The city councils of Catalonia continue to lead the digital transformation in the State

The Catalan model of digital administration based on the use of shared services, collaboration between different public entities and support in change management, leads the digital transformation of the State's city councils. This is shown once again this year the comparative report on the adoption of digital administration and compliance with the Transparency Law based on open data carried out annually by the AOC.

Catalonia doubles the rest of Spain in the use of digital procedures

Like the previous year, the city councils of Catalonia have registered in 2023 a use of digital services that almost doubles that of city councils in the rest of the StateThe level of use of authentication services, with respect to the optimal value, reaches 58% for Catalan city councils, compared to 31% of the national average.

Besides, all Catalan city councils, regardless of their size, continue to register at least one digital procedure, a milestone that is not achieved in the rest of Spain, especially in municipalities with fewer than 500 inhabitants. This difference can be explained by a wider range of digital services adapted to the needs of users, together with an active promotion of the available services and the simplification of digital procedures, which makes them more accessible and easy to use.

The difference in the implementation of the Transparency Law increases

In terms of transparency, Catalan city councils continue to stand out compared to the rest of Spain. The average score obtained by Catalan city councils in the evaluation carried out by the Autonomous University of Barcelona, through the Infoparticipa seal, is 48 points, compared to an average of 24 points for the rest of Spain. The difference, which was 78% in 2022, has grown to 101%.

This is partly due to the work of the Open Government Network, which offers advice, support, training and good practices to help local governments implement stronger transparency policies. Despite these advances, the challenge of improving compliance levels remains a priority for Catalan local governments.

The percentage of municipalities that use interoperability services is triple that of the rest of the State

The percentage of Catalan town councils that have used interoperability services has increased slightly, from 38% in 2022 to 41% in 2023. Town councils in the rest of the State have also improved in this area, with one increasing from 12% to 15%. However, The percentage of use of interoperability services in Catalonia is triple that of the rest of the State.

In terms of effective use, the difference is even more significant, although the values remain very low. In Catalonia the level of use with respect to the optimal value is 16%, compared to 8% in the rest of the State. This greater use translates into fewer requests for documents from citizens, avoiding travel and a better quality of services.

Catalan city councils, best in electronic procurement

This year's new indicators also show the leadership of Catalan city councils in the field of electronic procurement. 94% of tenders in Catalonia are carried out electronically, compared to 74% in the rest of the State. In addition, Catalan city councils show a prominent use of the contractor profile: 87% of town halls have used this tool in 2023, while in the rest of Spain, only 55% have done so.

It is worth noting that Catalan municipalities with more than 20.000 inhabitants have reached almost 100% of electronic procurement and use of the contracting profile. Smaller municipalities also show high levels but somewhat lower. These figures reinforce the consistency of the Catalan model in transparent and digital procurement processes, although it will be important to offer more support to small municipalities to consolidate these practices and ensure full adoption.

Methodology and sources of information

The study is based on the methodology of the Digital Maturity Index of local administrations and assesses the degree of digital transformation in three key areas: the digital rights of citizens, the activity of electronic administration services and the level of transparency. In the first two areas, the study uses the activity data of the digital services of the AOC and the data published by the AGE, while in the field of transparency it uses the data from the Infoparticipa label.

The sources of information we used are the following:

Authentications: VALID (AOC) and Cl@ve (AGE) data
Interoperability: Via Oberta (AOC) data and Data Intermediation Platform (AGE)
Contracting: data from the Contractor Profile (AOC) and the Public Sector Contracting Platform (AGE)
Transparency: Infoparticipa seal.

The calculation methodology was as follows:

Methodology for calculating digital service coverage
- The coverage of digital administration services is the percentage of councils that have performed at least one authentication with VÀLid (in Catalonia) or Cl@ve (in the rest of the state)
- The coverage of interoperability services is the percentage of municipalities that have carried out at least one consultation on Via Oberta (in Catalonia) or PID (in the rest of the state)
- The coverage of inter-administrative processing services is the percentage of councils that have made at least one transmission through EACAT (in Catalonia) or SIR (in the rest of the state)
Methodology for calculating the use of digital services
- The degree of use of electronic administration services by citizens is the ratio of authentications per inhabitant with respect to the value considered optimal (authentications per inhabitant of the town hall located in the 90th percentile)
- The degree of use of interoperability services by the city council is the ratio of consultations per inhabitant with respect to the value considered optimal (consultations per inhabitant of the city council located in the 90th percentile)
- The percentage of municipalities that publish on the contractor's profile is the number of municipalities that have made at least one publication compared to the total.
- The percentage of electronic tenders is the number of tenders that have been processed by electronic means with respect to the total tenders processed.
Methodology for compliance with the Transparency Law
- The degree of compliance with the transparency law is calculated using the score obtained in the Infoparticipa seal, which ranges from 0 to 100.

From the AOC we would like to be able to extend these studies to other areas of digital administration, but the open data available at the AGE is limited.

Note: We thank the team at the Public Communication Laboratory of the Autonomous University of Barcelona for access to the open data of the Infoparticipa study at the state level.