Standards of Municipal Transparency (Chile)

The objective of the standards of municipal transparency is to provide a model guaranteeing access to information in all municipalities of Chile. The “standards of municipal transparency”focus on “active transparency”, i.e. on the availability and clarity of information that a municipality should provide to citizens on a continuous basis, through a webpage and government offices in each municipality (as opposed to information provided on the basis of citizen requests.)

Objective only. The data used are represented by municipal standards, procedures, norms and regulations as well as municipal and national laws.

95 indicators have been identified according to the following criteria: fundamental information on the municipality; complete information on municipal norms and regulation, on municipal management and orientations, on the management of public financial resources; information useful for citizens’ participation in municipal programmes of benefits; necessary information to access other municipal information.

The indicators require a simple yes/no answer. They are divided into three categories: those that represent a basic standard that any municipality should be able to comply with, those that require additional effort (intermediate), and those that are most demanding in terms of compliance (advanced). The municipalities are then divided into three groups, according to an assessment of their capacity to meet the three levels of ‘standards’.

Given the heterogeneity of Chilean municipalities, the 345 Chilean local governments are divided into 3 different groups according to their population,
socio-economic situation, technological conditions (number of computers in the municipal officers) and access to IT (number of households with internet access). These groups represent the more (group 1) or less (group 3) municipal favourable conditions to implement transparent practices. On the basis of these groups, the Chilean municipalities have to comply with all the advanced standards (groups 1), at least with all the intermediate or basic standards (group 2) or at least with all the basic standards (group 3).

Assesses the gender breakdown of municipal human resources. Has no explicit poverty focus.

Monthly statistics on denounces and complaints according to their location, interested municipal department, kind of complaint, made available.

http://www.munitel.cl/eventos/otros/chiletransparente/propuestatranspare...