Consider an invented city that publishes 150 service indicators but gives residents only 1 route to contest an incorrect eligibility decision: a paper form available during office hours. Its dashboard might be exemplary; its accountability is not. Transparency shows what an institution chooses to measure. An appeal gives someone outside that institution a means to argue that the measurement, rule or decision is wrong.

In this illustrative budget, shifting €2 million from additional visualization tools to case review would fund a more consequential reform. The city should publish response deadlines, explain reversals and allow independent scrutiny of unresolved complaints. Dashboards remain useful, but their value should be judged by the problems they help people remedy. A government that can display its errors must also be capable of correcting them.