- Open administration
The use of digital services increases by 11%: balance of the AOC 2023
When we talk about the digital transformation of the public sector we talk about much more than a legal mandate, we talk about a (long and hard) path in particular, for local entities, very marked by the atomization of the local map, where there are deep asymmetries and that the schedule established in the legal system and reality do not go to the same rhythm. Hence the role that other public sector entities assume in this task in the governance of the digital transformation model is key.
Because, in this sense, the role of the municipalities is far from what they played when their first regulation was made in the mid-80s, and which designed a set of basic municipal services, to which we must add the new derived scenarios of the introduction of technology, not only electronic administration, but also the opendata, el big data or blockchain, and new management models demanded by a society that is increasingly active and aware of its rights.
But the fact is that, in addition, the complexity involved in addressing the state of digitization of procedures at the local level, not only because of the heterogeneity of the entities that make it up, but also because of the deep asymmetries that exist, even between those that present similar characteristics require the active competition of other public administrations with greater resources, the possibility of planning, management and execution.
The digital transformation is much more than the acquisition and use of technology, but requires the adoption of a strategy, of planning, design and evaluation, a strategy that must be based on a governance model adequate to the management needs of the different entities committed to this challenge and what happens, sometimes, to superimpose layers of institutional collaboration and generate cooperation synergies between the different territorial levels, beyond issues of competence.
In the territory as a whole it is possible to observe different models, but in particular, two can be contrasted, on the one hand, that of the local entities of Catalonia, and its imbrication in the AOC Consortium and, on the other, the other local entities, which we could designate in the OBSAE territory, local entities that, as long as they have a population of less than 20.00 inhabitants, have the right to count on the Provincial Diputaciones to guarantee the success of said process.
How to make this comparison? It's not simple and it's not because, in the face of open, structured and reusable data that we can find in the AOC territory (Catalan model), we face two common realities: scarce and not-so-good data, or a total absence of data. Therefore, this comparison can only be made with this information.
In the case of the AOC territory on the basis of Digital Maturity Index (IMD) by means of which more than 30 digital and open government indicators are analyzed, which are drawn up from two types of information:
- The implementation or availability of digital public services
- The activity of digital processing services with citizenship, internal management and interoperability
With this information, indicators are drawn up that make it possible to give a real and realistic picture of the digital services that the local authorities of Catalonia offer to society as a whole, as well as to measure their degree of digital transformation, through three groups of indicators: rights digital, activity and open government.
In the result of the existing reports for the OBSAE territory (IRIA and audit reports of the Court of Accounts and the OCESX), the size of the municipality appears again as a determining factor, making it clear that municipalities with smaller populations are at a clear disadvantage in order to be able to guarantee citizens their digital rights, open government and the possibility of carrying out procedures online, they are still in the process of growth, in full adolescence in the face of a greater digital maturity of the AOC territory.
From this comparison we obtain the following result, extracted from the document "An organizational and analytical innovation in digital administration, the Catalan model in comparative perspective"
- The AOC territory shows a greater degree of maturity in all indicators
- The differences are less marked in the registry exchanges, which especially affect the back office and is marked by the legal obligation of interconnection.
- The most pronounced differences are in interoperability, both in its coverage and in its use, especially due to the poor data of the OBSAE territory.
- The degrees of coverage show a greater development than those of use, indicating either a low demand or an insufficient supply of services connected to these structures, although in the case of interoperability of the AOC territory it is significantly high.
- Compliance in transparency indicates a very low degree in both cases, the degree of compliance of the AOC territory being higher
In view of these data and the general study What benefits does the Catalan model bring? It allows to act as an element of mitigation of the risk of non-compliance, but also a facilitator of the digital transformation that guarantees the equality of rights between all people regardless of the part of the territory of Catalonia in which they are, without there being first-class citizens and second depending on the digital element. Because it is precisely the smaller municipalities that need electronic administration services the most, because otherwise they will have to move to the big cities where the headquarters of the other administrations are located, increasing the administrative burden, the ecological footprint and clear contradiction with the guiding principles of the functioning of public administrations.
That is why it is fundamental to bet on a shared, open and multilevel governance model, where the municipalities are not only recipients of a service (sometimes via contract and nothing else), but actors in the process, in which they must be involved in a way principal to its human capital). It is necessary to take into account the limitations of municipalities with smaller populations, largely located in rural areas and with geographically dispersed population centers, not only is collaboration with other AAPPs of a higher territorial level essential, but this articulation is carried out from innovative as it happens in this case, compared to the traditional model that does not seem to offer such good results.
This technological modernization of public services should be faced from the supervision of the restrictions offered by a scarcely innovative legal model focused mainly on the administrative procedure, therefore it would be advisable to adopt an approach based on services and not exclusively on the procedure, in this sense the AOC formula, after more than 20 years of experience and the evidence accredited through the IMD, not only seems to have contributed in a more successful way than the other tested formulas but also seems aligned with the challenges and challenges of the future that the context current present
In short, despite the considerable difficulties experienced in obtaining clear, structured and reliable data on the part of administrations outside the AOC territory, the conclusions of the study validate the strategy developed by the Catalan model and, in particular, the need to have a system of planning, measurement and evaluation (lack of which has been shown in both national and international studies), an open system and in continuous improvement mode, which can adapt to new factors, such as telework or sustainability, to support the deployment of digital administration.