Increasing the Quality and Quantity of Published Open Data (RO0047)
Overview
At-a-Glance
Action Plan: Romania Action Plan 2016-2018
Action Plan Cycle: 2016
Status: Inactive
Institutions
Lead Institution: Chancellery of the Prime-Minister
Support Institution(s): Ministries; Local public authorities; Coalition for Open Data
Policy Areas
Access to Information, Capacity Building, E-Government, Environment and Climate, Fiscal Openness, Open Data, Public Participation, Public Service Delivery, Publication of Budget/Fiscal InformationIRM Review
IRM Report: Romania Mid-Term Report 2016-2018, Romania End-of-Term Report 2016-2018
Starred: No
Early Results:
Major
Design i
Verifiable: Yes
Relevant to OGP Values: Access to Information , Civic Participation
Implementation i
Description
Status quo or problem addressed by the commitment Publishing open data from the public authorities and institutions represents one of the modern means to increase transparency and efficiency in public administration. Law 109/2007 on the re-use of public information, that was the first regulation of the open data framework in Romania, is not widely known nor implemented, and Romania’s open data publishing and reuse commitments are deemed unsatisfactory by both civil society and international researchers. Main objective The main objective of this commitment is to promote and increase transparency in public administration and improve citizen dialogue by improving the means and procedures to publish open data from the public institutions and authorities. Brief description of commitment The commitment is part of the project ”Improving the quality and number of datasets published by public institutions” that will be funded through the European Social Fund 2020 and aims to: A) improve the open data publishing methodology; B) provide a series of training sessions and support documents for open data management for the staff in public central and local institutions; C) improve the quality of data published on data.gov.ro; D) Encourage the re-use of data; E) increase the number of datasets published on data.gov.ro OPG challenge addressed by the commitment Increasing public integrity; More effectively managing public resources Relevance Access to information; Public Accountability; Civic participation; Technology and Innovation Ambition 1. Development of an open data methodology and a public policy that would represent landmarks for the public institutions publishing open data; 2. Training for 200 persons from the local and central public administration 3. Improve the quality and number of open datasets; 4. Advance the re-use of available datasets in the benefit of both public institutions and citizens.
IRM End of Term Status Summary
18. Increasing the quality and quantity of published open data
Commitment Text:The commitment is part of the project” Improving the quality and number of datasets published by public institutions” that will be funded through the European Social Fund 2020 and aims to: (1) improve the open data publishing methodology; (2) provide a series of training sessions and support documents for open data management for the staff in public central and local institutions; (3) improve the quality of data published on data.gov.ro; (4) Encourage the re-use of data; (5) increase the number of datasets published on data.gov.ro.
Main Objective:
Promote and increase transparency in public administration and improve citizen dialogue by improving the means and procedures to publish open data from the public institutions and authorities.
Milestones:
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- Improve the open data publishing methodology by updating and improving the 2015 Guide and assessing the framework for a public policy proposal that would ensure implementation of procedures in all public institutions, publication of datasets on a regular basis and correlation with the linked governmental strategies.
- Organize 13 training session for staff in local and central public administration (200 persons)
- Pilot the automatic publishing on the data.gov.ro portal of open data from public procurement (open contracting), tax registers and air quality (through APIs)
- Encourage and assist public institutions in organizing competitions (hackathons) using open data, to develop solutions for specific issues. At least 4 hackathons will be organized, in sectors where institutions already showed interest in promoting the re-use of data, and civil society representatives agreed on the utility of such competitions (culture, education, local government, anticorruption, citizens’ budgets etc.)
- Centralized publishing on the national open data portal of priority, high value datasets (budget, education, culture, health, labor, environment and others). Monitoring of regular updates of datasets that are already published. Identify and publish new datasets, in collaboration with civil society.
Responsible institution: Chancellery of the Prime-Minister/ Secretariat General of the Government (SGG)
Supporting institution(s): Ministries; Local public authorities, Coalition for Open Data
Start date: September 2016 End date: June 2018
Editorial Note: The commitment text is abridged. The full text can be found in the OGP 2016–2018 national action plan.
