From the 48 indicators established by the ComSET, based on the Transparency Law of 2013, the Infoparticipa Seal is awarded to the populations that obtain the most positive indicators according to their population (example: in the case of localities with more than 50.000 inhabitants, 95% of positive indicators are required and, in the case of municipalities with less than 1.000 inhabitants, it is granted from 75% of positive indicators). With regard to county councils and provincial councils, the Infoparticipa Seal is awarded to institutions that achieve a minimum of 85% of positive indicators, regardless of the population. In this edition the Mention has been deleted.
This year, the Infoparticipa Seal is awarded to 113 councils (fifteen more than last year), of which 36 have obtained 100% positive indicators (in 2019, there were 32). Of these, Esplugues de Llobregat is the only municipality that has obtained 100% in the seven editions organized so far. And, for the sixth year in a row, the town of Vilanova de Sau (Osona), with only 299 inhabitants, is the smallest municipality that obtains the Infoparticipa Seal and the smallest that follows it, Turn them over, with 316 inhabitants, has obtained the Seal in all the editions.
In the case of the county councils, six of them obtain the Infoparticipa Seal: theHigh Penedès, Baix Llobregat, Girona, Moianes, Vallès occidental and the Valles Oriental. As for the provincial councils, they receive the Infoparticipa Seal the same ones that obtained it in the three previous editions: Barcelona, Girona i Tarragona.
The mayors, more transparent
This year's data confirm a sustained but slow positive evolution during the seven years that this evaluation has been carried out: only 12% of the 947 municipalities in Catalonia still achieve the distinction. General problems are detected in aspects such as the frequency of updating or clarity of information, while there are also widespread improvements in issues such as the organization of menus under informative and common sense criteria.
The ComSET team has also found two highlights. On the one hand, the fact that 29% of distinguished councils are chaired by a mayor, a higher percentage than the total number of municipalities in Catalonia with women at the helm (23%): the mayors, therefore, obtain proportionally better transparency results. Secondly, the remarkable effort represented by the achievement of the Infoparticipa Seal by 10,6% of municipalities with less than 10.000 inhabitants as they have fewer resources than the largest localities.
This latest report has been prepared with data collected between the end of December 2019 and last March 10. It is the seventh wave of analysis to which the websites of the city councils of Catalonia are subjected. In the case of the 41 county councils and the Conselh Generau d'Aran, this year's is the fifth evaluation to be made. And, as for the four Catalan provincial councils, this is the fourth wave of evaluations. Based on these data, the Certification Council of the Infoparticipa Seal decides to award the distinctions.
Five extraordinary awards
The ComSET has created an extraordinary award to highlight especially the results achieved by municipal websites in two categories. On the one hand, the award for communicative efficiency distinguishes portals where information is particularly accessible, intelligible and readable. In this category, positive discrimination is applied in favor of populations with less than 10.000 inhabitants to recognize administrations that make a special effort without having the human and technological resources that characterize the councils of more populated municipalities. This first edition rewards the websites of the city councils of sparkles (7.404 inhabitants), viladecavalls (7.512), theAldea (4.160) and Llagostera (8.453)
On the other hand, there is the prize for continued accountability information: a specific category has been created because it is one of the key elements of effective public management and information transparency. In this case, positive discrimination has been applied in the opposite direction, favoring municipalities with more than 100.000 inhabitants who, in order to have more resources, are the ones who must provide more tools and content for continued accountability and based on criteria of intelligibility, transparency and good governance. The city council awarded in this category has been that of Holy Coloma of Gramenet (119.215 inhabitants).
Evaluation criteria
El Infoparticipa Map is a tool promoted by the Journalism and Communication Laboratory for Plural Citizenship (LPCCP) of the UAB in 2012, when analyzing the information on the websites of the 947 Catalan city councils, to promote the transparency and quality of the information of the local administrations.
In 2013, the LPCCP proposed the award of the Infoparticipa Seal (a second level of recognition, the mention in the Infoparticipa Seal, has been removed in this year's edition) and, to this end, the Certifying Council, in charge of contrasting the evaluations of the team, which is made up of members of the Catalan association and the federation of municipalities, the anti-fraud office, the association of journalists, the Public Communication Association and the academic world.
Now, the LPCCP has merged with the research group Publiràdio to form the new group Sound Communication, Strategic and Transparency (ComSET), responsible for the Infoparticipa Map. The indicators used by ComSET to evaluate the information published on the websites of the administrations answer the following basic questions:
- Who are the political representatives
- How they manage collective resources
- How they manage financial resources
- What information do they provide about the municipality and the management of collective resources
- What tools do they offer for citizen participation
In the case of the town councils, these are 48 indicators that have been modified in this seventh wave of evaluations (last year they were 52) to raise the level of qualitative demand. And, in terms of county councils and provincial councils, there are 45 indicators adapted to their powers. In this year's edition, more quality has been demanded in the information and in the level of transparency in four key aspects:
- The individualized and comprehensible visualization of the remuneration of elected officials
- The declarations of assets and activities of elected officials
- Remuneration and resumes of trusted positions and management staff
- The detailed explanation of the powers of the governing bodies
The results of the analysis are entered into the platform through a content manager that automatically publishes the georeferenced results in a GoogleMap, with the percentage that each website has achieved and its translation in a key that, according to “l 'infometer', is white if it has not reached 25%, yellow if it is above but does not reach 50%, light green if it exceeds 50% but does not reach 75%, and dark green if the score is higher than 75%.
