are limited in scale.

Next steps

Although the budgetmonitor.ge platform significantly improved access to budget information during the previous action plan, this commitment represents a minor upgrade to the existing platform. Accordingly, the IRM researcher recommends that the government continue raising awareness about the platform, but not as part of the next OGP action plan.

[63] Open Government Partnership, IRM: Georgia End-of-Term Report 2016–2018, pp. 44–45, https://bit.ly/2vZMQ00

Commitments

  1. Improved Public Services

    GE0066, 2018, Capacity Building

  2. Citizen Engagement Platform

    GE0067, 2018, Capacity Building

  3. Unified Authentication System

    GE0068, 2018, E-Government

  4. Economic Governance

    GE0069, 2018, E-Government

  5. Environment Portal

    GE0070, 2018, E-Government

  6. Strengthen Anti-Corruption Institutions

    GE0071, 2018, Anti-Corruption

  7. Monitor SDGs

    GE0072, 2018, Capacity Building

  8. Citizen Engagement Legislation

    GE0073, 2018, Legislation & Regulation

  9. Publish Court Decisions

    GE0074, 2018, E-Government

  10. Increasing Transparency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs

    GE0075, 2018, E-Government

  11. Citizen Participation in Public Finance

    GE0076, 2018, Anti-Corruption

  12. Transparent Public Funding System

    GE0077, 2018, Fiscal Openness

  13. Public Procurement Improvements

    GE0078, 2018, Access to Information

  14. Housing Policy Planning

    GE0079, 2018, Land Rights and Spatial Planning

  15. Openness and Accountability of State-Owned Enterprises

    GE0080, 2018, E-Government

  16. Transparency and Good Governance

    GE0081, 2018, Legislation & Regulation

  17. Open Data Collection and Publication

    GE0082, 2018, Access to Information

  18. Participation for Disabled Individuals

    GE0083, 2018, Infrastructure & Transport

  19. Participatory Budgeting

    GE0084, 2018, Capacity Building

  20. Your Idea for the Zugdidi Mayor

    GE0085, 2018, Capacity Building

  21. Electronic Services

    GE0086, 2018, E-Government

  22. I. Gov. Zugdidi

    GE0087, 2018, Capacity Building

  23. Service and Citizen Satisfaction Assessment

    GE0088, 2018, Capacity Building

  24. Promoting and Monitoring SDGs

    GE0089, 2018, Legislative

  25. Citizen Involvement in Budget

    GE0090, 2018, E-Government

  26. Technology for Transparency

    GE0091, 2018, E-Government

  27. Citizen Engagement Center

    GE0092, 2018, Capacity Building

  28. Raising Public Awareness About Parliamentary Democracy

    GE0093, 2018, E-Government

  29. Electronic Innovations for More Transparency and Efficiency of Public Procurement

    GE0056, 2016, Anti-Corruption

  30. Starred commitment Adoption of the Environmental Assessment Code

    GE0057, 2016, Anti-Corruption

  31. Introduction of a Mobile App as an Alternative Channel to Connect to “112”

    GE0058, 2016, E-Government

  32. Development of Local Councils for Crime Prevention

    GE0059, 2016, Justice

  33. Development of a Guidebook for Economic Agents

    GE0060, 2016, Capacity Building

  34. Development and Introduction of the Quality Control Program of Commercial Service

    GE0061, 2016, Capacity Building

  35. Presentation of Company Reports in an Electronic Form and Provision of Their Accessibility

    GE0062, 2016, Capacity Building

  36. Introduction of an Electronic Petition Portal and “Zugdidi-INFO” on the Webpage of Zugdidi Municipality Assembly

    GE0063, 2016, Capacity Building

  37. Transparency of Ozurgeti Municipality Assembly Meetings

    GE0064, 2016, Capacity Building

  38. Creation of Electronic Mechanism for Local Budget Planning in Kutaisi, Ozurgeti, Batumi and Akhaltsikhe

    GE0065, 2016, E-Government

  39. Adapting the Public Service Hall to the Needs of the People with Disabilities

    GE0042, 2016, Capacity Building

  40. Launch of the Unified Healthcare System Information Portal

    GE0043, 2016, Capacity Building

  41. Introduction of Electronic Licensing System in the Field of Natural Resources Application

    GE0044, 2016, Anti-Corruption

  42. Creation of Spatial (Geographic) Data Web-Portal for the Energy Sector

    GE0045, 2016, Capacity Building

  43. Creation of Innovation Ecosystem

    GE0046, 2016, Capacity Building

  44. Electronic Portal for Registering and Disposal of State Property – Customer’S Module

    GE0047, 2016, E-Government

  45. Development of the Freedom of Information Law

    GE0048, 2016, Access to Information

  46. Development of a Monitoring and Assessment System of the Government Policy and Legislative Acts

    GE0049, 2016, Capacity Building

  47. Starred commitment Introduction of the Public Officials’ Asset Declarations Monitoring System

    GE0050, 2016, Anti-Corruption

  48. Establishing Unified Regulations to Publish Court Decisions

    GE0051, 2016, Judiciary

  49. Development of Transparency and Integrity Strategy and Action Plan in the Field of Regional Development and Infrastructure

