End of Commitment Report – Being connected makes everything easier: For a more efficient municipal management

Name of Evaluator

José Hernández Bonivento

Email

[email protected]

Member Name

Peñalolén, Chile

Action PlanAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... Title

Action plan – Peñalolén, Chile, 2021 – 2024

CommitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action...

Being connected makes everything easier: For a more efficient municipal management

Title

Being connected makes everything easier: For a more efficient municipal management

Action

Develop a strengthening strategy for municipal services aimed at enhancing the communication channels, improving the quality of service, and giving better response times.
To this end, the following lines of action are proposed:

• Develop a Unified Integral System that allows managing the requirements entered through the different municipal service channels. At the same time, it will allow the community can actively monitor and follow up on their requests.
• Perform an external diagnostic to measure the level of satisfaction of the community regarding the service given by the different municipal service channels, in order to incorporate their needs in the development of the Unified Integral System.
• Perform an internal diagnostic, aimed at municipal officials, through which the level of satisfaction can be measured, and propose improvements regarding processes and internal communication of the Municipality.
• Train our officials on the new tools to be used, as well as in the improvement of service protocols and feedback channels with neighbors.
• Creating a Targeted TransparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More Pilot Plan, to inform about progress and initiatives of three municipal units of interest, with the aim of facilitating the information from the Municipality to the citizens.

Problem

The Penalolen community has raised the need to improve a series of elements associated with the quality of the services provided by the Municipal institution, specifically regarding the service and information provided by the municipal officials. In this sense, the recurring demands are: better communication channels; requirements follow-up; improved response times; better communication and internal coordination; good treatment by officials; and knowledge and transparency regarding the functions of each unit.
At the same time, officials of our Municipality have identified a lack of internal communication and flow of information between units, aspects that, through time, have been deteriorating, affecting productivity, quality, and attention offered by the officials. The foregoing shows that there is a space for growth for our institution regarding the improvement of management internally and externally.

1.1 What was the overall level of progress in the commitment implementation at the time of this assessment?

substantial

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment was very ambitious in its scope, but it had a substantial implementation. Two steps were not accomplished for different reasons. Firstly, the commitment was to build an integrated, unique system for receiving all information, complaints, and suggestions from local citizens. This was very ambitious, and it was not possible to achieve due to internal organizational constraints. The commitment then focused on a digital office of information, complaints, and suggestions, and kept the in-person office available. This platform is not integrated with the Freedom of Information requests that come into the municipality, nor with the active and proactive municipal transparency platforms. Secondly, the last milestone (the public evaluation of the platform) was not implemented due to scheduling problems at the end of the administration.

OIRS Digital Platform
Proactive transparency platform

Provide evidence that supports and justifies your answer:

Verificadores Plan de Accion de Gobierno Abierto

1.2 Describe the main external or internal factors that impacted implementation of this commitment and how they were addressed (or not).

The Chilean Participation Law (20.500) mandates that every municipality should have an Information, Complaints, and Suggestions Office (OIRS). The commitment, as presented, aimed to integrate all citizen interactions through an Integrated Unified System.
However, this goal was not achievable for the following reasons: at the organizational level, multiple units with distinct responsibilities were tasked with addressing citizens’ needs. Additionally, national platforms are available for both municipal transparency and Freedom of Information requests, with varying criteria and based on different units within the municipality. Finally, citizens submit a significant amount of information and complaints in person, which is essential for the municipality’s interaction with the neighbors.
Due to all this, the municipality opted for the development of the online OIRS unit, which is the main result of this commitment, and to promote a proactive platform, presented as a complementary action for transparency. It is good to notice that in the design assessment, this particular commitment was reviewed as very ambitious, and even if the Integrated System was not achieved, the Online OIRS was an important change for the municipal public servants that are in charge of it (based on interviews made on the field), and it has increased the number of request, as it makes it more accesible for the neighbors.

1.3 Was the commitment implemented as originally planned?

Most of the commitment milestones were implemented as planned

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

As mentioned before, the commitment changed in its goal and focused on the Online OIRS platform. Additionally, the final milestone was not implemented because the platform was only ready by the end of the administration term, and it required some time for use before the citizens’ evaluation.

Provide evidence for your answer:

Verificadores Plan de Accion de Gobierno Abierto

2.1.1. – Did the government disclose more information; improve the quality of the information (new or existing); improve the value of the information; improve the channels to disclose or request information or improve accessibility to information?

Yes

Degree of result:

Major

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

The commitment improved the channels to disclose and request information from the municipality, as the Online OIRS platform made it easier for neighbors to create a request, and even better for public servants to organize and respond to those requests. It also created a new proactive transparency platform that provides more information than is mandated by the Chilean Freedom of Information Law (20.285).

OIRS Digital Platform
Proactive transparency platform

Provide evidence for your answer:

Verificadores Plan de Accion de Gobierno Abierto

2.1.2. – Did the government create new opportunities to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation inform or influence decisions; improve existing channels or spaces to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation/ inform or influence decisions; create or improve capabilities in the government or the public aimed to improve how the government seeks feedback from citizens/enables participation/ or allows for the public to inform or influence decisions?

Yes

Degree of result:

Marginal

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

The first step of the commitment was to evaluate the neighbors’ satisfaction with municipal services, which was achieved by a municipal survey. However, most of the municipality’s efforts were focused on meeting the platform’s internal organizational requirements, which did not imply citizens’ participation.

Provide evidence for your answer:

Estudio Satisfaccion

2.1.3 Did the government create or improve channels, opportunities or capabilities to hold officials answerable to their actions?

Yes

Degree of result:

Major

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

The Digital OIRS platform enables public servants to follow all requests made by citizens and to trace the quality and time of the response, which can imply that non-compliance would be exposed. However, it is not clear how it can be a sanction for non-compliance, and the platform implementation is too recent to have an evaluation of its performance.

Provide evidence for your answer:

Platform OIRS Digital

2.1.4 Other Results

Yes

Degree of result:

Major

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

The commitment also created a new proactive transparency platform, which was made with information from the neighbors. This was a complementary part of the original commitment, which resulted in a new information platform for citizens.

Proactive transparency platform

Provide evidence for your answer:

INFORME DE DIAGNÓSTICO SOBRE NECESIDADES DE INFORMACIÓN PÚBLICA Y TEMAS DE INTERÉS PARA VECINOS/AS

2.2 Did the commitment address the public policy problem that it intended to address as described in the action plan?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment allowed for an internal and external diagnosis of how municipal services were implemented and received by both the citizenry and public servants. It helped to provide two new platforms for information requests and disclosure, and empowered the internal TI unit, which designed and implemented both platforms. It also offered diffusion and capacitation on the use of these platforms to the neighbours, which could enhance the usability of the platforms. However, its impact on the neighbors’ well-being is yet to be evaluated.

Provide evidence for your answer:

Testeo Usabilidad Gestor de Solicitudes Vecinales

3. Provide at least one lesson or reflection relating to the implementation of this commitment. It can be the identification of key barriers to implementation, an unexpected help/hindrance, recommendations for future commitments, or if the commitment should be taken forward to the next action plan.

Even though the high expectations of this commitment were not met in its original version, it is clear that the diagnostic effort made, both internally and at the citizen level, has been well rewarded. The introduction of two new public information platforms has already achieved great success, despite the failure to establish a unified platform at the municipal level. It is understood that organizational and legal complexities have prevented further development in this area. Nevertheless, the efforts are evident, and it is hoped that the result will be better information management for and by the residents of Peñalolén.