Open Systems: Town halls' e-government

With some fanfare, Alcúdia town hall has launched a separate website, described as one of the most advanced in Spain and designed to bring the town hall administration closer to the people. It is a system to show current and past activities and procedures engaged in by the town hall and to allow for certain bits of bureaucracy to be conducted online, such as registering change of address and requesting reservations of the public way (e.g. for specific events, one presumes).

At a cost of 330,000 euros, the system is bound to raise some questions as to whether it is a wise spend in these economically tough times, but it is confirmation that Alcúdia is wanting to be closer to the people (its words) and to be more open, as evidenced previously by an in-depth study of the town hall's financial situation over the past few years. 

For all this, being a system that is one of the most advanced in Spain doesn't say a great deal about how well town halls engage with their citizens. I would like to be able to explain more about what the system is, but unfortunately, and despite the system having been announced to the local media, it isn't working (or wasn't yesterday). The impression, though, is that it is no more than might be considered normal communication practice by a local authority.

Transparency, accountability and openness form the accepted mantra by which local authorities should operate. A common accusation levelled at Mallorca's local authorities is that their affairs aren't transparent, while a further one charges the public service as a whole with having been slow to embrace modern technologies in order that day-to-day matters can be performed via the internet.

The perception, however, is probably some way short of the truth. There have been notable advances by Mallorca's public authorities in making the internet a means of making people's lives easier, but when it comes to openness in revealing financial affairs the accusation is more valid.

An assumption might be made that local authorities here have dragged their heels in being more transparent and being more up-to-date in the way that they communicate information. But in supposedly more open Britain, it isn't necessarily the case that local councils are that brilliant at exposing their financial affairs to public scrutiny, despite demands having been placed on them by the substantial figure of Eric Pickles, the local government secretary.

The financial requirements to provide good "e-government" in the form of online information systems for the citizenship can be a constraint, both in Britain and in Spain, and Alcúdia's system highlights the sort of cost that is required. Culturally, it is probably fair to say that the Spanish mentality veers towards a lack of transparency, while it is also fair to say that local authorities have often had good (and less than legitimate) reasons to keep their affairs under wraps, but such lack of openness is not universal. The organisation Transparency International has conducted a survey of provincial governments across Spain and a few have extremely high levels of openness. The Council of Mallorca isn't one of them but it does manage to score more than a 50% threshold of transparency, considered the minimum to qualify as being transparent, but it only just manages to exceed 50% in being ranked sixteenth out of 45 administrations.

Culture, as much as funding wherewithal, is the key to more open local government in Mallorca together with the political will to be more open. National government hopes to introduce greater transparency at all levels of government through a new law, but it has been criticised for being half-hearted. The political will, therefore, is more one that is shown at specific local levels, and in Alcúdia it does appear to exist.

Mostly all town hall politicians are well aware of the need for greater transparency, and many of them have placed themselves more in the firing-line by being on Facebook and other social networks. A good case in point as to how social media can swiftly change a town hall decision was that of the secretarial appointment of Nora Tugores by Pollensa's mayor Tomeu Cifre; opposition politicians went into immediate overdrive on Facebook in attacking the appointment, and it was revoked within a matter of days.

The social media, therefore, are playing an important role in creating a cultural shift towards an appreciation of openness by town halls in Mallorca. Indeed, it might not be an exaggeration to suggest that social media are and will be instrumental in limiting the potential for less than acceptable behaviour by local politicians.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.