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The Tax Tree is a proposal for a website that makes public sector expenditure visible to the public.

Summary / Yhteenveto:

The Tax Tree is a proposal for a website that makes public sector expenditure visible to the public. It could be used at the level of national government, local goverment or for organisations of various kinds. Income and expenditure of public bodies are represented in a tree-like diagram, such that the expenditure of any department or sub-organisation is represented by the width of the branches. Users can inspect expenditure at all levels and discuss any item of expenditure with other users.

Problem / Ongelma:

The current lack of openly available information on public spending results in:

• the general public being excluded from involvement in public matters;

• civil servants being able to use public funds in irresponsible and illegitimate ways without consequence;

• ideas and initiatives for changes to public spending can only be generated by those working within public bodies, thus excluding the general public as a resource for generating ideas for appropriate changes to spending;

• without an overview of the expenditure of all departments within an organisation, civil servants, politicians and members of the public alike may have difficulty in recognising the effects that expenditure in one department may have on other departments.

Users / Käyttäjät:

The Tax Tree could be adopted to monitor the expenditure of national government, local government or other public sector organisations. The principle users of the application would be the general public.

Use-case / Käyttötilanne:

By allowing a wide audience to inspect public spending and discuss it, members of the public may generate suggestions regarding saving schemes, avoidance of duplication of services, and ideas for cross-departmental cooperation. Users can start discussions on any branch. Such discussions could serve as the basis for initiatives of various kinds or legal challenges. The Tax Tree could also form a framework for participatory budgeting schemes.

By allowing the general public to inspect public sector expenditure, irresponsible and illegitimate public spending can be identified and thus an increased sense of responsibility could be engendered in civil servants, politicians and public service end-users alike.

Data / Tiedot:

The Tax Tree would require data on all of the expenditure of the public body in question.

Instructions and demo / Ohjeet ja demo:

Users zoom in on branches of the Tax Tree to observe how public funds are used at all levels. The Tax Tree also displays information on how decision-making power is distributed through the public body in question, showing the roles of civil servants and elected committees. Users can start discussions on any branch. Such discussions could serve as the basis for initiatives of various kinds or legal challenges.

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