On January 20, IDFI held a training on mechanisms for monitoring government activities. The event was attended by the participants of IDFI’s Certification Program in Fighting Corruption, which includes students and representatives of civil society and public institutions.

The training sessions were led by IDFI’s Local Governance, Civic Tech and Innovations Direction Head, Teona Turashvili, and the Head of Research, Goga Tushurashvili.

Training participants received both practical and theoretical knowledge on monitoring and data analysis mechanisms such as:

- How to find desired public data on various official and civil portals and websites;

- How to process, analyze, and link data;

- How to monitor the local government's budget spending and its financial activities;

- Beneficial ownership transparency standards;

- Online resources and research methods for finding out the beneficial owners of companies;

- Specificities of data visualization.

Additionally, Michal Škop, Executive Director of KohoVolit.eu, a non-governmental organization operating in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, joined the session online and shared with the participants the experience of obtaining data on beneficial owners and analyzing and visualizing data.

The event was interactive and covered a mix of theory and practice. Participants worked on practical examples and held subsequent discussions.  

The activity was held within the framework of the project - Empowered Watchdog Community and Enhanced Transparency Standards for Government Accountability. The project is funded by the Visegrad International Fund and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Korea.