AOC services in relation to the call for Next Generation grants for medium-sized municipalities and provincial councils

The Ministry of Territorial Policy has approved theOrder TER/836/2022, of August 29, which approves the regulatory bases and the 2022 call for subsidies for the digital transformation and modernization of the administrations of local entities, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, financed with European Next Generation funds.

This call for aid includes some requirements and obligations that are directly related to some of the services that we are promoting in Catalonia from the AOC.

In order to guarantee that the municipalities of Catalonia make the most efficient use of these European grants, with the maximum impact and in a coordinated way with the country projects that we are jointly promoting, while avoiding duplication of initiatives, we are sharing this document with you and information on the status of the AOC services that are related to the call.

General data of the call

Beneficiary entities

• Els councils of municipalities with a population ofbetween 20.000 and 50.000 inhabitants, with the exception of municipalities that are provincial capitals. 
• Park guide walks delegations, being the recipients of the actions carried out by the municipalities of less than 20.000 inhabitants of its territorial scope. 

Amount of the grant: €6,92/inhabitant per inhabitant

Procedure: non-competitive concurrency.  

Eligible expenses: investments

Submission of applications: through the electronic headquarters of the Ministry of Territorial Policy. 

Call for grants

1       Deadlines

Article 11. Execution of the activity. 1. The execution period of the project will be comprised between 1 February 2020 and 31 August 2023. 
Article 14. Term. Applications may be submitted until 15.00:15 p.m. on December 2022, XNUMX.

The presentation of offers is until December 15, 2022 and the deadline for notification of the resolution is 6 months.

El execution period is between February 1, 2020 and August 31, 2023. It seems that this call is intended to finance projects that have already been carried out or are in progress, given that from the resolution (within a maximum of six months from the request) to the deadline for execution (31/ 8/23) there is no material time to bid and execute open contracts.

6       Requirements for subsidized actions

a) Alignment with strategic plans: National Plan for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience, Digital Spain Agenda 2025 and Digitalization Plan for Public Administrations.

The AOC's initiatives and services are aligned with all of these strategic plans.

b) Interoperability between services. They will allow integration with projects, platforms and initiatives of a similar nature, especially with those of the General Administration of the State, complying with the corresponding National Interoperability Scheme and Interconnection Technical Notes.

All the AOC services that require it are integrated or are in the process of being integrated with the AGE solutions.

Services already integrated or in process with the AGE:

• e.FACT with FACE
• Hub of Citizen Folders (MyGov) with the Citizen Folder (PAGE)
• Open road with the Data Intermediation Platform (PID)
• EACAT with SIR
• VALID with Cl@ve and @Firma
• Platform for Contracting Services of Catalonia with the Public Sector Procurement Platform
• Local open data platform of the AOC with the state platform of Datos.gob.es (via the open data platform of the Generalitat de Catalunya)

The following services are in the process of integration pending the specification of technical aspects of interoperability by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Territorial Policy:

• E-Notum with Notific@ and the Single Enabled Electronic Address (DEHú) (also called Single Point of Notifications)
• Represent with empower@

All interoperability integrations are carried out in accordance with the agreed technical standards and in compliance with the ENI.

c) Reuse. In the terms provided for in article 157 of Law 40/2015, of October 1, on the Legal System of the Public Sector, the results of the developed projects may be reused by other Administrations that require it if their nature allows it.   

The AOC actively promotes the principle of reuse of solutions developed in the public sector given that:

• AOC services are used by 2.250 public bodies in Catalonia. This fact demonstrates an effective success case of reuse that generates great savings for the Catalan administrations, reduces the deadlines for fulfilling legal obligations and facilitates usability for citizens with standardized services.
• the AOC Consortium makes the source code of the applications it has developed available to the rest of the public bodies that request it
• the AOC Consortium, whenever possible, reuses solutions from other public or private bodies, to avoid reinventing the wheel. In this sense, the AOC reuses the following public sector or open source solutions:
  • Hestia: local social services (Tarragonès County Council)
  • We decide: citizen participation (Barcelona City Council)
  • Ethics mailbox: channels for alerts and complaints (Barcelona City Council)
  • Open data platform: CKAN, free software solution

Thus, using the AOC services involves participating in a collaborative project to reuse solutions in the public sector.

d) The Administrations receiving funds undertake to provide data to facilitate the offer of services to citizens through My citizen folder of the General Administration of the State referred to in article 8 of the Regulations for the performance and operation of the public sector by electronic media, approved by Royal Decree 203/2021, of March 30, with the objective of creating an efficient data space and effective for citizens and companies.   

The AOC's citizen folder hub (MyGov) is integrated with the AGE's "My citizen folder". With this integration you don't need to do anything else.

