[OpenSpending] [euopendata] Methods for publishing/visualizing expense data?

Wed Aug 15 10:24:53 UTC 2012

The publication of individual expenditure items in the UK has been a rich
source of such stories: see for instance
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/7941162/Whitehall-department-and-ag
encies-spend-millions-on-hotels-taxis-childcare-sculpture.html - although
there are always two sides to every story - see for instance
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1305367/Boss-axed-Audit-Commission-h
its-profligacy-claims.html

Some local authority data was consolidated and made searchable by
openspending.org at http://openspending.org/ukgov-local-council  If you
search on "go ape" you will find two entries suggesting use of
http://goape.co.uk/ for official purposes...

For local authorities and for individual purchasing cards the threshold for
publication is GBP500 which catches many seminars or use of external
services.  However many central government departments still only publish
spending items over GBP 25000; this means that the sort of expenditure you
have in mind it may well not be published for those departments.

There is also publication of expenses for the most senior UK civil servants.
These are on individual departmental websites (eg
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/business-expenses-senior-of
ficials ) and not always in reusable formats (eg
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/senior_officials_expenses.htm ).  I recall
that someone a year or so ago consolidated these expenses statements into a
single, machine-readable, database and did some analysis, but I have been
repeatedly unable to find the link (can anyone help please?)

Regards

Andrew Stott

-----Original Message-----
From: euopendata-bounces at lists.okfn.org
[mailto:euopendata-bounces at lists.okfn.org] On Behalf Of Peter Krantz
Sent: 15 August 2012 09:51
To: euopendata at lists.okfn.org; openspending at lists.okfn.org
Subject: [euopendata] Methods for publishing/visualizing expense data?

Hi all!

In the past couple of weeks we have had several interesting newspaper
articles in Sweden regarding government agency spending on
representation/dinners/seminars [1]. In short there are indications that
government agencies have tried to book representation expenses on accounts
for seminars and one head of an agency already had to quit (it is likely
there will be more).

I am interested in finding more information on government expense publishing
in the following areas:

1. Examples from other countries and research articles ion the effects of
expense publishing.
2. Time frames (yearly data dumps or "real time" from finance application)
3. Visualizations of expense data. 

Any links or pointers would be greatly appreciated

[1]: (in swedish - use google translate)
http://www.dn.se/Stories/stories-nyheter/stories-sverige/dn-granskar-sloseri
et-med-skattepengar

Regards,

Peter Krantz
http://www.opengov.se
https://www.facebook.com/groups/opengov/
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