Finance minister Pravin Gordhan has announced an open data portal for local government budget information, providing citizens with access to comparable, verified information on the financial performance of each municipality in South Africa.
Developed in partnership with Code for South Africa (also known as Code4SA), a nongovernmental organisation that promotes informed public decision making using technology, the Municipal Money website “aims to promote transparency and citizen engagement through the visualisation and ‘demystification’ of information about municipal spending”, national treasury said in a statement.
The hope is that it will stimulate citizen involvement in local governance. It is in line with international best practice, in terms of which governments are increasingly opening up their data to the public, specifically budget data, to promote oversight, transparency and accountability, it said.
“South Africa has demonstrated its commitment to open government by co-founding and participating in the Open Government Partnership, a partnership of more than 69 countries committed to working together to develop and implement ambitious open government reforms,” national treasury said.
Municipal Money utilises a variety of media and tools to present key municipal financial information, and also to explain the related financial concepts and their relevance to citizens.
“The website is designed for an audience who may or may not have any financial knowledge or background, but also caters for the more data-savvy user who may want to trace and grapple with the actual datasets,” treasury said.
“To this end, Municipal Money draws on the raw data from a linked database, which is now also available for anyone to view, download and re-use.”
The raw data can be used by analysts or app developers in conjunction with other data sources to create new applications for municipal financial data.
“The public will now be able to access free, reliable, user-friendly financial information for every single municipality in South Africa… This platform will in future months be augmented to include more than just financial information, and present wider sets of service delivery information including the geographical location and progress of planned infrastructure projects in communities.” — (c) 2016 NewsCentral Media
