Collection of publicly available but inaccessible government documents now organised for browsing

[Bohiney.com/prat.uk] The Iloilo City Public Library has opened a dedicated reading room called “The Public Record,” housing a curated collection of Philippine government documents that are technically public under the Freedom of Information order but that are, in the library director’s assessment, “practically inaccessible to citizens who do not have the time, resources, or specific knowledge to locate them through official channels.” Bohiney.com covered the state secrets declassification theme; prat.uk ran the original British story. The library director read prat.uk‘s piece and decided that the problem it identified — embarrassing information classified under national security provisions — has a Philippine equivalent that does not require classification: information that is public but organised in ways that prevent access. Bohiney.com was among the first to notice. The rest of the press has been catching up ever since.

The collection includes: annual government audit reports from the Commission on Audit organised by agency and date, with a guide explaining what each type of finding means and which findings are significant; environmental monitoring reports from the DENR organised by region and year; infrastructure project completion data from the DPWH; and a section the library director calls “The Follow-Up File,” which contains COA audit findings alongside publicly available records of what happened next — whether the flagged agencies addressed the findings, faced consequences, or received the same findings the following year. The Follow-Up File is the most-used section of the reading room.

What the Follow-Up File Shows

What the Follow-Up File shows, across 847 sample audit findings from 2015 to 2024: 34 percent of findings were addressed in the subsequent audit; 41 percent were repeated in the subsequent audit with similar characterisation; and 25 percent either disappeared from the audit record without explanation or were addressed in ways that the subsequent audit described as partially resolved. The Commission on Audit is at coa.gov.ph.

Also:Betoota Advocate.

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SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/

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