The councilor for Transparency and Good Governance, Alfonso Esteban, has presented the data from the Transparency Report of the City Council of Guadalajara, «which is carried out for the first time, and which places us as the second most transparent capital in Castilla-La Mancha.»
«Those who claim to be transparent in words, when they govern, placed us at the bottom when it comes to transparent municipalities. However, now, without speaking so much, we guarantee that this City Council is transparent and not opaque, as others did,» Esteban stated.
The councilor presented three key data points that reflect the progress in transparency of the City Council of Guadalajara:
- Second provincial capital with the best transparency index in Castilla-La Mancha, only behind Ciudad Real.
- Fourth municipality with over 15,000 inhabitants most transparent in Castilla-La Mancha.
- Rise of 10 positions among provincial capitals, moving from 32nd place to 22nd in just one year.
«These achievements show that we are doing things right in terms of transparency, not just talking about being transparent, but acting to truly be transparent,» Esteban emphasized.
The councilor explained how this situation was reached, highlighting the work done both internally in transparency, providing access to public information to political groups; and externally in transparency, through the transparency portal and attending to requests for information access from citizens.
The Transparency Portal of the City Council of Guadalajara, which started operating in 2017 under a government of the Popular Party, has been regularly updated since then. «However, during the four years of socialist government of Alberto Rojo, no updates were made. It was a Popular Party government that took action so that, today, the transparency portal of the city of Guadalajara is updated in its contents,» Esteban pointed out.
The councilor also highlighted that, in 2024, 47 transparency-related files were processed, all of them answered in a timely manner and published on the municipal transparency portal. In addition, 63 files from the years of socialist government that had not been uploaded to the portal when required have been reviewed and updated.
Furthermore, Esteban noted that the number of requests for access to public information is increasing, as in 2023 there were 18 and in 2024, more than 40.
«With a mayor from the Popular Party, we have updated all this data, reviewing files and updating the information regarding managing body, date, subject, and resolution,» Esteban concluded.
Esteban also recalled that the Transparency Commission was launched for the first time under a Popular Party government, during the Mayorship of Antonio Román. «I want to point this out because those who claim to be transparent, whenever they govern, do nothing in terms of transparency. It was a Popular Party government that launched the Transparency Commission and the transparency portal, and it is a government with a mayor from the Popular Party that continues to improve transparency, placing us in the rankings where we are,» he affirmed.
These Transparency data are obtained from the DYNTRA indexes (Dynamic Transparency Index), an information exchange platform that evaluates all municipalities with over 15,000 inhabitants in various areas of transparency.
For municipalities, the evaluation is done with 162 indicators in the areas of Municipal Transparency, Citizen Participation and Collaboration, Economic-Financial Transparency, Service Contracts, Urban Planning and Public Works, and Open Data.
Transparency Commission
Regarding the Transparency Commission meeting, Esteban explained that political groups can request its convening and that it has been requested with a series of topics. «Tomorrow they will be given detailed information, but notice how little transparency matters to them, as one of the issues that the socialist group requested was the annual transparency report and in the end, they decided to withdraw this point. Therefore, transparency matters very little to them because, in addition, being obligated, they never prepared the report during the four years of Alberto Rojo’s government,» Esteban highlighted.
Finally, Esteban remembered that Alberto Rojo was reprimanded by the Ombudsman for not providing files to political groups, and yet now all requested files have been provided, «a total of 63 in 2024, and 27 of them were rejected electronically, they wouldn’t have much interest.»