Avalokana: An Initiative towards Enhancing Fiscal Transparency and Accountability
Shuchita Rawal & Nilachala Acharya
Budget transparency and public participation in various stages of a budget cycle at all levels of government has been recognised as an integral part of a healthy public financial management (PFM) system. Timely availability of reliable and relevant budget data in the public domain, for different tiers of government, provides the assessment of government’s financial position. It also encourages public participation in budgets and public policies. For this reason, transparency has been referred to as a ‘means to strengthening governance’.
A significant surge in the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in governance (termed as ‘e-governance’) started in India with the launch of NICNET in 1987 — the national satellite-based computer network. In 2006, the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was formulated by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) and Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG). Since then, there was no looking back, and the Government of India’s progress in in this sphere is evident from the numerous government portals and websites.
Notable e-governance initiatives by State finance departments
Meanwhile, the state governments have also covered a lot of ground in e-governance. All the states and UTs are publishing most of their annual budget documents on their respective finance department websites/portals. However, issues pertaining to timely availability, open access, comprehensiveness, and usefulness of these documents need to be resolved. Notably, all the states and UTs are not at the same scale when we measure the score of fiscal transparency, especially when it comes to the timely availability of relevant budget information in public domain.
In recent years, many states have either launched or upgraded their PFM portals, scheme MISs, treasury portals and have attempted to provide relevant documents to facilitate policy decisions and disbursement of funds. Over the years, the fiscal reform measures and innovation on technology integration have led to improvements in these areas. Some such measures are evident through initiatives like KUBER: Integrated Finance Management System, Jharkhand, Koshvani Web: A Gateway to Finance Activities in the State of Uttar Pradesh, Himkosh — Integrated Financial Management Information System, Himachal Pradesh, e-Kosh online, Chhattisgarh etc. Each one of these measures has its own pros and cons. Nevertheless, these initiatives certainly help in strengthening fiscal transparency and accountable governance.
The Government of Karnataka (GoK) has launched Avalokana software to review the progress of various development programmes undertaken by the state government. This piece looks into the kind of fiscal information provided and the level of disaggregation of such information available in the software.
An Overview of Avalokana Software: Hits, misses and way forward
Launched on 20th January 2021, the Avalokana software has been developed by the Department of Planning, Programme Monitoring and Statistics, GoK with the support of Centre of Smart Governance, GoK. Avalokana is supposed to provide a progress review of the Karnataka Development Programmes (KDP) and help the GoK in deciding the release of funds based on the actual expenditure reported by various spending departments/agencies. It provides access to the data on the funds allocated, funds released and expenditure incurred on 1,800 programmes and schemes.
Avalokana presents visualisations indicating the extent of utilisation for the overall budget of the State, development programmes and disaggregated budget allocation and spending under Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP), Tribal Sub Plan (TSP), Gender Budget, Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) etc. It also provides the progress report of the Special Development Plans (SDP), Externally Aided Projects (EAP) and initiatives like physical target and performance on meeting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Concerning accessibility quotient of the software, it presents information in English and Kannada, which is considered a good practice, and would definitely help in increasing its uptake. It is also encouraging to see that most of the documents and datasets presented in the software are downloadable; it provides a gamut of options in which these can be downloaded viz. PDF, Word, Excel, Comma — Separated Values (CSV), PowerPoint, MHTML, Data Feed etc. What is noteworthy here is the fact that some of these formats like Excel and CSV are machine-readable and hence meet the requirements laid down by National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP) formulated by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. It would be even more helpful if the software is disabled friendly by adding accessibility features like screen-reader, option to increase or decrease the font size, option of various colour schemes, along with other compatibility features.
