Hafnarfjörður opens its books

The Municipality of Hafnarfjörður has now joined the ranks of those municipalities that have opened public access to its accounts. On Friday, an area was formally opened on the town's website where residents and others can view the council's income and expenditure, and the breakdown of costs by cost code, organisational unit and supplier.  https://www.hafnarfjordur.is/stjornsysla/baerinn-i-tolum/opid-bokhald

 „With this, we are meeting the community's demands for transparency, as it is only right and proper that residents can see in a clear and accessible way what the council's funds are used for,“ said Rósa Guðbjartsdóttir, Chair of the Council, on this occasion. „This is a big and important step in improving access to information. Now, residents can have a better overview and take a more active and informed part in the discussion about the running of the municipality.“

The aim of this initiative is to increase access to financial information and to explain, in the simplest possible way and with the aid of graphics, how the municipality's funds are allocated. Preparatory work for this increased accessibility has been underway this winter, and in early February, Haraldur L. Haraldsson, the Mayor, signed a contract with Capacent, which developed software offering powerful self-service visualisations, access to interactive reports and views of data from various perspectives.

The page is divided into five sections: income and expenditure for A- and B-section funds, and an analysis of the municipality's suppliers. Income and expenditure are broken down by functional areas, departments and individual accounting codes. In the supplier analysis, you can search for individual suppliers or filter them by cost centre, functional area or accounting code. You can review data from previous periods and make comparisons between the 2015-2016 periods. More periods will be displayed after the accounts have been submitted to the Stock Exchange in accordance with the rules on bond issuance.