Romania’s Progress Report
for the 2014-2016 NationalAction Plan
OGP in the world
◦Established in 2011, OGP is a multi-stakeholder initiative through whichgovernments make concrete commitments to open governance;
OGP in Romania
◦Romania joined OGP in 2011, through the action of the Ministry ofForeign Affairs;
◦Romania is currently in its second National Action Plan, which wassigned in August 2014;
Independent Reporting Mechanism
◦Progress report one year into the Action Plan implementation;
What is OGP?
OGP Terms
“Open government is the governing doctrine which holds that citizenshave the right to access the documents and proceedings of thegovernment to allow for effective public oversight. In its broadestconstruction it opposes reason of state and other considerations, whichhave tended to legitimize extensive state secrecy.”
“Open data is data provided by government entities in non-proprietaryformats, which that can be freely used, re-used and redistributed byanyone. Once shared, open data can be used for any purpose, includingresearch, profit-making or oversight”.
Romania Progress Report
Institutional Arrangements
The Chancellery of the Prime Minister, through the Departmentfor Online Services and Design (DSOD), is the leading institutionresponsible for Romania’s OGP action plan and implementation;
The National Action Plan was adopted through a governmentmemorandum, which is a non-binding document, unlike aGovernment Decision;
The network of public sector employees with OGP responsibilitiesis relatively unstable and has a large turnover;
Focus of the Action Plan
The 2014-2016 National Action Plan of Romania features 11commitments, which can be structured under three majorchapters:
◦1) Transparency and Administrative Efficiency;
◦2) Open data published by public institutions;
◦3) Training and dissemination;
Level of Completion
Only five of the eleven commitmentswere on schedule;
Some other commitments werecompleted in the meanwhile;
OGP process
Who was consulted?
Government;
Civil society, especially Open Data Coalition;
Who was involved?
Government;
Civil society, especially Open Data Coalition;
Was there an open dialogue?
Who was missing? Academia, the private sector, more civil society.
Starred Commitments
Free online access to nationallegislation
Outstanding Commitments
Public interest document disclosure:
◦OGP value relevance – clear;
◦Potential impact – moderate;
◦Completion – limited;
Public datasets inventory:
◦OGP value relevance – clear;
◦Potential impact – moderate;
◦Completion – limited;
Conclusions
Due to multiple restrictions, open governmentcommitments are relatively difficult to attain, and the OGPNational Action Plan is mostly focused on open datacommitments;
The political and civic resources are scarce and insufficientto push the OGP process into the national agenda. Mostresults are generated through the focused effort of theavailable energies;
SMARTRecommendations
1.Adopt the next OGP national action plan as a governmental decision(Hotărâre de Guvern) rather than a memorandum;
2.Direct OGP, SNA and transparency legislation responsibilities to a singleindividual or team in each institution;
3.Expand the institutional capacity for the Department for Online Servicesand Design (DSOD) and help focus and intensify the leadership process ofthe OGP process in Romania;
4.Create a government portal where citizens can find all the legislationundergoing public consultations;
5.The next national action plan should include requirements that all 42prefectures in Romania publish open data on the governmental portal(data.gov.ro);
Resources
Public consultation process:
Comments or questions:
Thank you
Dani Sandu
09.03.2016