Objectives

To determine whether the Office of General Services (OGS) is complying with Executive Order 95 (EO 95), including providing, in a timely manner, publishable State data to the Office of Information Technology Services (ITS) under EO 95, and whether data posted under EO 95 is reliable and easily usable. The audit covers the period between March 11, 2013 and December 6, 2019.

About the Program

State government entities possess large amounts of valuable information on subjects such as health, business, public safety, parks and recreation, labor, and transportation. EO 95, issued March 11, 2013, established an Open Data Website (Open Data) for the collection and public dissemination of publishable State data maintained by covered State entities (generally, those headed by individuals appointed by the Executive). Open Data should provide ongoing “one-stop” access to publishable State data and make such data freely available in accessible formats for public use. As of January 2020, there were over 4,600 data items on Open Data.

OGS provides critical services to State agencies, including managing and leasing real property; designing and building facilities; and contracting for goods, services, and technology. As of January 28, 2020, OGS had published six data items on Open Data.

Key Findings

OGS has taken steps to meet the requirements of EO 95; however, certain aspects of the order have not been fully addressed. There is limited assurance OGS has created a complete catalogue of the publishable State data that it maintains or accompanying schedules for making that data public, as required by EO 95. OGS maintains potentially high-value publishable State data it has not added to Open Data. OGS has not incorporated compliance with EO 95 into its core business functions: there are no processes to identify new high-value data sets to publish on Open Data (most recent data was added in 2016), and OGS has not consistently updated data already posted to Open Data. However, we found the data OGS has posted to Open Data to be usable and easily accessible, with no formatting issues.

Key Recommendations

• As soon as practicable, submit to ITS and make publicly available a complete catalogue and schedule of publishable State data for addition to Open Data.
• Develop procedures for:
  ▪ Incorporating compliance with EO 95 into OGS’ core business practices; and
  ▪ Ensuring accurate, complete, and timely updates to data posted on Open Data.