PRESS RELEASE
-For Immediate Release-
March 19, 2012

Contact: Brian Gumm, (202) 683-4812, bgumm@ombwatch.org

New OMB Watch Report Shows States Making Progress on Releasing Accountability Information Online, but More Work Needed

WASHINGTON, March 19, 2012—OMB Watch today released a new report, Upholding the Public's Trust: Key Features for Effective State Accountability Websites, that evaluates state and federal accountability websites against several key criteria. Overall, several states have taken initial steps to release public officials' integrity information online, which is crucial for holding those officials accountable for their actions. However, the report finds that much more work lies ahead for state disclosure sites.

"Posting of public information online has become a fundamental tool of open government at every level of government," said Katherine McFate, president of OMB Watch. "Citizens should be able to see who is funding and lobbying their elected officials and which companies are receiving public contracts. This is just a basic principle of democratic government."

OMB Watch examined four disclosure topic areas in the report:

• Campaign finance
• Lobbying
• Public procurement (vendors and contracting)
• Officials’ finances and assets

Some information about each of these topic areas is currently disclosed online by many states, as well as the federal government, illustrating progress on making public official integrity information readily available to the public. However, there is wide variation within each area in the method and manner of online disclosure.

Lead authors Gavin Baker and Sean Moulton noted, "It is not enough to just throw data up on the Internet. Government websites need to provide features and tools that help citizens understand what they’re seeing. Search and mapping tools, graphs, and other visualizations provide context and help people understand and interpret the data."

The report explains that thoughtful, citizen-centric disclosure websites share five common elements. The sites are easy to navigate; have the basic information that most users need; provide features that help users explore the data; offer more detailed information for advanced users; and allow users to download the data.

Upholding the Public's Trust: Key Features for Effective State Accountability Websites finds that a number of states are doing well. Colorado’s campaign finance website has a well designed interface, and its search features make it very easy for the average citizen to find information. Massachusetts’ lobby disclosure website provides the information needed to paint a clear picture by linking a lobbyist’s activities to particular legislation and recording his or her position on that legislation. However, no state has a uniformly user-friendly site.

The parallel federal accountability websites OMB Watch explored are doing a little better than state websites overall, except in the area of financial and asset disclosure by public officials; in that area, the federal government lags behind. Legislation recently introduced in Congress, however, could require such information to be posted at the federal level.

The full text of Upholding the Public's Trust: Key Features for Effective State Accountability Websites is available at http://www.ombwatch.org/upholdingpublictrustreport. The report’s release coincides with the release of the State Integrity Investigation, a project of the Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity, and Public Radio International.

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OMB Watch is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization dedicated to promoting government accountability and effectiveness and increasing citizen engagement. Find OMB Watch on Facebook and Twitter.