Awarenss Raising About Social and Economic Development (UA0074)
Overview
At-a-Glance
Action Plan: Ukraine Action Plan 2018-2020
Action Plan Cycle: 2018
Status: Active
Institutions
Lead Institution: MoF Treasury State institution “Open Public Funds”
Support Institution(s): NGO “Eidos Centre for Political Studies and Analysis,” Government-Civic Initiative “Together against Corruption,” other CSOs and international organizations (upon their consent)
Policy Areas
Aid, E-Government, Fiscal Openness, Publication of Budget/Fiscal InformationIRM Review
IRM Report: Ukraine Design Report 2018-2020
Starred: Pending IRM Review
Early Results: Pending IRM Review
Design i
Verifiable: Yes
Relevant to OGP Values: Access to Information , Technology
Implementation i
Completion: Pending IRM Review
Description
Raising public awareness on public funds and projects on social and economic development of Ukraine supported by international financial organizations in accessible formats Mainstreaming the principles of transparency and openness in budget process entails effective system of key performance indicators and a mechanism to raise public awareness on drafting, reviewing, approving, implementing and controlling state and local budgets. To this aim, the documents and information related to the budgeting processes and management performance indicators should be published. In addition, international organizations support projects that sometimes come short of the needs of Ukraine and contravene with the reform priorities. With this view, the CMU Resolution # 70 of 27 January 2016 “On the Procedure of Development, Implementation, Monitoring and Termination of Social and Economic Development Projects Supported by International Financial Organizations” entails monitoring of development projects in Ukraine funded by international financial organizations. At the same time, relevant information technologies and access to the respective information by the Government and citizens is necessary to adequately manage this process. Actions Responsible Timeframe Partners Indicator 1. Creating an Information Analytical System “Transparent Budget:” module “Budget for Citizens” MoF Treasury State institution “Open Public Funds” March 2019 NGO “Eidos Centre for Political Studies and Analysis,” Government-Civic Initiative “Together against Corruption,” other CSOs and international ToR for “Budget for Citizens” module development, approved, software architecture developed 10 organizations (upon their consent) 2. Beta testing of “Budget for Citizens” module -//- December 2018 – July 2019 -//- Beta testing of software launched, module is finalized/updated based on beta testing findings and feedback from the CSOs and community; operation of the module launched 3. Developing functional requirements to the subsystem “Register of Social and Economic Development Projects Funded by International Financial Institutions” (IFI) MoF Treasury State institution “Open Public Funds” December 2018 – April 2019 NGO “Eidos Centre for Political Studies and Analysis,” Government-Civic Initiative “Together against Corruption,” other CSOs and international organizations (upon their consent) ToR developed, and respective services procured 4. Developing and beta testing of software for the sub-system “Register of Social and Economic Development Projects Funded by International Financial Institutions” -//- December 2018 – April 2019 -//- Software developed, Beta testing of sub-system launched 5. Finalizing functional features of the sub-system “Register of Social and Economic Development Projects Funded by International Financial Institutions” and starting its -//- May 2019 – September 2020 -//- Sub-system “Register of Social and Economic Development Projects Funded by International Financial Institutions” is finalized/updated based on beta testing findings and feedback from the CSOs and community; sub-system put in 11 operation operation Expected results of this activity are ensuring convenient use of analytical data; comparing the dynamics of budget funds use; enabling feedback and discussion of public funds use; ensuring free public access to information on implementation of joint Government-IFI investments projects at all stages.
IRM Midterm Status Summary
5. Raise public awareness on public funds and projects
Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan: [38] Raising public awareness on public funds and projects on social and economic development of Ukraine supported by international financial organizations in accessible formats
Mainstreaming the principles of transparency and openness in budget process entails effective system of key performance indicators and a mechanism to raise public awareness on drafting, reviewing, approving, implementing and controlling state and local budgets. To this aim, the documents and information related to the budgeting processes and management performance indicators should be published.
In addition, international organizations support projects that sometimes come short of the needs of Ukraine and contravene with the reform priorities. With this view, the CMU Resolution # 70 of 27 January 2016 “On the Procedure of Development, Implementation, Monitoring and Termination of Social and Economic Development Projects Supported by International Financial Organizations” entails monitoring of development projects in Ukraine funded by international financial organizations. At the same time, relevant information technologies and access to the respective information by the Government and citizens is necessary to adequately manage this process.