    GE0052, 2016, Capacity Building

  50. Improvement of the Database of the Convicted and Transfer of the Penitentiary Department Entirely Onto the Electronic Workflow Management

    GE0053, 2016, Capacity Building

  51. Publication of Phone Tapping Data According to the Nature of the Crime and Geographic Area

    GE0054, 2016, E-Government

  52. Starred commitment Increasing Citizen Participation in Supervision of Public Finances (Public Audit)

    GE0055, 2016, Capacity Building

  53. "Voice of the Consumer"

    GE0013, 2014, Public Participation

  54. JUSTdrive

    GE0014, 2014, Public Service Delivery

  55. Educational Services

    GE0015, 2014, Education

  56. Citizen's Portal (Www.Mygov.Ge)

    GE0016, 2014, Capacity Building

  57. Transformation of Public Libraries for Regional Development

    GE0017, 2014, Capacity Building

  58. Digital Signature and Online Authentication

    GE0018, 2014, E-Government

  59. Open Data Portal (Data.Gov.Ge)

    GE0019, 2014, Access to Information

  60. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Draft

    GE0020, 2014, Access to Information

  61. Georgia's OGP Forum

    GE0021, 2014, Public Participation

  62. I-Change.Ge

    GE0022, 2014, E-Government

  63. Transparency of Public Service Recruitment

    GE0023, 2014, E-Government

  64. Asset Declaration Monitoring System

    GE0024, 2014, Anti-Corruption

  65. Starred commitment Political Party Financial Declarations

    GE0025, 2014, Access to Information

  66. Accessibility of Ministry of Interior's Webpage to People with Special Needs

    GE0026, 2014, E-Government

  67. Starred commitment Proactive Publishing of Surveillance Data

    GE0027, 2014, Civic Space

  68. Public Awareness of the Electoral Process

    GE0028, 2014, Capacity Building

  69. Transparency of Budgetary Processes

    GE0029, 2014, E-Government

  70. Electronic System of Procurement

    GE0030, 2014, Anti-Corruption

  71. Digital Human Resource Management System

    GE0031, 2014, E-Government

  72. Digital Preservation System: E-Archive

    GE0032, 2014, E-Government

  73. Openness and Accessibility of National Archives

    GE0033, 2014, E-Government

  74. Electronic Catalogues of Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) Archives

    GE0034, 2014, E-Government

  75. Public Finance Management System

    GE0035, 2014, E-Government

  76. Alternative Channels to "112"

    GE0036, 2014, E-Government

  77. Interactive Statistics and Crime Mapping

    GE0037, 2014, E-Government

  78. Travel Insurance Services

    GE0038, 2014, Citizenship & Immigration

  79. State Property Registration

    GE0039, 2014, Public Service Delivery

  80. Development of Community Centers in Georgia

    GE0040, 2014, E-Government

  81. Introduction of e-Governance in Local Self-Governments

    GE0041, 2014, E-Government

  82. Public Service Hall-Hub of Public Services

    GE0001, 2012, Access to Justice

  83. e-Governance in Local Governments

    GE0002, 2012, E-Government

  84. Citizens’ Portal

    GE0003, 2012, E-Government

  85. Easily Accessible and Better Healthcare

    GE0004, 2012, E-Government

  86. Launch Ichange.Ge and Data.Gov.Ge

    GE0005, 2012, E-Government

  87. Platform for Participating in the Legislative Process

    GE0006, 2012, E-Government

  88. Citizens and Justice

    GE0007, 2012, Access to Justice

  89. Starred commitment Transparent Party Financing

    GE0008, 2012, Political Integrity

  90. Home-Grown Concept of E-Procurement

    GE0009, 2012, Anti-Corruption

  91. e-Declarations

    GE0010, 2012, Anti-Corruption

  92. Technology Cares for Safety: ICCMS, Crime Mapping, and Safety in Your Neighbourhood

    GE0011, 2012, E-Government

  93. NGO Forum

    GE0012, 2012, Capacity Building

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