Commitment Aim
The commitment aimed to improve the methodology, train national and local government staff, and improve the quality and quantity of data published on data.gov.ro (Milestones 1 and 2). It envisions piloting automatic publishing of data on procurement, tax registers, and air quality (through application programming interfaces [APIs]) (Milestone 3), and organizing thematic hackathons (milestone 4), while centralizing and improving access to high value datasets as determined through consultation with civil society (Milestone 5).
STATUS
Midterm: Limited
The first three milestones were not started at the time of the IRM progress report, due to delays in the procurement of consulting services. Milestone 4 was substantially completed; three hackathons were organized in 2016 and 2017 with the goal of creating apps for healthcare, social policies, environment, smart cities, policies/strategies, education, and culture. The IRM progress report noted that the number of opened datasets increased, although the quality remained uneven.
End-of-term: Substantial
The SGG wrote the open data publishing methodology and published it under open license in July 2018. [129] According to the government’s self-assessment report, the SGG analysis revealed that designing a public policy for open data is not desirable in the context of the current European and national technical and legal frameworks. [130] 200 public servants, in particular leadership, and 200 IT experts (20 from local administrations, and 180 from the central public administration, including the subordinated institutions [131]) were trained in June–July 2018. [132] According to the OGP representative, the target group was members of the central public administration to consolidate the SGG’s prior efforts to stimulate and incentivize them to open public interest data. [133] Moreover, training course materials were published under open license in May 2018. [134] Milestone 3 is not started, according to the government’s self-assessment report. [135] The OGP representatives, however, argued that the data.gov.ro portal already offers an API that public institutions can use to upload and download data, but that the problem lies with the IT departments of the public institutions that do not have the ability to handle large datasets through APIs. [136]
Milestone 4 was partially completed, as three hackathons were organized in September 2016, [137] March 2017, [138] and March 2018 [139] on the following themes: health, public policies, environment, smart city, culture, and education. According to the government’s self-evaluation report, Milestone 5 is also partially completed as, in March 2018, data.gov.ro contained approximately 1,400 datasets (an increase from 633 datasets in 2016). Moreover, 217 of the 259 datasets that public institutions committed to have been published. [140] Moreover, the government’s self-assessment report [141] finds that datasets that need updating monthly are updated, but that those that require a more frequent update lag behind. Finally, the OGP representative stated that the quality of the data published on the national portal has also increased, though datasets that are not of high quality, and that may include errors, still exist. [142]
Did it Open Government?
Access to information: Major
According to OGP representatives, changing the mentality of public servants, as well as the development of their know-how (i.e. how to open datasets or which IT system allows this best) is a cumbersome and lengthy process. Consequently, training public servants on how to exercise the opening of new datasets that are relevant for the public has been instrumental for the current (and future) increase in new opened datasets. [143] The opened datasets already doubled during the implementation of the third national action plan (from 633 in 2016 to approximately 1400 in 2018), and 83.8% of the designated datasets were opened. Furthermore, data from the national portal has been used by an NGO to build an app (baniitai.info) that has been instrumental in uncovering the hospitals that bought the counterfeit detergent in the landmark corruption case Hexi Pharma. [144]
Civic participation: Marginal
In spite of the progress noted on the organization of three hackathons to engage the public in the development of custom solutions for the public administration, these activities did not succeed in generating long-term engagement. For instance, The Ministry of Culture and National Identity (MCNI) representative argued that political changes impeded a deeper collaboration between civil society and the MCNI, and that the MCNI did not monitor the development of the applications that won the hackathon. [145] Moreover, a civil society representative argued that hackathons can only be a first step to stimulate the building of new products on the open data. [146]
Carried forward?
This commitment will be continued in the 2018–2020 national action plan as Commitment 18: “Publication of open data.”
[129] Metodologie de publicare a datelor deschise – v. 02.2019 is available [in Romanian] at https://goo.gl/GbBTz7.
[130] “National Action Plan 2016-2018: Self-assessment report”, Open Government Partnership, 2018, page 67, available [in Romanian] at https://bit.ly/2vv2yw7.
[131] “Sesiuni de instruire date deschise”, Open Government Partnership, 6 June 2018, press release available [in Romanian] at https://bit.ly/2LEvmNZ.
[132] Larisa Panait and Angela Benga, OGP Romania, interview by IRM researcher on 6 November 2018.
[133] Larisa Panait and Angela Benga, OGP Romania, interview by IRM researcher on 6 November 2018.
