The Law on Transparency, Access to Information and Good Governance (in Catalan) regulates and guarantees the transparency of public activity and citizens’ right to access public information and documentation.
The law also creates a transparency portal, a record of interest groups and the Committee for the Guarantee of the Right of Access to Public Information (GAIP); regulates positive administrative silence and the exercise of the right to access information from the age of 16; sets a month as the deadline for resolving requests; and establishes a system of guarantees and complaints and a system of penalties (which includes, for example, fines of up to 12,000 euros and the dismissal of senior members of staff for very serious infractions). It also gives the Síndic de Greuges (Catalan Ombudsman), the Public Audit Office of Catalonia and the Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia the power to oversee compliance with the obligations and rights established by this law.
The initiative is applicable to the Government of Catalonia, local authorities, the Parliament of Catalonia and statutory bodies, universities, interest groups, the individuals and legal entities that provide public services or receive public funds, political parties, trade unions, business organisations and the private bodies that receive subsidies. Resolution PRE/398/2015, (in Spanish), enacted on 3 March 2015, designates the departmental body assigned as the information unit on matters of transparency and public information in the Catalan Government Ministry of the Presidency.
We in the Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia contributed to the proposed law on transparency, access to public information and good governance through interventions in the Seat 136(in catalan) space and a series of recommendations and suggestions made to Parliament. See the document detailing the Anti-Fraud Office's contributions (in Catalan)
The Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia has also drawn up a document detailing comments and views on the implementation of the existing rules and regulations on transparency in Catalonia and the connection between them and central government rules and regulations. See the comments made by the Anti-Fraud Office on the implementation of the Law on Transparency (in Catalan)
In addition, the Catalan Association of Municipalities (ACM) and the Federation of Municipalities of Catalonia (FMC) have published the Guide on Implementing the Law on Transparency in Local Authorities(in Catalan), drawn up by the Professor of Constitutional Law Rafael Jiménez Asensio.
