Realizing the benefits of transparency

I have always believed that citizens are the best positioned to hold government accountable. Unlike legislators, citizens are not subject to co-option by bureaucracy, unlike the press, they need not fear loss of access if they take a tough stand against the actions of government.

Citizens need powerful tools to enable oversight. Until recently, these tools weren’t easily available; however, advancements in technology are finally allowing taxpayers to truly oversee government action.

It is our job as legislators to put these tools into place. Over the past few years, that’s exactly what we have done, and it’s working!

I recently received a call from an individual who questioned the manner by which a group of government agencies continually classifies its expenditures. As I spoke with this person, I realized that he was conducting a comprehensive research project to analyze and attempt to quantify billions of dollars of state government spending.

His tool of choice: the raw state government expenditure data sets now available for all to see at data.ok.gov.

There is an ever-growing calling — a civic duty — to follow the example of this conscientious taxpayer and hold government accountable. Perhaps it’s by adopting your favorite state agency, an agency with which you have had experience or have familiarity in their area of policy, and reviewing their expenditures on a monthly or quarterly basis. Or maybe it’s by filtering the expenditure list down to just those expenditures to recipients in your zip code, an area where you will know the nature of business conducted by the recipient.

Anomalous findings should be brought to the attention of your legislator. Many legislators will happily look into the circumstances surrounding the anomaly and their inquiry will serve notice to the agency that the citizens are ready to hold them accountable.

You can only imagine the long term benefits of this transparency. Every time an agency official makes an expenditure with your taxpayer dollars, he will have to filter his justification for the spending by asking, “How will this expenditure appear to the taxpayer?”

Citizen oversight has become easier due to a recent upgrade to the data.ok.gov site.

State officials have upgraded the site using a new open source technology platform. The new platform places a heavy emphasis on allowing direct access to entire data sets instead of filtering those data sets through a government-controlled website.

This recognizes the emphasis we have placed on providing entire data sets to the public instead of forcing the public to navigate various sorting requirements before getting access to the data. Sorting requirements could easily become biased by government officials who wish to redirect the public away from comprehensive access to the data. Conversely, raw data, once downloaded by the taxpayer, has been completely removed from government control.

This new upgrade, and the state’s ongoing fulfillment of the transparency mission, has been made possible by the commitment of officials at the state’s Office of Management and Enterprise Services. These individuals have carried out the Legislature’s transparency vision; they have significantly exceeded our expectations and this transparency would not have been possible without their efforts.

State government will benefit for years to come from this new citizen oversight.

Thank you for reading this article. Your interest and input are much appreciated. Please do not hesitate to email Jason.Murphey@hd31.org with your thoughts and suggestions.