Strengthening municipal mechanisms for access to public information (ARCRR0003)

Commitment ID

ARCRR0003

Commitment Title

Strengthening municipal mechanisms for access to public information

Problem

At present, citizens demand mechanisms for Access to Public Information to guarantee the effective use of public resources and thus provide more possibilities to monitor and evaluate the efficiency of the Municipality. Through this commitment, we want to reduce difficulties in the management and processing of requests for public information.

This commitment is focused on a problem that works both inside and outside the Municipality. First, within the municipality, there is an urgent need to train decision makers to make strategic use of AIP mechanisms and to manage citizens' requests more efficiently. Secondly, it is necessary to raise awareness among citizens who are unaware of the mechanisms available to them and what kind of information they can access.

Status quo

The Directorate General for Investigations, Public Ethics and Transparency has the task of carrying out investigations on its own initiative or on the basis of complaints, seeking to detect possible violations by municipal agents. It also works on prevention and training in public administration transparency policies, bringing municipal regulations into line with national and provincial standards.

From this Directorate, and added to ordinances such as Ordinance No. 7,249 / 2001 of AIP or the one that creates the Open Data Rosario program, mechanisms have been developed for access to public information such as the official website with the online form to carry out a order or the open data portal (datos.rosario.gob.ar) where data is published and organized in an open and free format. However, certain aspects must be addressed to strengthen these policies, for example the lack of a municipal office structure or the lack of spaces for awareness about AIP and active and passive transparency.

Action

The commitment will be developed covering four axes for the strengthening of the AIP:

1. Capacity Building
   • Development of training on Transparency and Right of Access to Public Information with a focus on Municipal Management in order to increase the human resources trained in each Secretariat and increase the capacities to use the mechanisms of AIP and the use and analysis of data by civil society.
2. Improvement of the available information
   • Creation of a digital repository with the municipal organigram in order to facilitate the accessibility of citizens to the areas of the municipality.
   • Creation of an open digital repository for publishing requests and responses to requests for public information.
3. Review and evaluation of the draft Ordinance on Sworn Declarations of municipal officials
4. Improvement of the AIP tools of the Municipality incorporating elements that facilitate the application of AIP (tutorials, selection of options, link to datasets, the data portal, etc.)

How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem described above?

The commitment will contribute to improving the quality of access to information, the production of information and the quality of public data through the enhancement of State and civil society capacities, the improvement of API application processes and the institutionalization of mechanisms for active transparency.

What long-term goal as identified in your Open Government Strategy does this commitment relate to?

This commitment contributes to our Strategic Vision of Open Government since it is framed in the decision of the current municipal management to accelerate the processes of digital transformation and deepen the construction of public policies based on data and evidence. Specifically, it provides in:

1. It addresses an appropriate management and opening of data, implying its publication and its internal use and by the citizens.
2. Improves both active and passive transparency by improving access to data.
3. Implement technological solutions and improve the capacities of state agents and citizens.
4. Generate greater transparency, participation, collaboration and agility in the government-citizenship interrelations through proximity mechanisms

Primary Policy Area

Open Data, Right to Information

Primary Sector

Cross-sectoral, Public Services (general)

What OGP value is this commitment relevant to?