The Catalan Ombudsman has presented theAnnual report on transparency, access to public information and good governance, corresponding to the year 2020.
This is the fifth report which has been drawn up by the Catalan Ombudsman since Law 19/2014, of 29 December, on transparency, access to public information and good governance, entrusted him with the function of assessing compliance with the obligations regulated therein.
The report is largely conditioned by the COVID-19 crisis. In these circumstances, the Catalan Ombudsman indicates that a general stalemate in the application of the Law was foreseeable, although he also reminds us that the slowdown comes from before.
Main aspects and recommendations of the Catalan Ombudsman:
Overall, the Catalan Ombudsman insists on the perception of stagnation in the deployment of advertising obligations in many administrations with fewer resources. This stagnation coexists with significant advances in those of greater capacity, and identifies as main challenge of active advertising in the immediate future, that the informació be well structured, accessible i understandable.
In this sense, it is worth mentioning that this challenge posed by the Catalan Ombudsman is fully in line with the tasks being carried out on the AOC transparency portal (solution offered with the Network of Transparent Governments). So, beyond the portal is a standard solution in the territory and therefore become a very good tool for cooperation, in recent times progress is being made in accessibility, understanding and automation to bring transparency closer to the public, all while encouraging the automation of publishing tasks in local bodies.
In fact the new political organization module o of economic indicators, as well as the promotion of open data (to facilitate more and better automation on the portal), are good examples and are available to all local administrations to improve in this challenge of bringing active advertising to the public.
And what about the right of access?
The report concludes that a change is perceived in the conception of the right of access by the administrations, which is progressively consolidated as a citizen right subject to limits that must be interpreted restrictively. However, it coexists with too many cases in which those who request access receive no response, and with data still far removed from the realities of other nearby territories.
