IPR Prague opens its account books to the public

18. listopadu 2016

From 15th September the Prague Institute of Planning and Development (IPR Prague) will be publishing details of all its expenditure on its website. “A working democracy needs credible and transparent institutions. Therefore, we have decided to open up our economy for anyone interested to scrutinise,” says Petr Hlaváček, Director of IPR Prague.

Data on the Institute’s economy will be published in the Supervizor application, created by the Ministry of Finance. The purpose of the application is to give a clear and simple picture of what the organisation spends money on. Anyone interested in this information can browse all the invoices paid by the Institute. These will always be assigned to the appropriate section IPR Prague. There will also be an overview of suppliers, and all the invoicing details. “We count on updating this information once a month,” explains Hlaváček.

“I’m delighted that the Institute of Planning and Development is setting such a good example to the city’s other contributory organisations. Providing access to information about expenditure strengthens people’s trust – and also helps to prevent money being spent for no good reason,” says Deputy Mayor Petra Kolínská. “As regards expenses, at the same time we all know that the cheapest is not always the best. This means there is an even greater need for transparency – with complete figures available, the public can gain a clearer picture of the approach that responsible institutions take to their economy.”

In 2015 the Supervizor application was awarded first prize in the competition organised by the Otakar Motejl Fund entitled Opening up Data Together. It was first used to publish and visualize data relating to the Ministry of Finance’s economy. Then, in April 2016, the ministry published the source code of the software and so other institutions can use the application to publish their own data. For opening up its data, in 2014 IPR Prague came second in the OPEN X CLOSED competition for its map application, as well as a prize from Arcdata for its contribution toward providing access to geo-information.

What is Open Data?

Usually, this is public administration data, but can also be data from academic research or individuals. The data must be accessible online with as few technical impediments as possible and can include geographic data, spreadsheets or text documents. The information should also be machine-readable.