The Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO) experts studied the impact of using SACI’s (State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate) open data on public problems in Ukraine within the USAID/UK aid project “Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services/TAPAS” and with the assistance of the Ministry of Digital Transformation.
The analytical report “The Impact of Open Data of the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate” is the first in a series of case studies that examine the impact of publishing data of various sectors on citizens’ lives, doing business, and government activities.
The authors are making a qualitative assessment of the SACI’s Register on the example of seven scenarios of data use through interviews with construction market participants, managers of open data-based services, SACI employees, and journalists.
The report collects examples of decisions based on open data and journalistic investigations and describes their impact. For example,
- SACI’s data are most often used by public sector representatives and journalists to eliminate violations in the urban planning legislation. For example, the investigation of the activist Heorhii Mohylnyi and the use of the Urbandata service and the Dabibot chatbot to verify construction permits.
- Residential real estate investors can avoid investing in risky objects by using Monitor. Estate and Bild.ua services.
- A Renovation Map tool helps activists monitor violations and prevent illegal renovations or demolition of architectural monuments.
- Construction market participants can choose contractors more carefully thanks to litigation analysis services such as Sud na Doloni and NORA.
- Finally, making the register data public provoked a wide discussion of corruption factors around SACI and provided an impetus to fight corruption in the construction sector.
Additionally, as of now (September 24), data on declarative and permit documents from a new Register of Construction Activities developed by the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO) experts are available on the State Open Data Portal. It started operating on July 6 this year as part of the implementation of the Unified State Electronic System in the Ukrainian urban planning sphere.
Unlike the previous register under the SACI administration, the new Construction Sector Register has some important innovations:
- the list of fields that were not entered at all and were available only on paper previously was expanded;
- all information is relevant, structured, and protected from unauthorized changes;
- it includes a unique identifier allowing to link all permits, urban planning, and design documentation, and information about participants to a certain construction object;
- availability of coordinates for accurate identification of construction objects.
As of September 15, 2020, the new Construction Sector Register already contained data from more than 27,000 declarations and permits. The Register’s open data presented in JSON format will be updated weekly and are available through the link.
For information
- The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine is a central executive body responsible for implementing the Government’s policy on e-government, informatization, development of the information society, formation and use of national electronic information resources, and government digitalization authorities. The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, and other government authorities and international partners, promote the introduction of electronic services in many economic spheres (construction, land services, ecology, business registration, subsidies, state aid, and more). Website: https://thedigital.gov.ua/
- The USAID/UK aid Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services/TAPAS Project, funded by the U.S. Government through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the UK Government through UK aid, is aimed at supporting the government of Ukraine to implement visible and successful reforms in public administration and services to reduce and eliminate corruption greatly. The TAPAS project promotes e-government reforms within three components: ensuring the large-scale use of e-procurement; supporting effective open data programs throughout Ukraine; creating effective e-services to fight corruption. The project is implemented by the Eurasia Foundation, which is an international development organization located in the United States and promoting effective governance and development of civil society. Read more at http://tapas.org.ua.
- The Better Regulation Delivery Office is an independent expert and analytical center funded by international donors, including the European Union, as part of the FORBIZ project and the EU4Business Initiative. We focus on improving the Ukrainian business environment and investment attractiveness of Ukraine, promoting entrepreneurship development, and establishing a public dialogue between the government and businesses. Read more at https://brdo.com.ua/