LITHUANIA: The National Audit Office of Lithuania promotes the opening of data in Lithuania

Open data is data that anyone can access, use and share. Governments, businesses and individuals can use open data to bring about social, economic and environmental benefits. Not to spend time and effort to create their own data sets, but to use what has been created by others.

In Lithuania, the data opening initiative has been implemented since 2016, when the Lithuanian Open Data Portal (www.data.gov.lt) was created. The portal is a single platform where you can find and download over 1000 datasets provided by Lithuanian public sector agencies.

The National Audit Office of Lithuania contributed to data opening in 2016 conducting an audit “Whether disclosure of the public sector data is ensured”. The audit came with a strong conclusion that available open data, if used actively in Lithuania, could help creating a value amounting to nearly up to 2 percent of the country’s GDP. Recommendations of the audit are targeted to the improvement and quality of the data opening process. The audit was in time to contribute to the creation of an effective open data sharing platform – the Lithuanian Open Data Portal, encouraging more institutions to take part in the initiative.

During October 2020 – March 2023 the National Audit Office of Lithuania implemented a project which allowed to open 11 of its available data sets on the Lithuanian Open Data Portal. The data sets contain data on public audit results, data on budget policy monitoring, data on EU investment audit, etc.

During the implementation of data opening activities, the Data Opening Working Group of the National Audit Office performed the following tasks.

• Creation of data inventory. During the inventory process available data sets at the National Audit Office of Lithuania were analysed, deciding which of them and when shall be made public.
• Preparation of metadata and submission to the Lithuanian Open Data Portal. As part of metadata preparation work, the data opening coordinator at the National Audit Office of Lithuania completed a metadata form for each planned to open dataset and submitted this information to the Lithuanian Open Data Portal. Metadata included the name of the dataset, keywords by which the dataset could be identified, periodicity of the dataset update, domain to which the dataset belongs, applicable license for the use of the data, etc.
• Preparation of dataset structures and their submission to the Lithuanian Open Data Portal. Data set structure signatures and data set structure descriptions were prepared using the ETL tool called SPINTA developed by the Information Society Development Committee of Lithuania. Descriptions of data set structures were submitted to the Lithuanian Open Data Portal with subsequent data transfer procedures which could be executed only if followed submitted descriptions.
• Preparation of metadata update mechanisms for the datasets. IT specialists of the National Audit Office of Lithuania developed automated tools for a periodical update of submitted metadata to the Lithuanian Open Data Portal following API technical documentation of the portal.
• Opening datasets – dataset transformation, anonymization, etc., ensuring the quality and publication requirements of open datasets. In carrying out this activity, the National Audit Office of Lithuania prepared data sets for public use assuring compliance with the personal data protection principles and confidentiality. The accuracy, reliability, and understandability of the published data were also assured.

The National Audit Office of Lithuania published a lot of information about its activities on its website before implementing the data opening initiative, but this was not a significant breakthrough in raising the open data maturity level.

After opening datasets at the Lithuanian Open Data Portal, the open data maturity level increased from level 1 to level 4 (out of 5 possible levels) and made it possible to publish data in open formats and to read it by automated tools.

The data opening initiative is only at the beginning, but it is a good start encouraging the others, and we hope this will increase transparency and efficiency of the public sector and bring new value to the state, society, and business.