• AOC (MyGov) Folder Hub Integration Documentation

Note: Currently, this integration has a technical impact. We are in contact with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation to resolve it.

e) The Administrations will facilitate the integration of information in the common platforms of management of electronic public procurement and subsidies that are indicated.

The Catalonia Procurement Services Platform is already integrated with the Public Sector Procurement Platform, and there is a regular exchange of information so that all tenders from the Catalan administrations can be consulted on the state portal.

Currently, there is a centralized grant portal: there is no grant interoperability model. When possible, we will integrate from Catalonia.

5.1 Eligible actions

a) Improving the accessibility of digital public services to citizens
and companies
b) Reduction of the digital gap.
c) Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of public employees.
d) Reuse of services and digital solutions built.
e) Active use of emerging technologies in the deployment of new digital services (chatbots, automation and robotization, platforms, etc.).

The services of the AOC contribute to the above objectives. Specifically, all AOC services:

• are adapted to mobile devices and are accessible or in the process of becoming accessible
• are available to all local bodies free of charge to guarantee digital inclusion throughout the territory, regardless of the resources and capacity of each municipality
• the use of standardized digital services improves the efficiency and effectiveness of public employees
• we encourage the reuse of solutions: on average AOC services are used by more than 1.000 local bodies.
• AOC services include emerging technologies. For example, in the field of digital identification we use an intelligent conversational assistant (chatbot)

5.2 Strategic lines

Strategic line 1. Citizen-oriented administration

i. Development of apps for the most used services. Development or adoption of the digital public services most demanded by citizens and companies, through mobile, with special emphasis on usability, accessibility and personalization of content.

From AOC we are promoting the e-TRAM and e-Notum solutions that allow processing and electronic notification adapted to mobile devices, in a usable form, in accordance with accessibility regulations and guaranteeing an inclusive language.

e-TRAM includes a catalog of a hundred procedures, among which are the ones most demanded by citizens, companies and associations. And e-Notum manages official notifications and communications. The most used electronic actions are:

• Electronic notifications
• Generic instance
• Complaint and suggestions
• Incidents on the public road
• Procedures for economic activities
• Construction procedures
• Personal data protection rights
• Right of access to public information

The procedures and electronic notifications carried out with e-TRAM and e-Notum are integrated with "My Folder Ciutadana" through the Hub of citizen folders (MyGov) of the AOC.

We have been using a conversational assistant (chatbot) integrated with AOC services for a year now, with very good results. It has exchanged more than 350.000 messages with 160.000 users in the last year.

This service is already available in the following services:

• To the VALID service to support the most common inquiries and incidents during electronic processing in digital identification processes
• On the idCAT website to support the process of obtaining a digital certificate

A note about chatbots

• The implementation of chatbots is not simple since they are not very intelligent. They work well only in very specific use cases, requiring a lot of training and periodic dedication to maintaining the answers.

iii. Development of platforms for the digitization of public services that
local entities lend. Development or adoption of tools that contribute to the digitization of local government units that provide services to citizens, in particular in relation to social services or the care economy.

The AOC offers local administrations the Hèstia service for managing social information systems. It is used by almost 800 local entities and by 87 basic areas of social services.

Strategic line 2. Intelligent operations.

1.º Objective: to improve the quality, quantity and efficiency of the services and processes of management and processing of public administrations, through the use of intelligent automation technologies (Robotization of processes, artificial intelligence, etc.).
2nd subsidized action:
Automation of services. Intelligent automation of the processes of providing the services most used by citizens and companies, using technologies based on artificial intelligence, intelligent management of processes, robotization of processes or similar, to obtain a reduction in processing times and an improvement of the service.

This line makes it possible to finance the integration of local information systems with the solutions of the AOC, which are also integrated with the solutions of the General Administration of the State.

For example, in this area, integrations with Via Oberta services, the automation of inquiries and validations, and the incorporation of data into file managers and document repositories can be financed.

Strategic line 3. Data governance.

1st Objective: democratize access to data by citizens, companies and public employees, allowing free access to information and its replicability, as well as the use of data for the development of high-value digital services added oriented to the citizen.
2nd subsidized action:
Integrated data platform. Development of an integrable data platform, under the perspective of data federation, with the Data lake of the State General Administration, which enables interoperable projects between the State General Administration and other public administrations.

This line makes it possible to finance the data federation of local information systems with the AOC's open data platform, which is also integrated with the state open data platform Datos.gob.es.

The AOC's open data platform:

• It is available, free of charge, to all local administrations in Catalonia and is connected to the transparency portals of 1.200 local entities.
• Currently, there are 40 sets of standardized data, with historical information for all local administrations in Catalonia on the most relevant areas of municipal management: budget, recruitment, subsidy, personnel, etc.
• This platform hosts 250 sets of data from local administrations in Catalonia and allows any council to easily upload its own data.
• These data will be integrated with the dades.gob.es platform and with the European open data portal.