[134] Open Data Resources are available at https://goo.gl/vbdAHr.
[135] “National Action Plan 2016-2018: Self-assessment report”, Open Government Partnership, 2018, page 68, available [in Romanian] at https://bit.ly/2vv2yw7.
[136] Larisa Panait and Angela Benga, OGP Romania, interview by IRM researcher on 6 November 2018.
[137] “Diplohack – 9 septembrie 2016”, OGP Romania, 11 August 2016, press release available [in Romanian] at https://bit.ly/2CcxIMw.
[138] “ZiuaDatelorDeschise – București, 4 martie 2017”, Open Government Partnership, 24 February 2017, available [in Romanian] at https://goo.gl/j1v4FN.
[139] “Înscrie-te la Culture Hack! Scoatecultura din tipare!”, OGP Romania, 21 November 2017, available [in Romanian] at https://bit.ly/2Uu2rfr.
[140] “National Action Plan 2016-2018: Self-assessment report”, Open Government Partnership, 2018, page 68, available [in Romanian] at https://bit.ly/2vv2yw7.
[141] “National Action Plan 2016-2018: Self-assessment report”, Open Government Partnership, 2018, page 68, available [in Romanian] at https://bit.ly/2vv2yw7.
[142] Larisa Panait and Angela Benga, OGP Romania, interview by IRM researcher on 6 November 2018.
[143] Larisa Panait and Angela Benga, OGP Romania, interview by IRM researcher on 6 November 2018.
[144] Andrei Nicoara, Open Data Coalition, interview by IRM researcher on 15 November 2018.
[145] Cristina Cotenescu and Mihai Monoranu, Ministry of Culture and National Identity, interview by IRM researcher on 8 November 2018.
[146] Ovidiu Voicu, Centre for Public Integrity, interview by IRM researcher on 8 November 2018.
Commitments
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Standardize Public Consultation Practices
RO0048, 2018, E-Government
-
Open Local Government
RO0049, 2018, Capacity Building
-
Citizen Budgets
RO0050, 2018, Capacity Building
-
Youth Participation
RO0051, 2018, Capacity Building
-
Register of Civil Society Proposals
RO0052, 2018, E-Government
-
Access to Information – Local
RO0053, 2018, Capacity Building
-
Online Business Sector Information
RO0054, 2018, Capacity Building
-
Digital Consular Services
RO0055, 2018, Capacity Building
-
Transparency in the Funding of Political Parties
RO0056, 2018, Access to Information
-
National Investment Fund Transparency
RO0057, 2018, Access to Information
-
Civil Servant Training
RO0058, 2018, Capacity Building
-
Raise Awareness About Corruption
RO0059, 2018, Capacity Building
-
Transparency of Seized Assets
RO0060, 2018, Access to Information
-
Access to Social Services
RO0061, 2018, E-Government
-
Open Access to Research
RO0062, 2018, Access to Information
-
Open Education
RO0063, 2018, Access to Information
-
Evaluate Open Data
RO0064, 2018, Access to Information
-
Open Data
RO0065, 2018, Access to Information
-
Improving the Legal Framework and Practices Regarding Access to Public Interest Information
RO0030, 2016, Access to Information
-
Centralized Publishing of Public Interest Information on the Single Gateway Transparenta.Gov.Ro
RO0031, 2016, Capacity Building
-
Promoting Open Parliament Principles
RO0032, 2016, Capacity Building
-
Improved Management of the Applications Submitted for Granting Citizenship
RO0033, 2016, Capacity Building
-
Standardization of Transparency Practices in the Decision-Making Procedures
RO0034, 2016, Capacity Building
-
Centralised Publication of Legislative Projects on the Single Gateway Consultare.Gov.Ro
RO0035, 2016, Capacity Building
-
Citizens Budgets
RO0036, 2016, Capacity Building
-
Improve Youth Consultation and Public Participation
RO0037, 2016, Capacity Building
-
Subnational Open Government
RO0038, 2016, Capacity Building
-
Promoting Transparency in the Decision-Making Process By Setting Up a Transparency Register (RUTI)
RO0039, 2016, Anti-Corruption
-
Access to Performance Indicators Monitored in the Implementation of the National Anticorruption Strategy (SNA)
RO0040, 2016, Access to Information
-
Improve Transparency in the Management of Seized Assets
RO0041, 2016, Access to Information
-
Annual Mandatory Training of Civil Servants on Integrity Matters
RO0042, 2016, Anti-Corruption
-
Improving Access to Cultural Heritage
RO0043, 2016, Capacity Building
-
Open Data and Transparency in Education
RO0044, 2016, Access to Information
-
Virtual School Library and Open Educational Resources
RO0045, 2016, Capacity Building
-
Open Contracting
RO0046, 2016, Anti-Corruption
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Increasing the Quality and Quantity of Published Open Data
RO0047, 2016, Access to Information
-
Publishing the Public Interest Information on a Single Government Portal: Transparenta.Gov.Ro
RO0019, 2014, Access to Information
