Congress has failed to keep the government running for more than a week, and even though life on the campaign fundraising circuit has slowed somewhat, the government shutdown won’t stop members of Congress from asking for—and receiving—campaign contributions. The unseemliness of elected officials dialing for dollars from fat cat contributors while 800,000 federal workers are shut out of their jobs is bad enough. But, as a twisted result of the government shutdown, Senate candidates will get a pass on filing their disclosure reports on time and the public will be completely in the dark as to who is funding their campaigns.
Reasons to Not Release Data, Part 6: Legality (continued)
Earlier this month, we shared a crowdsourced collection of the top concerns data advocates have heard when they’ve raised an open data project with government officials at the federal, state, and local level, and we asked for you to share how you’ve responded. Dozens of you contributed to the project, sharing your thoughts on social media, our public Google doc, and even on the Open Data Stack Exchange, where 8 threads were opened to dive deeper into specific subjects.
Drawing from your input, our own experience, and existing materials from our peers at the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership and some data warriors from the UK, we’ve compiled a number of answers -- discussion points, if you will -- to help unpack and respond to some of the most commonly cited open data concerns. This mash-up of expertise is a work in progress, but we bet you’ll find it a useful conversation starter (or continuer) for your own data advocacy efforts.
Click here to see other posts in this series.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing challenges and responses from our #WhyOpenData list that correspond to different themes. Today’s theme is Legality, continued. Continue readingNew Shutdown Super Committee Floated
Some mistakes die hard.
House Republicans, eager to paint democrats as opposed to negotiations, are proposing a new Super Committee. The so-called Super Committee was the result of the last round of 11th hour negotiations over the debt limit, the ill-fated attempt to forge compromise out of concentrated congressional privilege.
The last Super Committee enjoyed the prospect of direct access to the House and Senate floor for their recommendations (had they produced any), to be created in an environment completely insulated from the press, constituents and electoral consequences. (Though lobbyists still had no problems penetrating it.)
While it's unclear how this Super Committee would be structured, it's unlikely to matter much since it appears to be another dead-end ploy from House Republicans trying to paint their long-organized defunding effort as some sort of play for greater compromise in Washington.
The Super Committee was a secretive, misbegotten failure the first time around, and we should consider ourselves lucky if this one never gets taken seriously.
Today in #OpenGov 10/8/2013
National News
- The government shutdown is blocking significant sets of economic data that often inform debate in Washington and could prove helpful as members try to find a way out of the current impasse. (Washington Times)
- Buck McKeon (R-CA), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has a long history getting money from defense contractors and this quarter was no different. McKeon received bundles of cash from two defense executives. His campaign also paid his wife, who has benefited from defense industry largess during her own foray's into politics, more than $15,000. (Roll Call)
- Although the potential repeal of a tax on medical devices became a talking point in the lead up to the government shutdown, the Medical Device Manufacturers Association, which represents smaller companies, wasn't working the issue any harder than usual over the past few months, spending $90,000 on lobbying during the 3rd quarter. Meanwhile AvaMed, counting many larger companies as members, ramped up its spending slightly over the past year. (Roll Call)
- Canada is expanding its successful FOI web portal. The site, which enables online filing requests and electronic payment of fees, launched as a pilot program in April with three departments and will be expanded to cover 16 more over the next six months. (Calgary Herald)
- Some estimates indicate that a new open data initiative in Denmark may save the government over $45 million per year and be worth more than $85 million to the private sector. (Geospatial.blogs.com)
- Open Twin Cities, who has been using public data, and pushing for more, in the Minneapolis- Saint Paul area, recently became an official Code for America Brigade. Along with E-Democracy, a non-profit with similar ideals, the group is planning an unconference next month. (Minnesota Public Radio)
- We occasionally cover the bubbling open data rivalry between San Francsisco, but it turns out the two California cities compete over plenty of other things. (National Journal)
Transparency Case Study: Public Procurement in the Philippines
Introduction
For our Philippine case study, we conducted interviews with members of the following groups: staff at transparency NGOs, journalists who have covered procurement, and member organizations representing business interests. Our conversations with these respondents have allowed us to develop a diverse and comprehensive picture of how transparency, information communication technology (ICT) and civil society engagement in public procurement has impacted accountability.
These conversations have provided us with a detailed picture of procurement disclosure and data use in the Philippines since the reforms in 2002. A few findings have become clear:
- For transparency and public oversight mechanisms to work, public data must be public in more than name only. Publishing information online is not enough, especially if it is trapped in a platform that limits how journalists and watchdogs are able to use the data. PhilGEPS data is not widely used by journalists or CSOs because of artificial and needless barriers to use.
- Monitoring this volume of proceedings requires the scale and efficiency of data backed analysis. There are thousands of procurement proceedings every year in the Philippines. For example, as of Sept. 20th, 2013, PhilGEPS, the government e-procurement platform, lists 12,346 active opportunities. The civil sector doesn’t have the capacity to monitor procurement at this scale simply by attending the Bid and Awards Committee (BAC) meetings for each one, as the law allows.
