NAOL Enhances Transparency Through Open Data Measures
Each audit carried out by the National Audit Office of Lithuania (NAOL) results in an audit report describing findings, as well as recommendations on how to improve the performance of an audited entity. Audit recommendations, part of the audit report, are accessible on the NAOL website after the audit is completed. Until now, progress on the implementation of recommendations was recorded into the NAOL database, visible only internally to NAOL staff.
In November 2016, the NAOL released data on the implementation of recommendations submitted to audited bodies during performance audits finalized in 2014 or later. This data from the internal information system has now been made public, allowing all stakeholders to check the status on the implementation of each recommendation. The data is published online in several formats to ensure each reader has accessibility based on needs and preferences.
A full set of data on recommendations is published in downloadable xml format that enables analysis to the reader’s taste. This is the most complete data set that includes the recommendation itself; entity to whom it is addressed; agreed date of implementation and postponements (if any), including the cause for such postponement; and implementation status, progress and results.
Data for every public sector area is presented in a user-friendly format allowing readers to have a quick overview about a particular situation, as well as allowing for the application of filters, such as implementation status, year of the recommendation, and/or audited entity. This user-friendly design negates the need to download and use particular data analysis tools.
Data on the implementations of recommendations associated with a particular audit is provided in the Report on Monitoring of Recommendations, a pdf file enabling a quick results overview of a particular audit. This report is automatically generated from the information system and published online adjacent to the audit report once recommendations are entered into the information system.
Updated implementation changes become live overnight, resulting in near-immediate, up-to-date information on any recommendation.
Introduction of this new tool for tracking audit recommendations may seem like a small step in modernizing NAOL’s information system, but it is a giant leap in transparency and disclosing one of the many benefits Supreme Audit Institutions provide to the public.
Open data is available on the website of the National Audit Office of Lithuania at www.vkontrole.lt. For more information, please contact Kristina Jakštonytê at kristina.jakstonyte@vkontrole.lt.
