Regularly Publish Government Datasets (SK0127)

The Open Data Initiative was brought to the Slovak Republic by the Open Government Initiative thanksthe first OGP Action Plan 2012-2013. Given the increasing importance of information and datawas established in 2016 by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic for Investment and Information Technology, whose aim isto develop the field of informatisation in Slovakia, which also includes the topic of open data. In 2019 it was established at theIPA data office that has the expertise to deal with different types of data, includingopen data. For this reason, it is not necessary for the USSR ROS to specialize in the topic of opendata, but focus on monitoring compliance with OGP commitments,collecting incentives and requests from civil society for publishing owned dataMinistries and other ÚOŠS and in cooperation with the data office at IPOII request thempublication.

The aim of the proposed commitment is therefore to continue publishing datasets and application dataprogramming interfaces (hereinafter referred to as "API") under the responsibility of ministries and other ÚOŠS and focus onimproving their quality and encouraging their use, building on the tasks of the previous Action PlanOGP 2017 - 2019. The commitment will help improve civil society and public access to dateinformation available to the State, thereby contributing to increased transparency. thankspublishing the required datasets or APIs to civil society, the public, orscientific research institutions a tool they can use to work or support the economybased on data.

Experience from performing tasks related to this topic, from discussions with those responsible for implementationtasks from ministries and other CSOs, from the environment of professional public prove that it is still desirable that ministries and other CSOs publish the datasets included in the list of alldatasets under the responsibility of ministries and other ÚOŠS and continued their regular publicationaccording to the Disclosure Plan as specified in the Strategy and the Disclosure Action Plan; andthe use of open government data. It is also important to continue from the USSR ROSin the ongoing monitoring of the public and civil society's disclosure requirementsthe most desirable datasets and APIs, and then intensively negotiate with ministries andby other TSOs about their publication. In order to improve the quality of further publication of datasets isit is important to continue regular analyzes and to implement the recommendations consistentlybased on them.

To streamline the use of published datasets and APIs, it is also appropriate to focus on the analysis ofkey datasets of ministries and other CSOs that should be compulsorily published.One of the proposed tasks is therefore to create a publishing minimum of datasets that will beinclude a list of obligatory published datasets of ministries and other ÚOŠS. Thisthe list should be developed in a participatory manner with the active participation of stakeholdersfrom civil society, experts and ministries and other CSOs and should reflect needspublic based on surveys after the most requested datasets, but also on topics, respectively. categoriesexamined by relevant international organizations or open data initiatives,in accordance with the principles of open governance. Monitoring publication of datasets from publicationthe ÚSV ROS will carry out the minimums as part of the annual regular analysis of publicationdatasets.

Fulfilling the role is also one of the steps to increase transparency and improve accessto public information in accordance with the will of the Government of the Slovak Republic declared in several strategicdocuments and initiatives:
• In its policy statement, the Government of the Slovak Republic endorsed transparencyand public information in the form of open data for the purposepromoting a data-based economy, which will stimulate entrepreneurshipenvironment,
• National concept of public administration informatisation (under the authority of the ÚPVII),
• Strategy and action plan for accessing and using open public data (vresponsible for the IPO II, the operator of the National Network and Electronic Services Agency, hereinafter referred to as' the"NASES"),
• The Slovak Republic also decided to address the challenge of decision-making and policy-makingon the basis of relevant and credible data available to experts as well as to the general publicAgenda 2030 priorities
• By 17 July 2021, the Slovak Republic is obliged to ensure the transposition of the Directive(EU) 2019/1024 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on open data are-use of public sector information.

Specific milestones towards the goal:
3. To elaborate publishing minimum for state administration in a participatory way
Deadline: 30 April 2020
Responsible: Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic for investments and informatisation
Co-responsible: Government Plenipotentiary for Civil Society Development

4. Put the minimum publishing minimum for the state administration into practice
Deadline: 31 December 2020
Responsible: Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic for investments and informatisation

5. After the publication of the minimum publishing minimum for the state administration to publish data frompublication minimum for state administration on the open data portal data.gov.sk
Deadline: March 31, 2021 and then annually
Responsible: ministers, chairmen of other central state administration bodies

Ongoing tasks in the topic of open information, still ongoing from Government Resolution no. 104/2017 arelisted in Annex no. 1.2

2. Publish open government data and APIs

Main Objective

“Regularly publish datasets and APIs of Ministries and their established organizations, as well as other Central authorities of the State administration.” [12] 

Milestones

1. Identify the publication minimum for central government authorities in a participative manner.
2. Introduce the publication minimum for central government authorities into practice.
3. Following the implementation of the publication minimum for central government authorities, annually publish data from the publication minimum for state administration on the open data portal data.gov.sk.

Editorial Note: For the complete text of this commitment, please see Slovakia’s action plan at https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/slovakia-action-plan-2019-2021/.

Commitment Analysis

Open data has featured in all OGP action plans in Slovakia since it joined the partnership in 2011, [13] and this commitment is a continuation of the efforts in this area. It aims to build on previous data publication and tackle a great variation among public authorities in the quantity and quality of published datasets and APIs. It aims to engage with civil society and stakeholders in the process of identifying key datasets that will inform the list of minimum mandatory datasets for proactive publication.

Commitment 2 creates opportunities for the OGP value of civic participation through the decision-making process of what constitutes the minimum mandatory datasets, given the planned participatory processes. If the commitment and milestones are implemented successfully, it would also advance the OGP value of access to information as more useful and relevant data will be proactively available to the public.   

