08/25/10 – The transparency of local governments in the thirteen largest municipalities located in the state of Jalisco was evaluated by the Citizens for Transparent Municipalities (Ciudadanos por Municipios Transparentes – CIMTRA) organization. The organization presented their conclusion this past Tuesday and gave passing results to only four of the thirteen states; those four are Tamazula, Tlajomulco de Zuñiga, Zapopan, and Zapotlanejo.
Two major cities, Guadalajara and Tlaquepaque, saw their ratings drop significantly since last year. Guadalajara saw a loss of 25.9 points, from 57.7 to 31.8; Tlaquepaque dropped 26.4 points, from 68.4 to 42.2. José Bautista Farías, a professor from the university ITESO in Guadalajara, suggested that recent change of personnel due to new government administrations taking over may have played a part in the decrease of ratings, though he was quick to point out that it was not one of the biggest factors.
As for the rest of the municipalities with poor results, Farías suggested that local administrations work with Institute for Transparency and Public Information of the State of Jalisco (Instituto de Transparencia e Información Pública del Estado de Jalisco) to improve their webpages.
Originally, the mayor of Guadalajara, Jorge Aristóteles Sandoval Díaz, defended his municipality by stating that they respond to “99%” of all requests for transparency. Diaz claims that when CIMTRA performed the investigation they used an older version of their current webpage. He also stated that improvements are made every day to ensure smooth operations; Diaz reinforced his his claims by saying that transparency is a priority for his administration.
However, after Díaz analyzed and interpreted the study done by CIMTRA, he stated that he was unaware of how his faculty dealt poorly with transparency requests and that he is “truly sorry” that his staff is not fulfilling their responsibility. He also said that he gave an “ultimatum” to his staff by giving them one week to reorganize before he would begin to fire those who have not performed.
Sources:
Milenio. “Responde Guadalajara 99% de solicitudes de transparencia.” Milenio. 25 August, 2010.
