| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
|
|
The e-SIC is an innovative instrument in the electronic and automated provision of public services. It functions as the Federal Executive Branch's exclusive platform for the requests for public information and allows fort the whole cycle of access to information - from registration to the public response - to be integrated. It makes access to information more effective, faster and of better quality.
In addition, it allows any person, natural or legal, to forward requests to government bodies and entities, file appeals and complaints and review the answers. It also enables the 318 registered entities to: access and respond to requests; monitor deadlines for responses; request an extension of time; forward requests to other bodies or entities; access the attendance statistics and track and respond to public appeals.
Advantages of the system that should be highlighted:
• web availability for any interested party who has access to the Internet;
• no costs involved for the citizen to make requests for access to the information and for the government body to send the answers;
• speed in receiving and sending requests and responses;
• coverage of the entire Federal Public Administration, facilitating the registration of requests and the extraction of statistical data for monitoring the Act;
• implementation of automatized routines in the flow between requests and responses.
|
|
| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
|
|
The Citizen Information Service Electronic System (e-SIC) was developed and implemented by the Ministry of Transparency (CGU), through its Secretariat of Transparency. It allows any person, legal or natural, from anywhere in the world, to file requests for access to information, follow the deadline and receive the response from the government bodies and entities of the Federal Executive Branch. So far 2,334,333 people, from all Brazilian states and with the participation of 90% of the municipalities of the country, have filed requests for access to information. In addition, 1,366 foreigners have requested access to information since its implementation. In addition, the platform is made available in open code for states and municipalities to implement, contributing significantly to the access to information in the subnational level.
|
| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
|
|
The initiative was implemented by the Ministry of Transparency (CGU). The technical coordinating team of the project was composed of 05 employees, specialized in transparency legislation and who had already assisted the maintenance of other transparency mechanisms in the country, such as the Transparency Portal of the Federal Executive Branch.
In addition to intensive contact with the CGU's own systems development team, the coordinating team worked closely with a group of 5 external consultants hired through a cooperation agreement with the UK Embassy. The technical team coordinated the work, proposed drawings and flows, and approved of the system, while developers worked on the construction of the system and structuring of databases.
The system construction project lasted 05 months; however, because it is a dynamic platform, it is constantly updated through improvements and reformulations of flows, increasing the tools that allow better monitoring, transparency and social oversight on the service.
|
|
| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
|
|
Initially, the CGU hired an independent researcher, Roberto da Mata, who undertook intensive research with all civil servants in order to better understand the obstacles and challenges in the implementation of the Act. Not only did the study point to the need of constructing a solid process that could ensure the right to access information, but it also allowed the development of the system taking into account the feedback produced by the servants that would feed the system in the future.
The Office of the Comptroller General was at the forefront of the development and maintenance of the process, in close coordination with all the government bodies of the federal government. At the outset, all the Executive Secretaries of the bodies were brought together to discuss the challenges of implementing the Act and to give their opinions on the development of the system. As a conclusion, at the end of this stage, an interlocutor - or point of contact - was appointed at each body, who was responsible for ensuring compliance with the act in the unit and for interacting with the Comptroller General.
In each government body, a Citizen Information Service was created, a place where specialists on the Access to Information Act were gathered and who would have extensive knowledge of the system - and who are therefore fundamental to the tool and still fundamental for the system to be a great success.
In addition, the Presidency Civil Office was responsible for facilitating the CGU's dialogue with the other bodies, as well as for preparing the final version of the Access to Information Act in the Federal Executive Branch - taking into account the inputs of the Office of the Comptroller General of the Union.
|
|
| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
|
|
From May 2012 - when the LAI came into force - until December 2016, the approximately 320 government bodies registered in the platform the reception of 446,132 requests, of which 444,927 were answered, resulting in an omission rate of responses of 0.27% . The average time of answers was 13.83 days - below the 20-day deadline established by the legislation. Among the requests answered, 337,315 were attended (totally or partially) and 39,994 denied with proper justification. So far 2,334,333 people, from all Brazilian states and with the participation of 90% of the municipalities of the country, have filed requests for access to information. In addition, 1,366 foreigners have requested access to information since its implementation.
The availability of requests and responses generated by the e-SIC influenced the creation of civil society initiatives such as the “Lost and Found” platform (http://www.achadosepedidos.org.br/), which brings together requests for access to information from all public bodies, as well as initiatives that monitor the country's access to information services, such as the studies led by Article 19 (http://artigo19.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Monitoramento-da-Lei-de-Acesso-%C3%80-Informa%C3%A7%C3%A3o-P%C3%BAblica-em-2014.pdf)) or Getúlio Vargas Foundation (direitorio.fgv.br/projetos/avaliacao-da-lei-de-acesso-a-informacao) .
Moreover, the System was adopted by local governments such as the state of São Paulo, Alagoas, Maranhão, Federal District and many municipalities such as Belo Horizonte, São Paulo, Sao Luis and Itapemirim - who requested technical support to CGU in order to implement e-sic locally. There is not an existing tracking system in order to specify the Administrations that download the system directly from the Free Software Portal and implemented it in their local Administration.
|
|
| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
|
|
Some obstacles shall be highlighted:
Monitoring over government bodies:
According to what has been set forth, the CGU would be in charge of enforcing the compliance with the Act within the Federal Executive Branch, monitoring procedures and deadlines, starting from the implementation of the Act. The CGU has develop mechanisms and has also systematized information to meet its duties. In practical terms, publications and government bodies’ statistics reports have been yearly forwarded to the National Congress in order to present important data concerning the implementation of the Act.
Capacity-building of civil servants:
With the intent of ensuring that citizens’ requests be welcomed and that the LAI be an act which is supported and recognized by society, the CGU has carried out live and virtual trainings on the Access to Information Act.
The live training run by the CGU’s Secretariat of Transparency and for Corruption Prevention comprised eleven groups between March and May of 2012, which provided capacity-building for around 700 civil servants from 38 superior government bodies, 80 linked entities and 52 state-owned companies. As for the virtual course for civil servants, until the end of July of 2012, 6.026 civil servants and public employees had been trained.
Cultural obstacle:
The Act introduced a new way for the public sector to act before society, which pushed into a cultural shift and better organization of procedures and public information management. It was considered necessary to have a greater power of liaisoning among managers and officers from the several government bodies and entities to overcome the weaknesses. As for that, there was the establishment of a net of people in charge of caring of the access to information in each body or entity, having set and integrated roles. The interaction between the CGU and those actors, who are the “monitoring authorities”, e-SIC managers, appointed interlocutors and the ombudsmen’s offices, allows for a preventive monitoring and for an analysis of third instance appeals to be more effective.
|