Previous action plans have included the launch of the national open data portal data.gov.sk, [14] creating an enabling environment for the publication of high-quality government data in open formats, and API publication.

The Better data [15] working group (located in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Investments and E-government) oversees the open data agenda. The group consists of public administration representatives and civil society representatives, such as Slovensko.digital members who are recognized experts on e-government and open data. Prior to the 2020 general elections, only one person represented each relevant authority and organization at the meetings. However, Slovensko.digital has collected feedback from everyone interested on its community platform. [16] The group has concluded that the process of developing minimum publication criteria for public bodies will draw from best practices that are already available in neighboring countries, e.g., in the Czech Republic. [17] This was previously raised as a practice to follow [18] by the Slovak open data community that actively participates in the working group. The Better data group has stated that the draft of the publication minimum would be created in a participatory manner in collaboration with the working group Data curators, [19] which brings together data curators from public administration who are responsible for the open data agenda at their institutions.  

Public access to information via the proactive publication of datasets by Slovak public authorities is inconsistent. The last implementation report [20] concluded that although public agencies generally publish datasets on data.gov.sk, the extent and quality of the datasets vary substantially across agencies. At the time of writing this report (April 2020), five [21] out of 13 ministries published fewer than 20 datasets per ministry on data.gov.sk since its launch. The most problematic is the low availability of high-demand datasets. Since the second action plan, [22] the Office of the Plenipotentiary regularly conducts a survey to explore what data the public perceives as important (high-demand datasets) and that the data publication strategy is informed by public demand. The following datasets regularly feature in these surveys: public transport timetables, the list of bus and rail stations, data on public transport occupancy, financial statements, budgets of all municipalities, budgets of state-owned enterprises, companies register, and cadaster’s data, etc. Public agencies still have not made most of this data available in open formats. Progress has been limited in the nine years that open data has featured in action plans, so the implementation of this commitment could help address this situation. The potential impact is moderate; one main difference between this commitment and previous commitments is the introduction of a mandatory minimum set of datasets that will need to be published in open formats by central government authorities.

The latest developments during the COVID-19 pandemic suggest that collaboration between the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Investments and E-government and civil society could be successful and bring results. The central state website korona.gov.sk, which provides guidance and daily data related to COVID-19, [23] is a result of a joint co-creation effort by government and civil society. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Investments and E-government also recently recruited Ján Hargaš, former director of CSO slovensko.digital, to advise the office with e-government reforms, [24] suggesting that relevant stakeholders from civil society will be welcome at the table when implementing this commitment.

Furthermore, an emphasis on the accessibility of high-quality data appeared in the 2020 – 2024 Government Manifesto, [25] pledging to ensure access to user-friendly data for state analysts, [26] adopt the Act on Data [27] (one of the outstanding commitments from the previous action plan), publish open API, [28] and use mobility data in innovative ways when planning transport infrastructure. [29]

2. Publish open government data and APIs

Complete

Aim of the commitment

The commitment to publish open government data and APIs consisted of three milestones. All three aimed to tackle the varying quantity and quality of published datasets and APIs and set minimum standards of which datasets must be published as open data. [8] In a participatory manner, the government would identify a minimum of which datasets must be published. Then it would introduce this in practice and annually monitor implementation. 

Did it open government?

Marginal

The commitment was substantially complete.

The Data Office of the newly established Ministry for Investments, Regional Development and Informatization [9] identified a mandatory minimum of datasets that central government authorities would have to publish in open formats—a so-called publication minimum. [10] There is vast evidence that the final document was created in a participatory manner; both the Office of the Plenipotentiary [11] and the Data Office [12] encouraged relevant civil society organisations (CSO), businesses, and the public to comment on the document. A CSO representative confirmed that the ministry is open to civil society’s suggestions, but that the limited capacity of ministerial personnel hampered the pace of implementing the commitment. [13]

The publication minimum now consists of 30 datasets, many of which are relevant to open government values (e.g., data on surplus state property; statistics on complaints; and statistics on freedom of information requests, organised events, and working groups). A CSO representative [14] stated they were satisfied with data that have been included and appreciated that the ministry went beyond mandatory publication and proactively published new datasets, such as a list of buildings accessible to people with disabilities. [15] In addition to the list of datasets, [16] the ministry also specified standards for publishing them and created templates to ensure consistency. [17] The Data Office has been open about its work and has published recorded meetings of its working groups on its YouTube channel. [18]

However, the publication minimum has not yet been fully put into practice and its implementation been monitored. The corresponding decree on which datasets central authorities would have to publish as open data will enter into force together with the Act on Data (an outstanding commitment from the 2017–2019 action plan). [19] Only thereafter would central authorities be required to abide by the decree. [20] The draft Act on Data went through a public comment period twice but this did not lead to its adoption. Last time, the government refused to pass it shortly before the 2020 parliamentary election. The new draft [21], prepared by the new government, will go through another public comment period in February 2022. [22] Nonetheless, some ministries are already proactively publishing data specified in the publication minimum. For instance, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development publishes data on the ministry’s working groups, [23] data on petitions and complaints, [24] and data on subsidies. [25] The Ministry for Investments, Regional Development and Informatization publishes data on working groups [26] and statistics on freedom of information requests ^[27] (that are also published by the Ministry of Health). [28]

A representative of the Data Office argued that in future, it would also be important to follow what datasets people most engage with. [29]

At the time of writing this report (October 2021), the commitment’s contribution to open government was marginal. Nonetheless, it is expected that once the Act on Data is enacted, the change in government practice will be major as the publication minimum will substantially increase access to important government data.