Timely availability of data, and its completeness and comprehensiveness are the other important aspects of the software. Information furnished on Avalokana for various fiscal and non-fiscal indicators is updated on monthly basis, which is a good step towards enhancing fiscal transparency. However, the data pertaining to most of the fiscal and non- fiscal indicators are limited to one financial year (i.e. for the financial year 2020–21) which constraints its comprehensibility. Nonetheless, the software provides the progress review of various KDPs as well as progress of work towards SDGs not only at the State level but also at the level of districts and talukas (also referred as blocks). One of the main sections of the software is reports and datasets related to KDPs. It provides department-wise overall KDP performance for various administrative departments both at the level of State as well as districts. It provides data to evaluate the performance of the department by providing the extent of funds utilised by the respective department (i.e. expenditure made against the allocations). Similarly, budget data has been made available for assessing how different departments are performing in regards to SDP, EAP, SCSP, TSP and Gender budget.
The software provides information pertaining to the physical and financial performance of all the 30 districts in Karnataka. It takes a deep dive into the talukas, and provides fiscal information for more than 200 talukas in the State. Taluka-wise disaggregated fiscal information corresponding to all the relevant departments, monthly as well as cumulative allocation and expenditure data is certainly a step much desired in facilitating public participation. It also ensures greater degree of fiscal transparency and accountability.
Similarly, the section on SDGs evaluates the physical achievements of various departments against the targets. The software provides an overall picture of different indicators and components under various departments and their linkage to SDG framework. It then evaluates the physical performance of these indicators by comparing physical achievement with target. However, this section has been partially populated with the columns indicating achievement still being empty. What is missing on the SDG section of the software is the review of the financial progress. It would make it much more meaningful if the users could get an overview of the financial progress. i.e. the amount of funds allocated and expenditure incurred by each district and taluka to meet the corresponding physical targets in respect to SDGs in the State.
The software also has an option to generate Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) constituency-wise performance report, evaluating the financial achievement (expenditure) vis a vis target (allocation), for more than 200 MLA constituencies in the State. Department-wise performance on various fiscal indicators, such as budget allocation, release, financial target and achievement is provided on a monthly basis and presented through MLA constituencies. This indeed is a remarkable feature as far as the availability of disaggregated budget and expenditure data in the public domain is concerned. This is the first State in the country to provide fiscal information disaggregated at MLA constituency level.
In terms of availability of time series data, the software certainly needs improvement. There are certain other changes also that need to be made to make the software more relevant to the present context. If the software populates relevant fiscal indicators at least for the last 5 years, it would be helpful in trend analysis of the progress on these indicators. Real time availability of relevant data should be considered in order to facilitate effective implementation of development policies. This would not only enhance the relevance of the software but would also help the state in assessing performance of the administrative departments over a period of time.
Another important parameter is the user-friendliness of the software. It is observed that the software is easy to navigate with only necessary and relevant sections. It definitely provides an opportunity to the users to review the performance of the State, its districts and even talukas. Some improvements like providing glossary with different sections, user guide/manual, site map etc. can help in enriching the user experience. One important section that can add a lot of value to the rich disaggregated data available here is, providing graphical representation/visualisations of different indicators and datasets.
Conclusion
Reforms in public financial management system at the levels of districts and below is an evolving process in India. Initiatives like Avalokana software are certainly a step ahead in building confidence of the public on how, when and where government is spending their hard earned money. The software is indeed providing disaggregated data which is helpful in improving the fiscal transparency score of the state. It will strengthen people’s confidence in the system and facilitate the availability of fiscal data at the level of districts and below. Further, the maiden attempt by the state in providing disaggregated fiscal data at MLA constituency and taluka level is worthy of acknowledgement and replication.
Avalokana is an exemplar for other states. It reflects positively on the confidence of the administration to make available governance related data in the public domain in order to ensure greater public engagement in the fiscal governance discourse at the level of districts and below. We can certainly make impressive strides in fiscal transparency and public participation in the domain of fiscal policy if such initiatives are initiated by many more state governments.
Authors work with Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), New Delhi. Views expressed are of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the position of CBGA. You can reach them at shuchita@cbgaindia.org and nilachala@cbgaindia.org.
