Prague launches mobile app to make its budget more transparent

CitiVizor enables every citizen to see where their taxes go through interactive data

At the beginning of October, the City of Prague launched the CityVizor application. The mobile app gives information on how the Czech capital manages its expenses and funding from various sources, including local taxes. What is more, as of last week the app is open to all districts of Prague which are invited to open their data to the public.

While browsing through the database, one can find information on the funds that are available for the financial year and their absorption until a given moment, latest invoices paid or issued, contracts signed by the municipality with their respective amounts. It is possible to filter by budget line, groups of revenues and expenditure.

The CityVizor application shows the city's economy in a way that is clear and easy for citizens to understand… “The budget structure of the city is often complex and confusing for the layman. A month ago, we launched CityVizor for Prague, which made 90 billion crowns completely transparent. Now we offer the possibility to open the budget to people in all city districts” says Pavel Vyhnánek, Deputy Mayor for Finance.

Transparency of public spending brings citizens closer to the government

“In order for everything to work in a comprehensive and automated way, a data link between the accounting system and CityVizor was created in cooperation with the supplier and the municipal company ICT Operator. This service is now available to all boroughs free of charge. All they will have to do to get the application working is to contact the ICT Operator and order it” adds Adam Zábranský, councilor for transparency and housing.

CityVizor is being used by nine municipalities so far, Prague 7 was the first city district to get included. The system is now also used by Prague 1, 3, 5 and 12. “We promote the transparent management of the capital, which citizens find with a single click on the computer. I am therefore very pleased that we are gradually introducing it into individual Prague districts” adds Zábranský.

CityVizor was developed by the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic and published as an open-source under the GNU GPL license - free to use. The operation for non-Prague town halls is provided by the Open Cities Association and the Czech.digital community.