Taking steps to curb corruption

The amount of data created and consumed continues to swell with no slowdown in sight.  

From parking tickets to correspondence to budgets and registries, governments create enormous amounts of that data and retain it. And yet, most of it isn’t accessible for collaboration and analysis. As datasets continue to grow larger and data remains siloed and difficult to process, the conditions are ripe for corruption. The International Monetary Fund found that public corruption diverts close to $2 trillion from the global economy annually, stunting economic growth and tax revenue while increasing poverty. Many countries have pledged their commitments to open data and opposition to corruption, but few have followed through.  

That’s why through our Open Data Campaign and Microsoft ACTS we encourage policies that lead to more open data and data collaboration to help make better decisions and confront some of society’s biggest challenges. Microsoft’s Data Collaboration Principles guide our contributions to data collaboration and include making data as open and usable as possible. While governments and other organizations may face challenges in attempting to enable open data, we believe governments can build on these principles and adapt them as they consider developing and adopting their own. 

Putting principles into practice 

After developing principles, government agencies should take steps to implement practices guided by their principles. Some ways that government agencies can move from principles to implementation and action include:  

• Default to open data. To begin, governments can adopt a posture favoring open data. While taking care to protect personal information, governments can enact policies and laws that make data open and available by default. For example, a 2013 U.S. presidential executive order created a new default of openness for U.S. government data. Governments can also enhance current laws regarding public information to prompt and reinforce the timely release of data. Government data systems should be designed with openness, such as embedding automated data publishing processes. Data strategy should be given proper safeguards to prevent compromise as leadership and political mandates change.  
• Make data usable. If data is open but not usable, there is little point in providing it. Data needs to be in formats that people can use. Too often, government data is published in HTML or PDF formats, which are not helpful for further processing. Researchers and developers want raw data in machine-readable formats with consistent values. At the same time, citizens might not understand a spreadsheet with special terminology. Metadata can be used to help interpret and understand data. 
• Prioritize data. Hand in hand with making data open and usable, governments ought to consider what data should be prioritized for release that can best be used to curb corruption and benefit citizens. Datasets that can aid anti-corruption efforts include corporate and lobbying registers, procurement data, and audits. Engagement and discussions around prioritization should include numerous stakeholders, including civil society, media, and community groups. 

A worthy challenge 

Managing change is never easy. For many governments and organizations, transitioning to an open data environment and practices is a challenge—but a challenge worth pursuing. As the amount of data escalates around the world, Microsoft ACTS will continue to partner with governments to find solutions and use technology to process and share data more effectively. Already, open data has sped up the development of our proof of concepts. When more governments adopt and implement open data practices, we will increase accountability and transparency, bend the curve of corruption, and ultimately, improve lives.