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OpenGov Accountability Checklists
(Cross-post from the Polkadot Forum)
OpenGov has been criticized for enforcing little accountability for proposers.
To counteract this trend, we have developed a set of "Accountability Checklists" that we suggest to be applied for all proposals of the spender tracks. That is, above 10k DOT (currently 70k USD).
You can find the checklists here: OpenGov.Watch - Accountability
YOU create accountability
The idea of these checklists is that anyone (yes, YOU!) can use them to check if OpenGov proposals "check out" on those criteria and if you, to follow up with proposers and make them fulfill the criteria.
OpenGov is only as good as you make it, and this is your handy guide to make it happen by asking proposers simple questions, e.g. "So where will you provide project updates and how often?"
The checklists
Currently, there are 4 checklists in the document:
- Basic Accountability Checklist - You can apply this checklist for any proposal
- Bounty Checklist - An additional checklist for bounties. Currently focused on curators
- Software Development checklist - Some basic questions to ensure we get good, reusable, cost-efficient software products
- Marketing Checklist - targeted to create transparency around content proposals
Moving forward
These checklists are only the beginning. From here on out, we can start to improve them and add additional checklists for other categories (e.g. for incentives/loans, BD, educational initiatives, etc). The checklists strive to be aligned with the Treasury Reporting Standards (Website, Forum Thread) and the Strategy (Website, Forum Thread).
These checklists are only as good as their usage. So we will work with stakeholders like Governance Forums (like AAG, Subsquare, and Polkassembly) to make them available and visible.
Any feedback in this thread is welcome and will be integrated.
OpenGov Accountability Checklists
- Purpose: Addresses criticism of low accountability in OpenGov by introducing checklists for proposals.
- Scope: Applies to proposals requesting more than 10,000 DOT (approximately $70,000).
- Checklists: Includes four types: Basic, Bounty, Software Development, and Marketing.
- Usage: Encourages community members to use these checklists to ensure proposals meet criteria.
- Future Development: Plans to expand checklists for other categories like incentives, loans, and educational initiatives.
- Alignment: Checklists are aligned with Treasury Reporting Standards and Polkadot's strategy.
- Community Involvement: Stakeholders like Governance Forums will help promote and use these checklists.
- Feedback: Open to community input for continuous improvement.
Thanks for putting this together.
The Accountability Checklist is great to have in place, but meaningless without any ways to enforce or any form of consequences for those that do not comply.
From what we experienced with Marketing Bounty #33, we made multiple requests for verifiable reporting for the DOT distribution and other budgetary spending as per the Treasury Reporting Standards.
Delaying this step or shelving for another discussion will negatively impact the community. Without having any enforcement or consequences, bad actors will continue to grift and the very few community members willing to participate and review proposals will continue to dwindle until they are non-existent.
Look at the Treasury outflow chart. Initial attempts to stop bad actors in February led to higher outflows, as the community gave bad actors the green light by not acting on reviewer complaints, which continually grew month-to-month through July.