We often hear about "transparency" in public administration but what exactly is it about? What are the advantages of an administration of this type for the citizens? On the occasion of the "Transparency Day" we spoke about it with the Head of Corruption Prevention and Transparency of INGV, Stefano Salvi, who gave us an overview of the situation also in the light of the possibilities for improvement, for a PA that is always closest to the citizen.
Today we hear more and more often about transparency in public administration. What are we referring to?
The tendency to make the work of the Public Administration increasingly transparent has developed slowly since the post-war period, with a series of minor regulations, then with the regulations on access to administrative documents (Law 241 of 1990), up to the legislative decree 33 of 2013 which codifies in a timely manner for all public administrations specific obligations to publish online a large variety of information. According to Raffaele Cantone, former President of the National Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC), today the PA must become a "Glass House", such that everything inside is constantly visible and available to the citizen. Cantone took the metaphor from a speech by Filippo Turati. It was 1908 and Turati stated in the Chamber of Deputies, with incredible foresight for the times, that "Where a superior public interest does not impose a momentary secret, the house of administration should be made of glass”. As already in Turati's vision, also in Cantone's vision, Transparency has the aim of protecting citizens' rights, preventing a distorted use of public affairs and promoting widespread forms of control over the activities of the institutions and the use of public resources. Today it can be said that the house has truly become glass: by using access to the documents or web pages of the Transparent Administration, the citizen has almost total accessibility to data and documents held by the Public Administration.
What is the role of new technologies in this process of reducing the distances between citizens and public institutions?
The Internet has the potential to bridge the distance between citizens and institutions, making much information usable immediately and is the main tool through which the legislator has intended to achieve greater levels of transparency. The Internet sites of all public administration entities and publicly-owned companies have become the main place to respond to citizens' information needs. By opening the "Transparent Administration" page, citizens have a standardized index at their disposal which guides them in accessing a vast number of information concerning the work of the institution and its employees. In the event that the required information has not been published, the ANAC, but also the citizen, can request publication, under penalty of the adoption of disciplinary measures for those who do not fulfill the obligation.
What are the benefits of adopting an increasingly transparent approach for citizens?
Well, the "House of Glass" was conceived by Turati, and then recalled over the years, in order not to distance the public administration from the citizen, favoring reciprocal communication processes, and improving public control over the work of the institutions. Before Legislative Decree 33/2013, information was made available only upon request and there were often difficulties in accessing information due to resistance from the administrations. The resistances were often due to difficulties in managing the requests, in some cases they were instead due to intolerance towards the need for citizens to control their own actions, and other times they were due to the existence of an illegitimate private interest of a employee in the management of public affairs (corruption). It is therefore important to underline that today, free access to documents concerning the management of public affairs and the political-institutional choices made by the administrations allows for easier identification of any incorrect behavior on the part of the civil servant. For this reason, transparency was indicated in Law 190 of 2012 (Severino or Anti-corruption Law) as one of the fundamental measures to prevent corruption.
And how is INGV positioned?
As far as our Institute is concerned, I can say that we are among the most virtuous entities in terms of transparency. We also publish certain information online that is not required by law. Furthermore, the same decree 33/2013 requires entities to identify and make accessible further information, even if not present in the list provided. We are virtuous in this sense but we must be aware that we can always do more.
Why a transparency day at INGV? What was talked about?
Transparency day is itself a legal obligation. Events of this kind are a way for the public administration to discuss and communicate, not only internally but also with external stakeholders, first of all citizens. During the day, through presentations on various topics followed by discussions open to the public, the administration must understand the needs of employees and stakeholders in relation to, for example, greater transparency, but also the quality and completeness of services to citizens. I think that the definition "Transparency Day" is an understatement, since transparency is not the only issue addressed. In fact, during the meeting discussions were also made on the prevention of corruption and conflict of interest in the public administration. In the Severino law, the concept of corruption was extended to include bad management, i.e. situations in which the public employee fails in his duties and distorts the management of public affairs in order to achieve a private advantage. The undersigned and the INGV administration work together to develop prevention measures that reduce the likelihood of corruption and mismanagement occurring: these days represent precious moments for discussion on these issues.
What can be done with a view to improvement?
To date, one of the weak points in the application of the law on transparency is the fact that for a citizen unfamiliar with the mechanisms of the PA, it is not always immediate to find specific information of interest to him in the large number of web pages on the INGV portal - Transparent administration. A useful improvement could be the creation of a parallel index containing keywords relating to the content of documents rather than their type or administrative classification. Alternatively, it could be sufficient to provide a semantic search service, using specific web services. Another important topic concerns the simplification of the language, which is often too technical and specialized, while to make the right of access and the transparency of the administrative activity substantial, it is necessary to make the information and the methods for using it understandable.