Gov’t info inventories of 37 agencies published in open format

 This is in line with the Open Data program of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (Pixabay photo)

MANILA – In line with the government’s efforts to push for transparency, accountability, and citizen participation, the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) published information inventories of 37 national government agencies in reusable format.

In a memorandum issued by the PCOO in 2017, government agencies were required to submit an Agency Information Inventory–a list of all information generated, maintained, and stored by an agency. The inventory serves as a reference on the scope and limitations on the specific information the citizens can request from the agencies.

As of January 2018, only 64 national government agencies and government-owned-and/or-controlled-corporations have submitted their inventories. Out of this number, only 37 agencies submitted their inventories in an editable format (.xls) in compliance with the standard template prescribed by the PCOO.

This is in line with the Open Data program of the Department of Information and Communications Technology which aims to “institutionalize open, transparent, accountable, and participatory governance” by converting agency data into machine-readable files, making national government data searchable, accessible and useful to citizens for easy sharing and public consumption.

Releasing the first batch of inventories will further help citizens to identify the specific information they need, pinpoint the agency handling that information, and determine its level of disclosure (if for public consumption, confidential, under the exceptions, etc.).

The PCOO envisions that through the consolidation of agency inventories, the government will be able to build the first-ever masterlist of government information assets which the public can access.

You may access the consolidated agency information inventory here