Assessment of Transparency of Websites and Electronic Data Resource Centers of Municipalities in Thailand.

Abstract

           This research had the objective to conduct an assessment of transparency of 30 websites and Infocenter of municipalities in Thailand.  Data were collected by a questionnaire-based survey, and municipalities were ranked by level of transparency. 

            This study found that most of the municipalities make their data and information available to the public via their website on the Internet.  The most common data or information that is available include details of procurement and contracting (86%).   The information that is least likely to be made public is details of management and human resources (65%).   The municipality with the highest score for website transparency was Nakorn Ratchasima (87.5 points), whereas the municipality with the lowest score for website transparency was Nakorn Pathom (17.5 points). Of the 30 municipalities, 22 had Infocenter. There is still limited transparency of the data in those databases. The municipalities with the highest score for its Infocenter were Phuket and Songkhla (82 points), while municipalities of Pitsanuloke, Phrayasurasak, and Nakorn Ratchasima scored 0.

             Based on the findings of this research, the author recommends that all municipalities should give more importance to posting open data on their websites and through their Infocenter. This may require recruiting additional staff with the required expertise and in-service training of existing staff. In addition, the data of the municipality should be complete and accessible in a convenient way, for example, by creating applications which can be used with a smart phone or tablet computer, since these devices are ubiquitous in urban Thailand.