WRITTEN ON April 22nd, 2007 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Power of Information, Save Time and Money, What do we want?

Here are some US examples of attempts to give real transparency to government services and how taxpayers’ money is spent:

– White House budget information

– scorecards for the US Presidential team – eg how the Chickasaw Recreational Area saves $15,000/yrbuying mice

– ExpectMore which sets out which programmes are performing well, which are performing badly, and what is being done about it.

Of course such services are open to spin and interpretation, but at least that apparent level of openness sets an expectation. If you care particularly or know about something specific and want to argue the toss, at least your target is clearly set out.

Acronym count: 1 (and it’s perhaps sloppy to refer to the United States of America simply as the “US” when there are also of course the United States of Mexico. And the Mexican US have the distinct advantage that you can visit them without being fingerprinted.)