In addition, the AOC has a "datawarehouse" (DW) or data warehouse of the digital administration activity of the Catalan administrations.

• This information, conveniently anonymised, is available to the Catalan administrations in structured and standardized formats to prepare reports and advanced analytics
• This DW is interconnected with a business intelligence solution (PowerBI) where reports, dashboards, benchmarking (digital maturity index) and predictive reports have been generated.

This data warehouse can be integrated with the state "data lake". From the AOC we will make the interoperability integrations with the AGE "data lake" when it is available and we have the technical specifications. At the meetings of the Digital Administration Sectoral Committee, in which representatives of all the communities and the FEMP participate, this initiative has not yet been presented.

Strategic line 4. Digital infrastructures.

1.º Objective: to provide local administrations with the technological infrastructures necessary for their modernization, in order to ensure availability in any circumstance and to adapt the available capacity to the existing needs at each moment, contributing to the development of digital connectivity, the data economy and artificial intelligence in administrations.
Likewise, it is planned to modernize and digitize the headquarters of the public administrations, adding digital meeting points between them and the citizens, and contributing to the improvement, security and energy efficiency and processes of the local entities both for the citizens and for themselves staff of these
2nd Subsidized actions:
i. Cloud and sustainable data processing centers (CPD). Adoption of cloud solutions and sustainable infrastructures, contemplating the migration of legacy infrastructures to new solutions that provide greater effectiveness and efficiency through the optimization of management and provisioning processes.
ii. Implementation of intelligent workplaces. Provision of new generation workplaces with mobility and collaborative tools that maximize the productivity of public employees and enable their non-present work.
iii. Physical infrastructures and digital access points. Implementation of points and digital citizen help desks, which facilitate the automation and streamlining of services; of systems that contribute to the modernization of local entities, through the improvement of their personal access through smart cards; and infrastructures that improve the energy efficiency of silks.

In this line, the purchases of hardware and software licenses are eligible (among others). However, pay-as-you-go solutions or annual software license subscriptions are not eligible (based on available information), which are counted as a current expense. Pay-per-use or subscription methods are currently the most common in cloud computing services and software procurement.

Strategic line 5. Interoperability of basic digital administration services.

1st Objective: Guarantee the interoperability of a minimum set of basic digital administration services (electronic registration, electronic notifications, electronic invoicing and integration of open files and citizen folder of the state public sector).
2nd Subsidized actions:
i. Existence of a fully interoperable entry and exit registration application through the Registry Interconnection System, as established in article 16 of Law 39/2015, of October 1, of the Common Administrative Procedure of Public Administrations.
ii. Management of electronic notifications, and its adherence to the Single Enabled Electronic Directorate, provided for in article 44.1 of the Regulation on the performance and operation of the public sector by electronic media, approved by Royal Decree 203/2021, of March 30.
iii. Management of electronic invoicing, through its membership in the FACe portal of the General Administration of the State, or through a general access point for local or autonomous electronic invoices.
iv. Integration of the status of open files with the Citizen Folder of the state public sector.

The solutions of the AOC are integrated or interoperable with the solutions of the General Administration of the State.

• EACAT with SIR
• E-Notum with Notific@ and the Single Enabled Electronic Address (DEHú) (also called Single Point of Notifications)
• pending specification of technical aspects of interoperability by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Territorial Policy
• e.FACT with FACE
• Citizen Folders Hub (MyGov) with “My citizen folder” (PAGE)

All or almost all Catalan administrations use EACAT, e-Notum and e.FACT.

Within this line, it is possible to finance the integration of the entity's own citizen folder with the AOC folder hub.

• AOC (MyGov) Folder Hub Integration Documentation

Local bodies that are already users of e-TRAM, e-Notum or Seu-e are already integrated with the AOC folder hub. Therefore, in the application form we can check the following options:

• 1. The integration of the entry and exit registration system of the entity with the Registry Interconnection Systems, as established in article 16 of Law 39/2015, of October 1, of the Common Administrative Procedure of Public Administrations [X]
• 2. The authorization of the management of electronic notifications, and its adherence to the Electronic Address Single Enabled, provided for in article 44.1 of the Regulation on the performance and operation of the public sector by electronic means, approved by Royal Decree 203/2021, of March 30 [X]
• 3. Enabling electronic invoicing management, through joining the portal DO of the General Administration of the State, or through a general access point for local or regional electronic invoices [X]
• 4. The integration of the status of open files with the Citizen Folder of the state public sector [X]

And you can fill in the responsible statement facilitated by the Ministry:

• Appendix VI. Declaration responsible for the existence of basic digital administration services in the entity's digital domain

Doubts and inquiries

For doubts and queries you can contact the needi of AOC Support.