The value of transparency in Public Administrations

In the Valencian Community, both state and regional legislation have had a strong influence when dealing with the promotion of political actions in an administration on the one hand and access to public information on the other.

Transparency should be considered as a value in the fight against corruption. That is, accountability to citizens who elect their political representatives in public institutions. Transparency is the best antidote to corruption. Likewise, Public Administrations that are open to the public and report in detail on their political activities are not afraid to be governed with absolute transparency, as if the walls of the institution are made of glass and everyone can see the government’s actions from the outside.

The issue of the authority of the citizens to request public information from the Administration has not yet been socially addressed, and it is an issue that should be announced to the public more. Any person who is looking for information about the economic, political, legal and contractual functioning of a Public Administration and cannot find this information on the web portal can request information from that Administration. However, this is not yet a right demanded by citizens, except in rare cases, except for information requested by people interested in a particular subject, journalists, lawyers, academics or researchers.

Failure of an Administration to respond to a request for information means that, under the General Government Administration (AGE), we have unfavorable administrative silence, meaning they have not given us access to the information. But in the Valencian Community area, there is a positive administrative silence for the rest of the non-AGE Administrations. So if we ask for information from a Valencia city hall or the Generalitat and they don’t respond within a month, we will have access to the information. If you do not provide us with this information, in any case, we always have the opportunity to lodge a complaint with the Transparency and Good Governance Council within AGE or with the Valencian Transparency Council within the Autonomous Community of Valencia. universities or local organizations.

Additionally, any Public Administration must have a transparency portal, but any association or organization that receives a certain amount of public money, even in the form of grants, must have a website or Administration portal. You state the target of public money up to the last euro cent received.

Obviously, not all Administrations have the same public information technology systems and, above all, the same capacity to have public information. For this, municipalities with a small population or public institutions with few personnel should receive support from senior management. On the other hand, transparency, sometimes with the power and enthusiasm at the head of legislatures, or finally, as a value that becomes fashionable when the rush comes and the necessary homework is not done. To carry out gradually, these portals are updated or they try to lead the order of transparency with mandatory marches.

But to be precise, a public system with a clear methodology that allows measuring transparency across the various rankings available by associations or non-profit organizations has yet to be articulated. What is not being measured is unknown, and so the way transparency levels are quantified needs to be homogenized.

It is important that transparency is taught, explained in detail and even introduced into the field of formal education. Because the transparency of Public Administrations is a value that secures and legitimizes the public activity they carry out and their managers, namely the citizen as a whole. Citizenship (not just opposition political groups) that should always have control and oversight; then you can make a value judgment on election day with your votes.