Presentation by Anne Thurston on Open Government and Information Integrity

1. Open Government and
Information Integrity
Anne Thurston

2. Successful Open Government, including
Open Data (proactive disclosure) and FOI
(reactive disclosure), rests to a large extent
on reliable and accessible evidence of
government decisions, actions and
transactions derived from official
government records.

3. FOI: ‘Freedom of Information legislation is
only as good as the quality of the records
and other information to which it provides
access. Access rights are of limited value if
information cannot be found when requested
or, when found, cannot be relied upon as
authoritative.’
UK Lord Chancellor’s Code of Practice on the Management
of Records (Section 46 of the Freedom on Information Act
2000)

4. Open Data: ‘People assume that good
economic data is there, but if it is not, work
is flawed or not possible. Data should come
from records – the veracity of the data
depends upon the record. The quality of the
records management system makes you
trust or doubt data.’
Bill Dorotinsky, World Bank Sector Manager, Public Sector
and Institutional Reform, Europe and Central Asia/ Co-
Leader, Global Expert Team

5. The Open Government movement is
beginning to recognise the crucial
significance of reliable and trustworthy
evidence as a basis for:
•ensuring data integrity
•detecting abuse
•holding public servants legally accountable
•enabling citizens and the press to monitor
the workings of government.

6. In many countries, government records are
not managed to meet international
standards, and in some countries, even
basic records controls are not in place,
particularly where the use of digital
technologies has outpaced government
capacity to manage digital records.
In these cases, there will not be a strong
basis for FOI or Open Data.

7. The opposite is true in Norway, where the
Government’s deep commitment to making
reliable evidence available to support
transparency and accountability illustrates
what can be achieved. Under its FOI Act,
Norway has developed the ability to capture
the content and context of central
government agency records, protect the
integrity of this information over time and
make it easily available to citizens and the
press.

8. The Electronic Public Records (OEP) system
enables central government agencies to
publicise their public records online, thereby
achieving proactive and reactive disclosure.
Public record data is stored in a searchable
database that users search to locate records
that interest them. They submit requests to
view the records via OEP; the agencies
responsible for the records process requests
and reply to users directly.

9. Norway’s system is capable of:
•capturing and providing access to trusted
data and digital records in a secure trusted
environment
•linking active and inactive datasets to hard
copy or digital records to provide context
and the means to interrelate data
•supporting migration to new software and
hardware environments to support ongoing
access.

10. Electronic Public Records
(OEP)
Jon Håkon Odd

11. Why OEP?
• OEP aims to make the
Norwegian
public sector more open
and accessible to citizens.
• OEP aims to make the
implementation of the
principle of public access
more efficient.
Agency for Public Management
17.12.12
and eGovernment (Difi)

12. www.oep.no
• Joint publicizing of
records from the central
government on the
Internet
• Used by the Prime
Ministers office, ministries,
County governors and all
agencies
• Regulated in the Freedom
of Information Act
17.12.12 Agency for Public Management
and eGovernment (Difi)

13. Balance considerations
Agency for Public Management
17.12.12
and eGovernment (Difi)

14. How does OEP work?
Agency for Public Management
17.12.12
and eGovernment (Difi)

15. 17.12.12 Agency for Public Management
and eGovernment (Difi)

16. Simple search
17.12.12 Agency for Public Management
and eGovernment (Difi)

17. Advanced search
17.12.12 Agency for Public Management
and eGovernment (Difi)

18. Cases
17.12.12 Agency for Public Management
and eGovernment (Difi)

19. Recieving information
• Documents can be
received by e-mail, fax
or regular mail
• Information requests
are normally
processed in 2-3 days
• The service is free of
charge
• You can remain
anonymous
17.12.12 Agency for Public Management
and eGovernment (Difi)

20. Some key figures
•105 government agencies publish their
journal in OEP
•There are published more than 5 million
registry entries in OEP
•OEP has communicated about 380 000
information request in 275 000 different
registry entries since May 2010
•15 000 of these registry entries have three
or more information requests
Agency for Public Management
17.12.12
and eGovernment (Difi)

21. Average per month
17.12.12 Agency for Public Management
and eGovernment (Difi)

22. End user
Agency for Public Management
17.12.12
and eGovernment (Difi)

23. End users (II)
Agency for Public Management
17.12.12
and eGovernment (Difi)

24. Publizicing documents in OEP
• Difi is considering
how to expand OEP, in
order to give access to
documents directly from the service.
• Can contribute to increase openness by
making documents more
accessible, and make the government more
efficient as there will be less information requests
than today.
Agency for Public Management
17.12.12
and eGovernment (Difi)

25. User survey OEP 2011
• Content suppliers say that the introduction
of OEP has led to an increase in
information requests.
• Functionality for full-text publication is
requested by end users, archive
employees and government
administration.
17.12.12 Agency for Public Management
and eGovernment (Difi)

26. Recommendations
• Public authorities have a responsibility to
facilitate an open and informed public
debate, Norwegian Constituion § 100 sixt section.
• The public administration shall as far as
possible be available online, The government's
digitalization program.
• Public agencies shall at all times make the
information available, without the need for
information requests, Government
communication policy.
17.12.12 Agency for Public Management
and eGovernment (Difi)

27. Evaluation
An automated solution for full-text publicizing in
the administrative and archival system, will
greatly streamline the work to publish full-text
documents compared with the current solution.
It is therefore favorable to use OEP as a
channel to disseminate public documents of
general interest. This can help make the
administration more open and transparent.
Especially if agencies actively use OEP as part
of their communication strategy.
17.12.12 Agency for Public Management
and eGovernment (Difi)