Open Public Finance Report 2020.pdf
State Institution ‘Open Public Finance’ made a public report on open data portals in the field of public finance in 2020 and on plans for the future.
The Ministry of Finance plays an important role in disclosing public finance data. That’s why Mykola Matyushenko, Director of the Department for Digital Development, Digital Transformations and Digitization of the Ministry of Finance, stressed that data openness and digital transformation are important for Ukraine.
“We want to give citizens the opportunity to make decisions based on information and data analysis, which will contribute to the sustainable development of Ukraine in general and local communities in particular. At the same time, we want provided data to be used in the field of public finances by citizens. "
In his speech Oleksandr Komareus, CEO of the SI OPF, focused on an important initiative of the Ministry of Finance — the launch of the E-contract:
“E-contract is a project of the E-data group. This project is extremely necessary for Ukraine, because it is about efficiency, responsibility, optimization of work." In fact, the importance of this project cannot be underestimated, since today contracts are on paper, so their signing, approval, re-signing takes time. Instead, the ‘E-contract’ solution is automated, available in machine-readable data, with a single data standard, digital signing, integration with The State Treasury Service of Ukraine and Spending. This solution will help simplify cooperation between business and public institutions and companies, as well as reduce the risk of corruption.
Oleksandr also drew attention to other areas of activity of the OPF, which are very important for the Ministry of Finance: infrastructure support of the Ministry, information systems support, DWH, LOGICA (information and analytical management system for planning and execution of local budgets).
Ihor Plisa, Project Manager of the E-data portals, spoke about the importance of a single open data platform (https://edata.gov.ua/), which is the entrance to three portals:
• Single web portal for the public funds spending (https://spending.gov.ua/new/): the largest open database in the field of public finance.
• Citizens’ Budget (https://openbudget.gov.ua/): the largest knowledge base on the budget.
• Web portal with the register of projects that are implemented in Ukraine with the financial support of international financial institutions (IFIs) (https://proifi.gov.ua/).
In 2020:
Single web portal for the public funds spending (https://spending.gov.ua/new/):
• the portal was visited by 18,000 users per month (in average);
• more than 49 thousand organizations are registered and report on the portal;
• the percentage of registered budget entities and recipients of budget funds is 68%; 36% is the number of registration among state institutions;
• Kyiv region has the highest registration rate on the portal, followed by Zhytomyr and Kharkiv regions. The last in the list with an indicator of only 54% is Ivano-Frankivsk region; Donetsk, Luhansk, and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea have low registration rates due to occupation.
• Still not all Ministers are registered: Ministry of Culture and Information Policy and the Ministry for Strategic Industries.
Ihor Plisa drew attention to the fact that the portal still has 1683 offices of government agencies registered on Russian domains (these offices were registered before the ban on registration with such addresses).
Ihor Plisa also pointed out: “Additional fields in transactions (contract identifier, procurement, software and economic classification codes) is our biggest victory this year, due to the integration of STSU - Prozorro - E-data. We introduced this feature at the request of the public. Offer us more — we hear you."
Citizens’ Budget (https://openbudget.gov.ua/):
Portal updates data on the implementation of state and local budgets, provides information on the budget process. This portal is integrated with Spending, which allows users to go from general information on the implementation of local budgets to the office of the relevant authorities and view their detailed transactions. This is an extremely important tool for citizens to control local authorities, which is especially important in the context of decentralization.
State web portal with the register of projects that are implemented in Ukraine with the financial support of international financial institutions (IFIs) (https://proifi.gov.ua/):
"This portal is the least known among our audience, still it is no less interesting. It provides information about projects that are being implemented or will be implemented, statistics, funding structure", — Ihor Plisa.
This portal is also useful for businesses that can participate in tenders within the relevant projects. As for the end of 2020, the portal provides information on 42 projects worth 51 billion euros and 3 billion dollars.
'The OPF drives changes to make public data in the field of public finance more user-friendly. ‘Open Public Finance’ has already developed a module on the Citizens’ Budget to present information on the medium-term budget declaration. The following year, the possibilities for searching for transactions on Spending will be expanded: a 3-month restriction on searching for transactions will be changed, and transitions from the portal to the Prozorro portal and the Open Budget for Citizens will be developed.