This research examines the link between transparency and accountability, by adopting a Single Case-Study design. It studies how the Rijks ICT-dashboard, a transparency-platform listing all Dutch...Show moreThis research examines the link between transparency and accountability, by adopting a Single Case-Study design. It studies how the Rijks ICT-dashboard, a transparency-platform listing all Dutch governmental IT-projects that cost over 5 million Euros, affects and is affected by, the relationships that together make political accountability. Political, civil service and oversight interviews as a main source have been supplemented by examining parliamentary records. We conclude that the Rijks ICT-dashboard generally does not succeed in leading to more accountability. Members of Parliament lack the time and knowledge to structurally and actively monitor IT-based policy execution through using the Dashboard, rather depending on external ‘fire-alarms’ for their information, and as such tend to focus on failing IT-projects. When using the Dashboard’s data, MPs tend to question its validity and trustworthiness instead of using it to ask substantive questions. Civil servants fear failure-related consequences instigated by this incident-driven political debate, and tend to use a wide array of strategies to ‘dodge’ reporting on the Dashboard. This leads to a further distrust amongst both parties, and to MPs demanding more transparency out of principle, with little understanding of its practical and structural use. It can be expected that this leads to further dodging. As such, the Dashboard is a product of negative characteristics of the relationship of political accountability, and in turn further reinforces these characteristics. To mitigate this negative cycle, we advise a higher update-frequency, and a major shift in emphasis from quantitative to qualitative transparency on the Dashboard, focusing on linking IT-projects to the political debates, actively showing projects’ successes and societal value, and aiming to keep the barriers to use the information as low as possible.Show less
