WILLIAM MARBACK INTERIM INSPECTOR GENERAL
CITY OF CHICAGO OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL 740 NORTH SEDGWICK STREET, SUITE 200 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60654 TELEPHONE: (773) 478-7799 FAX: (773) 478-3949
VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL
Nick Lucius Chief Data Officer Office ofthe Mayor 121 N. LaSalle St. Chicago, IL 60602
Dear Chief Data Officer Lucius:
The City of Chicago's operations increasingly rely on collecting and utilizing high-quality data. Through our audit and investigation work, the City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) has observed many issues impacting data objectivity, utility, and integrity. The inconsistent quality ofthe City's data hinders it from effectively allocating resources, measuring performance, and achieving objectives. To support the chief data officer's (CDO) role in improving decisionmaking and management through data analysis, we summarize our observations below.
I. QUALITY DATA IS ESSENTIAL FOR EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE GOVERNMENT
Local governments fulfill a wide variety of missions by managing people, capital assets, and money.1 These tasks generate large amounts of data, which the CDO helps City departments understand and use. In recent years, governments have ramped up their use of data to improve resource allocation, measure success, and increase efficiency.2 The Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development found that governments that actively use their data improve their ability to develop better long-term plans by anticipating constituent needs and trends affecting operations.3 Governments that actively use data can evaluate the success of public service
|109|Mahesh Kelkar, Peter Viechnicki, Sean Conlin, "Mission Analytics," Deloitte Center for Government Insights, 2016, accessed December 6, 2021,
decision-making-in-government.html.|109|Kil Huh, "Using Data To Improve Policy Decisions: Insights To Help Governments Address Complex Problems: ...
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