- Without a comprehensive right to information law, access to useful data is largely at the discretion of the procurement entity and varies greatly between procuring entities, depending on the informal trust-based relationships that CSOs have developed with officials.
- Philippine law splits jurisdiction over procurement monitoring, investigation and sanctioning between various agencies, which can leave misconduct and inefficiency unchecked.
Public procurement in the Philippines presents a salient example of how much the specifics of implementation can matter. If transparency is to enable public oversight, disclosure must meet certain conditions of accessibility and usability. Simply posting information online is not enough. For real transparency, data must be open to the public without gates, it must be published in open and machine-readable formats, and it must be available in bulk.
In mandating the use of ICTs in the procurement process and establishing a formal oversight role for civil society the Government Procurement Reform Act took important steps to reform the Philippine procurement system. These reforms, however, have been considered and implemented largely in isolation, to the detriment of procurement integrity. Civil society oversight through the observer system is a manual and resource-intensive task that doesn’t capitalize on the economies of scale and efficiencies that ICTs can enable. Conversely, the integration of ICTs into public procurement has proceeded largely without including CSOs in the process or considering their needs and uses. Nowhere is this more evident than in the limited feature set of the PhilGEPS system.
Joining the dual accountability mandates of ICT enabled transparency and civil society oversight would make both more effective. Technical platform features should be designed with civil society, media, and oversight use cases in mind. Civil society organizations can serve their mandated roles as observers more effectively – and within their resource constraints – if data about all stages of the procurement process is made available. The Philippines case demonstrates that, absent accessible data, whistleblowers and leaks are the only safeguard against corruption. When the data is not readily available, it can’t enable meaningful oversight.
Continue readingKoch operative’s dark money group leading charge to cut spending
A Koch-affiliated dark money group is the newest organization to jump on train of shutdown ads and has a new wave of ads targeted at government spending and waste.
Continue readingSunlight APIs: One Billion Served!
Last week was dominated by news of the first government shutdown in seventeen years. But at Sunlight it also marked a different, more cheerful milestone. Last week, Sunlight's APIs served their billionth request!
Continue readingReasons to Not Release Data, Part 6: Legality
Earlier this month, we shared a crowdsourced collection of the top concerns data advocates have heard when they’ve raised an open data project with government officials at the federal, state, and local level, and we asked for you to share how you’ve responded. Dozens of you contributed to the project, sharing your thoughts on social media, our public Google doc, and even on the Open Data Stack Exchange, where 8 threads were opened to dive deeper into specific subjects.
Drawing from your input, our own experience, and existing materials from our peers at the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership and some data warriors from the UK, we’ve compiled a number of answers -- discussion points, if you will -- to help unpack and respond to some of the most commonly cited open data concerns. This mash-up of expertise is a work in progress, but we bet you’ll find it a useful conversation starter (or continuer) for your own data advocacy efforts.
Click here to see other posts in this series.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing challenges and responses from our #WhyOpenData list that correspond to different themes. Today’s theme is Legality.
Continue readingResources Tool Kit: McCutcheon v. FEC
Today in #OpenGov 10/7/2013
National News
- Many members of Congress decided it was best to cancel their fundraising events during the first week of the government shutdown. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is apparently not one of those members. He reportedly attended a fundraiser in Massachusetts on Friday before making it back to DC. (POLITICO)
- Lawyers and Lobbyists are questioning decision's by several key regulatory agencies to take their websites completely offline during the government shutdown, closing access to regulations, filings, and other documents. The FCC, FTC, and others have gone completely offline. (The Hill)
- Tobacco companies have a new, lucrative, and growing way to keep people hooked on their wares and they are fighting hard to keep it free of government regulation. E-cigarettes are growing fast and may overtake real cigarettes in market share within the next decade. (Washington Post)
- Cory Booker has faced some roadblocks in, what many initially thought would be an easy, trip to the Senate. Some bad press and a lackluster campaign have allowed Booker's Republican rival to close a once insurmountable gap, but Booker has been able to rely on friends in shiny places, specifically Tinsletown, to keep his well funded campaign rolling. (Roll Call)
- Politician's have repeatedly hit on campaign themes around ending corruption, but often candidate's fail to follow through once they are elected to office. This post highlights a few prime examples as well as ways that citizen's can hold their politician's accountable. (Transparency International)
- The European Commission and Parliament are digging into potential changes to lobbying regulation in the European Union. A two year old transparency register has been criticized by activists for being voluntary and failing to capture information about lobbyists that operate in the dark. (EurActiv)
- The new Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti is taking some baby steps towards pulling the City of Angels into the 21st century. Notably, the city recently launched an open data pilot project. The project uses ESRI's ArcGIS platform, but includes a survey that allows people to request other types of data be made open. (E Pluribis Unum)
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