Abstract

The transparency of local government decision-making commonly depends on the discovery and use of information by a wide range of participants acting within the surrounding local integrity system. The roles of external organizations (including the media, academics, and non-government institutions) in using information to perform oversight roles is an important characteristic of local integrity systems. However, even in a relative deluge of document-based local government information, pernicious forms of unethical decision-making can evade immediate detection, hidden in plain view within archives of pages which are too expansive to be manually scrutinized. Responding to numerous examples of failed internal governance in local governments in Australia, we profile the experimental development of a prototype system intended to systematically extract information from meeting minutes. We identify how elementary differences in document expression constrains many innovative uses of these records to support the identification of potentially unethical decision-making. Drawing together the integrity systems and information accessibility literature, we conclude that improved integration of information standards in local government documents holds immense potential in expanding how local integrity systems act to foster ethical decision-making among elected local government officials.

摘要

地方政府决策的透明度通常取决于在周边地方诚信体系内行动的广泛参与者对信息的发现和使用。外部组织（包括媒体、学术界和非政府机构）在利用信息履行监督职责方面的作用是地方诚信体系的一个重要特征。然而，即使在基于文件的地方政府信息相对泛滥的情况下，有害的不道德决策形式也可以逃避立即发现，隐藏在过于庞大而无法人工审查的页面档案中的显而易见的地方。针对澳大利亚地方政府内部治理失败的众多例子，我们介绍了旨在系统地从会议记录中提取信息的原型系统的实验开发。我们确定文档表达的基本差异如何限制这些记录的许多创新用途，以支持识别潜在的不道德决策。综合完整性系统和信息可访问性文献，我们得出结论，改进地方政府文件中信息标准的整合在扩大地方完整性系统如何促进民选地方政府官员的道德决策方面具有巨大潜力。