The Executive Committee of the AOC Consortium approved on October 20 to promote the initiative to offer one common technological service of ethical mailbox addressed to local bodies. The AOC Consortium is working to be able to start piloting during the first quarter of 2022. When the pilots are finished, a deployment will be made to all local bodies that request it and have an integrity action plan.
In 2019 the Directive (EU) 2019/1937 protection of alerting persons which establishes common minimum standards for the protection of persons who report certain infringements of Union law. In this regard, he highlighted the key role played by alert people in preventing and uncovering infringements, cases of fraud and corruption and other conduct that seriously injures the public interest. Although Member States should transpose it no later than December 17, 2021, at the moment, it is not known that the Spanish state will do so soon.
This initiative is part of the action plan of the Network of Transparent Governments of Catalonia and the Secretariat of Open Government of the Generalitat, to offer solutions and services that facilitate all local bodies the promotion of open government and good government.
In Catalonia we already have good references from governments that have implemented secure channels for reporting or alerts. In addition to Barcelona City Council, which was the pioneer, we also have the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Anti-Fraud Office and the City Councils of Lleida, Manresa, Terrassa and Vilanova i la Geltrú.
This has been possible thanks to the excellent work done in recent years by theBarcelona City Council in col·laboració amb xnet and the initiative GlobaLeaks which allows us to now have a complete, proven and secure technological solution in free software. From the AOC Consortium we will reuse this solution to make it available in software as a service (SaaS) mode worldwide. In this way, local bodies will not have to worry about the technological, security and protection aspects of this solution. The ethics mailbox will be integrated into the e-TRAM's catalog of procedures.
The application of this Directive is complex and very sensitive at the political, organizational and legal level. For this reason, it is necessary to define a governance model among all actors that draws up a consensus roadmap on how to facilitate its implementation in an efficient and sustainable way in the local world, especially in administrations with fewer resources and capabilities. These will need supra-municipal support, guides, good practices and management and regulatory models. From the Network of Transparent Governments, with the involvement of the Secretariat of Open Government of the Generalitat and the support of the Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia is debating how to address this challenge.
The Directive is generating legal doubts and uncertainties regarding its application. The fact that a transposition has not been approved has not helped to clarify them. Some of the queries raised refer to whether the directive is directly applicable or not, which supra-municipal shared models could be raised, the scope of local bodies required by the directive or the entry register of anonymous complaints taking into account the obligation of Law 39/2015 to identify the people who submit applications.
The Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia presented on October 21 a document with a set of reflections on the obligations and management of the internal alert channel to public bodies. This guide is very didactic and is an excellent starting point document, although it does not resolve all the interpretative doubts of the aforementioned Directive.
This document was presented during the day “Implementation of complaint channels in the city councils”During which the city councils of Barcelona, Lleida, Sabadell, Terrassa and Vilanova i la Geltrú, explained their experience. The video of the session is available on You Tube.
4) Examples of ethical mailboxes:
