Objectives

To determine whether the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (Parks) 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 covered the period between February 15, 2013 and June 26, 2020.

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 “single-stop” access to publishable State data and make such data freely available in accessible formats for public use. As of July 2020, there were over 4,700 data items on Open Data.

Parks is responsible for the operation and stewardship of the parks and historic sites located throughout the State. As of July 2, 2020, Parks had published 22 data items on Open Data.

Key Findings

Parks has taken steps to meet the requirements of EO 95; however, certain aspects of the order have not been fully addressed. Within the required time frame, Parks appointed a qualified Data Coordinator responsible for EO 95 compliance. However, Parks did not identify the total population of publishable State data that it maintains. Therefore, there is limited assurance that Parks has provided a complete catalogue or established a schedule for making the data public, as required by EO 95. Also, Parks has not incorporated compliance with EO 95 into its core business functions, and there are no processes to identify new publishable data to post on Open Data (most recent data was added in 2015). We found the data Parks has posted to Open Data to be usable and easily accessible with minor formatting issues. Furthermore, we found the data that was posted to be reliable, as it was both complete and accurate.

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 Open Data and compliance with EO 95 into Parks’ core business and planning strategies.