Governance and accountability documents on a public-body website
Residents, journalists, auditors and suppliers regularly look for the same documents on a public body’s website: what the organisation is set up to do, what it plans, what it spent and whom it buys from. Grouping these in one Governance and accountability section, often labelled “About us”, “Corporate information” or “Publications”, saves everyone time.
Freedom of information law already asks for much of this. In Ireland, every FOI body must publish a publication scheme listing the classes of information it publishes, describing its structure, functions and services, and the rules and procedures it uses when making decisions about the public; the material must be reviewed at least once a year (Freedom of Information Act 2014, section 8). In Malta, public authorities covered by the Act must publish a description of their structure, functions and responsibilities, the categories of documents they hold and the manuals and rules they use to make decisions affecting the public, updated at least annually (Freedom of Information Act, Cap. 496, article 17). The list below is good practice for organising that content; check your own national and sector rules for anything they make mandatory.
What to publish
- Founding and governing documents. The legislation, statutes, charter or constitution that sets up the body and defines its functions, together with its governance arrangements: the board or council, its terms of reference and how members are appointed.
- Plans and reports. Strategic plans, annual business or work plans, annual reports and other documents that the body’s work is based on, including drafts put out for consultation. If bodies under your remit do not publish their own plans and reports, publish or link to them here.
- Pay and grades. Many public bodies publish salary scales by grade or role. Publish ranges or averages by role, not individual salaries; where only one person holds a role, personal data protection rules need to be considered before publishing.
- Public procurement. Current tenders, contract award information and planned procurements, or a clear link to your organisation’s page on the national procurement portal, along with any procurement policy and market consultations.
- Budget and financial statements. The approved budget, budget outturn and annual financial statements, published in line with the deadlines that apply to your type of body, plus audit reports where they are public.
- Policies and decision rules. The schemes, guidelines and internal rules used to decide applications, grants, permits or complaints from the public. This is the part freedom of information law in both Ireland and Malta names explicitly.
- Supervision and inspections. If your body inspects or supervises businesses or other organisations, explain what it supervises, how inspections work and where results are published.
- Other accountability information. Depending on your sector, this may include registers of interests, board meeting minutes, an asset or vehicle register, or energy and sustainability reports.
Accessible documents, not just uploaded files
Most of this content is published as PDF or office files, and under the EU Web Accessibility Directive those files count. In both Ireland (S.I. No. 358 of 2020) and Malta (S.L. 418.03), only office documents published before 23 September 2018 are outside the scope, and only if they are not needed for active administrative processes. A budget, an annual report or a tender document published today must be accessible: real headings, tagged structure, a correct reading order, table headers and text alternatives for charts. Where you can, publish the key figures as an HTML page as well.
Organise documents by year and type, give each file a meaningful title rather than “scan_0012.pdf”, and show its date and whether it is current. Superseded plans and reports can move to a clearly marked archive section. Note that the accessibility rules exempt archives only narrowly: a website or app that contains only content not needed for active administrative processes and not updated since 23 September 2019.
Before publishing, check every document for personal data and redact what is not needed. This article is part of our series on what public-sector websites must do and publish.