The Global Impact of Open Data

Chapter 2. Brazil’s Open Budget Transparency Portal

Making Public How Public Money Is Spent

By Auralice Graft, Stefaan Verhulst and Andrew Young

Summary: In 2004, the Brazilian Office of the Comptroller General (CGU) created the Transparency Portal, a tool that aims to increase fiscal transparency of the Brazilian Federal Government through open government budget data. Developed in partnership with the Federal Data Processing Service, the Transparency Portal relies on the collaboration of diverse ministries and bodies of the Federal Public Administration to advance transparency and to offer a tool that stimulates citizen participation. As the quality and quantity of data on the portal have improved over the past decade, the Transparency Portal is now one of the country’s primary anti-corruption tools, registering an average of 900,000 unique visitors each month. The project is regarded as one of the most important e-government initiatives with regard to control over public spending. Local governments throughout Brazil and three other Latin American countries have modeled similar financial transparency initiatives after Brazil’s Transparency Portal.

Dimension of Impact: Improving Government—Tackling Transparency Corruption and Transparency

Key Takeaways:

• Open data initiatives can help uncover illegal or irresponsible government spending, engage citizens in anti-corruption campaigns, and lead to meaningful public policy changes that might not occur without the public outrage created ...