Transparency and Accountability Initiatives of Other Governments
As part of Open Chicago, the IGO highlights transparency and accountability initiatives that other cities, counties, states, and countries have undertaken. We come across these initiatives as we review the practices of other governments while doing research for investigations, audits, and program reviews. By identifying what other governments are doing to enhance transparency and accountability, we provide greater context for the City of Chicago’s own transparency efforts. 
Some initiatives on this page were identified and researched by students from Northwestern University as part of a course that was a collaboration between Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies and the IGO. During the course students analyzed the transparency of Chicago’s government and researched transparency and accountability initiatives in governments outside Chicago. Initiatives below that were identified by the Northwestern students are indicated by the Northwestern logo next to their title. For information regarding this ongoing course or to view all of the research done by Northwestern students please contact instructor Donald Gordon at donald-gordon@northwestern.edu.
If you have suggestions about initiatives we should highlight, email them to openchicago@chicagoinspectorgeneral.org or submit them via our online suggestion box.
Transparency and Accountability Initiatives from around the World
Maryland’s Statestat
The State of Maryland’s StateStat is a performance measurement and management tool, in which the performance of programs is continually monitored. “At bi-weekly meetings, State managers meet with the Governor and his executive staff to report and answer questions on agency performance and priority initiatives.”[8] These meetings are informed by detailed performance data that managers … [Read More...]
Boston’s Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics
The City of Boston’s Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics (MONUM) “serves as the City’s innovation incubator, building partnerships between City agencies and outside institutions and entrepreneurs to pilot projects in Boston that address resident and business needs.” [5] MONUM “focuses on a broad range of areas from increasing civic participation, to improving City streets, … [Read More...]
Punjab, India’s Citizen Feedback Model
The government of the State of Punjab, India has created a Citizen Feedback Model that “aims to fight petty corruption, improve service delivery, and facilitate citizen engagement by proactively seeking, through SMS and calls, feedback of citizens who receive day-to-day government services.”[1] The program works by first collecting contact information from citizens when they receive … [Read More...]
Portland, Oregon “CivicApps for Greater Portland”
CivicApps for Greater Portland is “an open source design contest to showcase regional open data and promote collaboration between citizens and government to create applications, or ‘apps’, that address civic issues and benefit the greater Portland community.”[1] The CivicApps website provides data from various government agencies in the Portland area including the City of Portland, … [Read More...]
State of Nebraska “Nebraska Spending” Website
The State of Nebraska’s budget transparency website– “Nebraska Spending”– was created in July 2007 as part of several accountability reforms initiated by the State Treasurer’s office. The website allows Nebraskans to access state revenue and spending information in a straightforward and comprehensible format. The website includes: Fiscal Year Expenditures, which provides transaction-level detail on the … [Read More...]
Ontario, Canada Ministry of Infrastructure Website
In 2009, the Ministry of Infrastructure in Ontario, Canada launched a website to allow users “to track the progress of recently announced infrastructure stimulus projects in their community and across the province.”[1] The website’s goal is to provide “greater transparency and accountability to Ontario residents regarding federal-provincial infrastructure stimulus funding by highlighting the provincial contribution … [Read More...]
Icelandic Constitutional Council Use of Social Media
In 2011 the Icelandic Constitutional Council used a variety of social media tools to engage citizens in the process of redrafting the national constitution. The Council posted weekly drafts of articles for the new constitution on its website and invited public comment and debate. Videos of each of the Council’s sessions were streamed live on … [Read More...]
Kansas Department of Transportation’s T-Link Calculator
The Kansas Department of Transportation has developed an innovative budget calculator that lets Kansas residents and other interested users develop their own theoretical transportation program. The calculator provides a window for users on the competing concerns and goals that must be balanced when developing the budget of a large government agency.
New Mexico’s Sunshine Portal
The State of New Mexico has designed a website to be the central portal for residents to view government spending and contracting information.
Manor, Texas’s Manor Labs
Updated: April 23, 2012 The city of Manor, Texas has created an innovation website that allows City residents to submit ideas for how to improve City government. The website allows users to vote on the best ideas and winning ideas receive “innobucks” that allow them to purchase items like being mayor for a day or … [Read More...]