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Making an Inventory of the Datasets Produced by the Ministries and Subordinate Agencies
RO0020, 2014, Access to Information
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Ensuring the Free Online Access to National Legislation
RO0021, 2014, E-Government
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Amending Law 109/2007 on the Re-Use of Public Sector Information
RO0022, 2014, Access to Information
-
Opening Data Collected from the National Health System
RO0023, 2014, Access to Information
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Opening Data Collected from the Monitoring of Preventive Measures as Part of the National Anticorruption Strategy 2012-2015
RO0024, 2014, Access to Information
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Open Contracting
RO0025, 2014, Anti-Corruption
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Opening up Data Resulted from Publicly-Funded Research Projects
RO0026, 2014, E-Government
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Increasing the Quality and Quantity of Published Open Data
RO0027, 2014, Access to Information
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Human Resource Training in the Field of Open Data
RO0028, 2014, Access to Information
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Disseminating Information on the OGP Principles and Promoting the Open Data Concept in an Accessible Manner
RO0029, 2014,
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Designating a Person Responsible for Publishing Open Data in Each Public Institution
RO0001, 2012, Access to Information
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Identifying Regulatory Needs, Logistical and Technical Solutions
RO0002, 2012, Access to Information
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Making an Inventory of Available (High-Value) Data-Sets
RO0003, 2012, Access to Information
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Priority Publishing on the Web Pages of Public Institutions of Specific Data-Sets
RO0004, 2012, Access to Information
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Initiating Pilot-Projects, in Partnerships
RO0005, 2012, Access to Information
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Organizing Public Debates on the Utility of Open Data, in Partnerships
RO0006, 2012, Access to Information
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Uniform, Machine-Readable Publishing Format for Open Data
RO0007, 2012, Access to Information
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Procedures for Publication of Data-Sets Based on Civil Society Recommendations
RO0008, 2012, Access to Information
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Procedures for Citizen Complaints Pertaining to Open Data
RO0009, 2012, Access to Information
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Consultation Mechanism Between Suppliers and Beneficiaries of Open Data
RO0010, 2012, Access to Information
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Creating a Rating System for the Assessment of High-Value Data-Sets
RO0011, 2012, Access to Information
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Routinely Publishing Specific Data-Sets on Web Pages of Public Institutions
RO0012, 2012, Access to Information
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Integrating Open Data from Public Institutions in a Single National Platform
RO0013, 2012, Access to Information
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Inventories of Data, in Order to Facilitate Public Access
RO0014, 2012, Access to Information
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Institute a Monitoring Mechanism of Compliance for Open Data
RO0015, 2012, Access to Information
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Stimulating the Market for Innovative Use of Open Data
RO0016, 2012, Access to Information
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Routinely Publishing Data-Sets on the National Platform, 25% High-Value
RO0017, 2012, Access to Information
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The Public Procurement Electronic System (SEAP). the Electronic Allocation System for Transports (SAET)/B.1 C) Expanding the On-Line Submission of Fiscal Forms. Ensuring the Free On-Line Access to National Legislation. Developing Electronic Tools to Manage Subpoenas and Facilitate Access Toinformation Regarding Legal Proceedings. Developing Electronic Tools to Manage the Procedures Related to Obtaining the Romanian Citizenship. Developing Electronic Tools to Manage the Procedures Related to the Creation of Non-Profit Legal Persons. the Integrated System for Electronic Access to Justice (SIIAEJ)
RO0018, 2012, Access to Justice