Open Government in Tunisia: La Marsa, Sayada and Sfax by OECD

Author:OECD
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: governance
Publisher: OECD Publishing
Published: 2019-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

Table ‎3.2. Facebook fans on official municipal pages (11 August 2017)

La Marsa

7,021

Sayada

12,066

Sfax

19,598

The municipalities also use more traditional communication methods, such as banners, posters and loudspeakers, as well as briefings with the local media. The proactive approach in the area of transparency is limited to the publication of key documents (proceedings, statistical data, dates of meetings and, in the case of Sayada, monthly expenditures and revenues in open data format). Some open data is also published on the national portal www.collectiviteslocales.gov.tn;

While a culture of open government has been developing since 2011, citizens still find the public administration reluctant to provide access to information. The administration is sometimes guilty of lengthy delays in supplying information, of only publishing certain parts, or refusing to provide data altogether. A case in point was La Marsa, where civil society demanded to see contracts and studies related to the restoration of a bridge in the city. Professional secrecy and liability in cases of unauthorised disclosure may also explain why public officials choose not to release information (Nicolás Adán, J.-E., Ben Hassen, S. and Doggui, 2014). As a result, civil society or citizens are sometimes forced to turn to the judicial system – which in any case involves protracted proceedings and judgements that are not always enforced. Participation in meetings has been cited as one of the most effective means of accessing information about municipal projects under way, such as planning for a central town square.

Since 24 March 2017, municipalities have been obliged to implement the new law on the right to access to information, which replaced the decree law on access to administrative documents. Although the three municipalities have appointed an official with responsibility for access to information, as required by law, the municipalities are finding it difficult to put the new obligations into practice. Following visits in February and March 2017, it emerged that expertise related to the law and the understanding of its implications remain basic, despite some training initiatives conducted in partnership with the OECD. Furthermore, aside from the capacities of the official responsible for access to information (see the section on human resources), the municipalities do not have an appropriate management system for data and archives. Efforts to coordinate the various municipal services should also be improved to foster access to information, particularly in the larger municipalities, such as Sfax. The difficulties do not simply lie in exchanging information between the different services; municipal councillors also report problems in accessing information in Sfax and La Marsa. Furthermore, research carried out by the Al Bawsala association, as part of the Marsad Baladia project, reveals that the municipalities are not yet in compliance with the new legal framework. The association has drawn up an index for transparency based, among other factors, on the proactive publication of information on the municipality website, and on the rate of response for the information requested by the association (see Table ‎3.3).

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