First Deputy Minister of Finance Oksana Markarova summarizes the results of the E-Data portal operation in 2016 and briefs on further steps in the reform efforts to make public finance more open

During yesterday’s Round Table meeting “Two years after the adoption of the Law “On the Open Use of Public Funds”: what comes next?”, First Deputy Minister of Finance Oksana Markarova summarized the results of the E-Data portal operation in 2016. E-Data is presently the biggest open database for public funds in Ukraine containing registered information on 15 million transactions of the State Treasury Office as well as 44 million contracts, protocols and reports and 100 million requests related to API service.

According to Oksana Markarova, 47% of the entities managing state budget funds reported their transactions at the portal, 22% of the state-owned companies created their electronic offices at E-Data. The registration of new electronic offices went down by 80% in the second half of 2016. It means that entities managing public funds which still are not present at the E-Data website e-data.gov.ua violate the Law of Ukraine “On the Open Use of Public Funds”.

The First Deputy Minister of Finance reported that the flaws in the execution of the mentioned law have to do with the problematic enforcement and difficulties in prosecuting those delaying the publication of information as well as the low institutional capacity of some of the entities entitled to manage public funds. The Ministry of Finance is making efforts to handle the law violations properly and to ensure the proper operation of the E-Data portal.

“Our key goal for 2017 is to increase the number of newly registered electronic offices and to fill E-Data with more data”, Oksana Markarova said. 

The Round Table was also attended by MPs, representatives of the Office of the Representative for Human Rights, representatives of the General Prosecutor’s Office and the State Audit Agency as well as experts of the Reanimation Package of Reforms and others. 

The participants of the Round Table agreed to continue joint efforts to optimize the regulations of the Law “On the Open Use of Public Funds” under the trilateral working group including representatives of the Parliament and the Government as well as experts.