Milestones:
- Creating an Information Analytical System “Transparent Budget:” module “Budget for Citizens”
- Beta testing of “Budget for Citizens” module
- Developing functional requirements to the sub-system “Register of Social and Economic Development Projects Funded by International Financial Institutions” (IFI)
- Developing and beta testing of software for the sub-system “Register of Social and Economic Development Projects Funded by International Financial Institutions”
- Finalizing functional features of the sub-system “Register of Social and Economic Development Projects Funded by International Financial Institutions” and starting its operation
Start Date: December 2018
End Date: September 2020
Context and objectives
The Ukrainian government currently discloses only limited budget information, earning 54 out of 100 in the International Budget Partnership’s 2017 Open Budget Survey. [39] Few public fund administrators publish meaningful financial data, which makes it difficult to identify inefficiencies using public funds. [40] Also, international funds administered by the government are highly vulnerable to corruption, according to a former Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT) official. [41]
The commitment’s first milestone, to create and beta test a ‘Budget for Citizens’ module was accomplished in 2018 as part of the previous action plan, [42] although a representative of the state agency, Open Public Finance (OPF), reported that this was only the trial version of the Budget for Citizens module. [43] It presents the state budget in various understandable dimensions, like classification of spending.
This commitment also aims to inform the public about development projects in Ukraine through a Register of Social and Economic Development Projects Funded by International Financial Institutions (the Register). The government launched a similar Open Aid Ukraine website in 2015 [44] with some limited information, [45] but in 2017, MEDT froze the website during multiple investigations of possible corruption around international assistance. [46] Even though the website software was developed and owned by the government, MEDT has not relaunched the website before this action plan, although the Ministry of Finance (MoF) published a 2018 report on internationally funded development projects in pdf format. [47]
The government expects that this commitment overall will ensure user-friendly disclosure of analytical data, enable feedback and discussion on public funds use, [48] and provide public access to budget data for further monitoring. [49] The Register has the potential to increase transparency of over 34 projects worth 2.4 billion USD (5.3 billion EUR). [50] According to the OPF, the interactive register’s open datasets will allow monitoring of internationally funded development projects by authorities and citizens. [51] However, the commitment text does not provide details about the level of data that will be disclosed or how the feedback mechanism will be introduced and implemented. It also does not explain how government-IFI investment projects will be disclosed and what the level of publicly available data will be. Therefore, the overall potential impact is considered moderate.
Next steps
The IRM researcher recommends the following to the government:
- Specify the requirements for disclosing all planned data through normative-legal acts, technical documents, and the software itself. This should ensure achieving the maximum policy impact of this commitment.
- Compare the planned budget and the actual budget spending. Due to this increased financial transparency, Ukraine can improve its score in the Open Budget Survey.
- Establish and apply accountability mechanisms to ensure that public funds administrators provide the necessary information for the designed information analytical system.
For the fifth action plan, the IRM researcher recommends introducing mechanisms of empowering civic participation in budget planning. In particular, these might include consultations on state budget and binding e-voting for projects of national participatory budgeting. The civic engagement element would fulfil the provisions of the government Strategy of Reforming the Public Finances Management System for 2017–2020 [52] and could help improve Ukraine’s ranking in the Open Budget Survey.
Commitments
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Infrastructure Data Portal
UA0070, 2018, Anti-Corruption
-
Open Standard for e-System
UA0071, 2018, E-Government
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Ensuring Openness and Transparency of Selling Public Assets and Property
UA0072, 2018, E-Government
-
Transparency in Public Procurement (Prozorro)
UA0073, 2018, Access to Information
-
Awarenss Raising About Social and Economic Development
UA0074, 2018, Aid
-
e-Calls for Proposals to Support CSOs
UA0075, 2018, Civic Space
-
Beneficial Ownership Registry
UA0076, 2018, Anti-Corruption
-
Anti-Corruption Training
UA0077, 2018, Anti-Corruption
-
Publishing Environmental Information
UA0078, 2018, E-Government
-
Database of Natural Resources
UA0079, 2018, Access to Information
-
Interactive Map of Mines
UA0080, 2018, E-Government
-
Priority Electronic Services
UA0081, 2018, Citizenship & Immigration
-
Online Platform for Executive Bodies and CSOs
UA0082, 2018, Civic Space
-
EITI Online Data
UA0083, 2018, Access to Information
-
Electronic Resources for Education
UA0084, 2018, Access to Information
-
Online Verification of Education Certificates
UA0085, 2018, E-Government
-
Free Access to National Repository for Academic Texts
UA0086, 2018, E-Government
-
Administrative Service Decentrilisation and Improvement
UA0057, 2016, Capacity Building
-
United State Portal Extension; Electronic Government Information Services Unification; Modern Tools for Electronic Identification
UA0058, 2016, Capacity Building
-
System for Entities Performing Government Functions
UA0059, 2016, Anti-Corruption
-
Free Urban Planning Documentation
UA0060, 2016, E-Government
-
Beneficial Ownership Verification System
UA0061, 2016, Anti-Corruption
-
CoST Beneficial Ownership Standards
UA0062, 2016, Anti-Corruption
-
Transpartent Budget System
UA0063, 2016,
-
Open Public Procurement
UA0064, 2016, Access to Information
-
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
UA0065, 2016, Anti-Corruption
-
Environmental Public Monitoring
UA0066, 2016, Access to Information
-
Community Policing System
UA0067, 2016, Education
-
Draft Law on Public Consultations
UA0068, 2016, Legislation & Regulation
-
Development of E-Democracy.
