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Case Study: How Open Data Saved Canada $3.2 Billion

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Case Study: How Open data saved Canada $3.2 Billion – 14 April 2010 | David Eaves [via Susannah Fox, Pew Internet]

  • “…government data – information that should be made more accessible and open in an unfettered and machine readable format – helped reveal one of the largest tax evasion scandals in the country’s history. But if the CRA was already investigating, scrutiny of this data by the public served a different purpose – helping to bring these issues out into the open, forcing CRA [Canada Revenue Agency] to take public action (suspending these organizations’ right to solicit more donations), sooner rather than later. Essentially from before 2005-2007 dozens of charities were operating illegally. Had the data about their charitable receipts been available for the public’s routine review, someone in the public might have taken notice and raised a fuss earlier. Perhaps even a website tracking donations might have been launched. This would have exposed those charities that had abnormally large donations with few programs to explain then. Moreover, it might have given some of the 100,000 Canadians now being audited a tool for evaluating the charities they were giving money to.”
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