FiscalData - Observing Bogota's Fiscal Situation - Observatory of Public Sector Innovation

FiscalData is an innovative tool created for the analysis of Bogota, Colombia's fiscal situation. It promotes transparency around local public sector finances. FiscalData seeks to benefit the citizens of Bogotá by serving as a mechanism for participation on fiscal issues between civil society and the public and private sectors.

Innovation Summary

Innovation Overview

Disinformation about budgetary and fiscal processes affects citizens' ability to have relevant elements to understand how public resources are used, the value or transformation of their taxes into public goods, as well as the understanding of the processes involved in public finance. FiscalData is the District Fiscal Observatory, a tool to disseminate information on local public finance and public finances in Bogotá, aligned with objectives such as budget transparency and the quality of public spending. It includes data on the city's revenues and expenditures, associated with the collection and budget behaviour of the Colombian Capital District. In addition, it presents information in innovative and interactive formats on fiscal results and sources of financing for the analysis of the fiscal situation of the Colombian capital. It also contains indicators of the economic situation in Bogota, including the behaviour of economic activity, the labour market, consumer and business confidence and expectations, among others. The Observatory emerged as a project conceived by the district government to give citizens access to fiscal information and promote their ability to explore, analyse and participate in the development of new proposals for monitoring the public resources invested in the city.

Thus, civil society has access to updated information regarding progress in collection, budget distribution, budget execution, level of indebtedness, and state of the city's finances. These developments are directed towards specific objectives: promoting transparency and awareness of tax matters, strengthening social control oversight offices, the appropriation of tax information by citizens and the defense of the public at the hands of a frontal fight against corruption. At an institutional level, FiscalData has been developed at a time when Bogotá has entered into transnational initiatives on open government and fiscal transparency such as the Open Government Partnership, Open Data Charter, the Infrastructure Transparency Initiative (CoST) and the Global Initiative for Budget Transparency (GIFT). This provides an opportunity to strengthen dialogue and interaction between governments, businessmen and stakeholders interested in sharing and exchanging good practices in fiscal transparency and public participation, which strengthens decision-making at the local level, as well as citizen participation and control. The Observatory was implemented in 2019 and it was stated that, as an objective, it should position itself, in the medium term, as a benchmark for consulting tax information that allows citizens to have tools to analyze the tax situation in Bogotá.

FiscalData is inspired not only by the experience and good practices promoted by the aforementioned transnational organizations and initiatives (on fiscal transparency and open government). It is also inspired by the operation of other observatories with an emphasis on fiscal and economic issues that have operated not only in Bogotá and Colombia, but also in other regions and countries, and that are dedicated to different fundamental challenges of urban development (health, environment, etc.). environment, mobility, economy, among others).

Innovation Description

What Makes Your Project Innovative?

FiscalData is a new mechanism for transparency and inspection of tax revenues and expenses, which prevents practices of corruption and tax evasion that have a direct impact on inequality in Colombia. It serves as a promoter of sustainable development in the city through fiscal and social protection policies that progressively achieve greater equality at the district level: Bogotá represents a quarter of the national economy. FiscalData is perceived as an institution that seeks, in an efficient and transparent way, to help with the rendering of accounts on fiscal matters in the Capital District.

Innovation Development

Collaborations & Partnerships

District Treasury Secretariat: through Resolution SDH-271 of 2019, it issued the regulations of the Observatory, led by the Sub-directorate of Sectoral Analysis; other dependencies of the Secretariat shared information to consolidate what was disclosed
National Planning Department: structuring of the basic scheme of the Observatory
Esri: Provider of ArcGIS online solutions and applications
Open Government of Bogotá and High Council of ICT: support in terms of dissemination

Users, Stakeholders & Beneficiaries

Bogota population, civil society organizations in the city and third parties from private entities were provided with easy-to-use tools to access transparent information on tax revenues and expenditures in the city, that equips them with the ability to participate in the debate on finance district offices
Addresses and offices of the District Department of Finance: new forms of interpretation and visualization to highlight the products and data they generate

Innovation Reflections

Results, Outcomes & Impacts

FiscalData has achieved more than 10,000 visits and has had more than 1,000 people who answered questions with which their expectations and commitments regarding the Observatory were inquired. FiscalData has dashboards of indicators, pieces, and infographics on economic and public finance indicators, and sectoral information bulletins. It also contains recurringly updated budget, tax, and financing dashboards. In the future, the Observatory will advance a deep digital transformation agenda that involves the availability of open data, a high-impact geographic viewer, a media agenda on local public finances, and relevance at the Bogotá-Region level.

Challenges and Failures

Organizationally, the Observatory is disruptive to the traditional corporate culture of an entity like the Ministry of Finance. In economic and technological terms, there are no specific resources for its development and maintenance. By proposing elements of analysis that are too specialized, the Observatory requires the support of people specialized in the issues to be dealt with. Regulatory restrictions prevent the rapid development of innovations. There can be administrative restrictions such as difficulties in renewing software licenses. Budget limitations can arise in acquiring the equipment required to focus efforts on the Observatory. We faced these challenges by taking advantage of the talent and commitment of the available team, and built proposals that moved in our favor the wills and opinions regarding the Observatory inside the entity.

Conditions for Success

FiscalData requires the infrastructure and support services that allow it to function as a web page and repository of data and information. In addition, as a space for experimentation, an opening is necessary to be able to transcend policies and regulations that may limit the space for innovation. Also, like any project, it requires both financial and human resources to be able to ensure a "dream team" that is not only concerned with innovating in web design and visualization and data platform, but also to propose analytical innovations and cutting-edge approaches in terms of data analysis. Finally, the notion of having transparent public resources and proper accountability for everyone's resources and their proper use for the well-being of the Society gives the Observatory visibility and relevance.

Replication

FiscalData has not been replicated, however, it has great potential to be replicated in all the municipalities of Cundinamarca and neighboring Bogotá, as a city-region.

Lessons Learned

Tax matters do matter to people, the problem is that we do not disclose them in a clear, concrete and easy-to-understand manner for the general public. For this reason, drawing attention to a topic that at first glance does not seem to be of general interest, represents fundamental challenges to affect the media agenda and put the discussion on the city's fiscal issues in the public debate. Precisely, the way in which a city or a country organizes its finances is the foundation with which the authorities can govern with greater accountability, since they have the authority to decide how and where to spend public resources. For this reason, it is understood that a local government such as that of Bogotá, by having its own resources that are made visible with tools such as the Observatory, can better respond to the needs of citizens. Precisely as local authorities face the challenge of reinforcing their financial capacities and using their limited resources effectively and efficiently, what the Observatory offers as a mechanism for accountability and fiscal transparency is extremely valuable.

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