UA0069, 2016, E-petitions
-
Improve Government Rules on CSO Involvement
UA0031, 2014, E-Government
-
Financing of Charities
UA0032, 2014, Civic Space
-
Not-For-Profit Status for CSOs
UA0033, 2014, Civic Space
-
Public Participation Law
UA0034, 2014, E-Government
-
Establishing Rules on Processing Official Information
UA0035, 2014, Access to Information
-
Access to Urban Planning Documents
UA0036, 2014, E-Government
-
Access to Communist-Era Archives
UA0037, 2014, Legislation & Regulation
-
Draft Law on Open Data
UA0038, 2014, Access to Information
-
Supervisory Mechanism for the Right to Information
UA0039, 2014, Access to Information
-
Compliance with EITI
UA0040, 2014, Anti-Corruption
-
Monitoring of Infrastructure Projects
UA0041, 2014, Anti-Corruption
-
Adopt Regional Anti-Corruption Programmes
UA0042, 2014, Anti-Corruption
-
Corruption Risk Assessment Methodology
UA0043, 2014, Anti-Corruption
-
Asset Disclosure on a Single Web Portal
UA0044, 2014, Anti-Corruption
-
Law on Administrative Procedure
UA0045, 2014, Legislation & Regulation
-
Law on Streamlining Payment of Administrative Fees
UA0046, 2014, E-Government
-
Administrative Services Portal
UA0047, 2014, Access to Information
-
Draft Law on Decentralisation of Administrative Services
UA0048, 2014, Legislation & Regulation
-
Draft Law on Social Services
UA0049, 2014, E-Government
-
e-Government Laws
UA0050, 2014, E-Government
-
Electronic Readiness Assessment
UA0051, 2014, E-Government
-
Government Regulations on Open Data
UA0052, 2014, Access to Information
-
Electronic Democracy Development Roadmap
UA0053, 2014, E-Government
-
Open Budget Initiatives
UA0054, 2014, Access to Information
-
e-Petitions
UA0055, 2014, Dispute Resolution & Legal Assistance
-
e-Governance Training for Local Government
UA0056, 2014, Capacity Building
-
Laws on Public Participation
UA0001, 2012, Civic Space
-
Amendments to the Law on Community Associations
UA0002, 2012, Civic Space
-
Amendments to Resolutions on Collaboration with Civil Society
UA0003, 2012, E-Government
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Training for Public Servants on Consultations
UA0004, 2012, Capacity Building
-
Harmonisation of Access to Information Laws
UA0005, 2012, Access to Information
-
By-Laws on Access to Information
UA0006, 2012, Access to Information
-
Guidelines for Classifying Data
UA0007, 2012, Public Participation
-
Public Information Recording Systems
UA0008, 2012,
-
Law on Public Broadcasting
UA0009, 2012, Civic Space
-
Public Access to Information in State Registers
UA0010, 2012, E-Government
-
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
UA0011, 2012, Anti-Corruption
-
Law for Controlling Declarations of Public Servants
UA0012, 2012, Anti-Corruption
-
Public Declarations of Officials’ Assets
UA0013, 2012, Anti-Corruption
-
Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest
UA0014, 2012, Anti-Corruption
-
Updated Anti-Corruption Laws
UA0015, 2012, E-Government
-
Regional Anti-Corruption Programmes
UA0016, 2012, E-Government
-
Law on Competitive e-Government Procurement
UA0017, 2012, Anti-Corruption
-
Administrative Services Reforms
UA0018, 2012, E-Government
-
Electronic Access to Administrative Services
UA0019, 2012, E-Government
-
Governmental Web Portal of Administrative Services
UA0020, 2012, E-Government
-
Administrative Services in a Digital Format
UA0021, 2012,
-
Regional Administrative Service Centres
UA0022, 2012,
-
Programme for Promotion of e-Government
UA0023, 2012, E-Government
-
Electronic Collaboration Between Executive Agencies
UA0024, 2012,
-
Web-Based Petitions System
UA0025, 2012, E-petitions
-
One Stop Shop for e-Reporting
UA0026, 2012, E-Government
-
e-Region Pilot Project
UA0027, 2012, E-Government
-
Network of e-Government Practitioners
UA0028, 2012, Public Participation
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Public Libraries as Bridges Towards e-Governance
UA0029, 2012, E-Government
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e-Government Knowledge Management Portal
UA0030, 2012,