TRANSPARENCY AS A MEANS OF EFFICIENCY AND PARTICIPATION. MUNICIPALITY OF MILAN AND FONDAZIONE ETICA TOGETHER TO IMPROVE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CITIZENS, BUSINESSES AND THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Milan, January 2019 – Fondazione Etica and Department of Participation, Active Citizenship and Open Data together to enhance the accountability of the Municipality of Milan, i.e. the administration's ability to report its activities to citizens.
A collaboration agreement that will allow the municipal administration to join the network of municipalities being studied by Fondazione Etica thanks to the project "The rating of public administrations": through a methodology called "Public Rating", which uses approximately 60 indicators, divided into six macro-areas (budget, governance, services, tenders, personnel management, environmental impact) the foundation monitors the effective application of the legal obligations of the Transparency decree 33/2013 by local administrations, measures l efficiency of the latter and translates the amount of information into simple language that is easy for citizens to understand.
"The purpose of this collaboration - says the councilor Lorenzo Lipparini (Participation, Active citizenship and open data) - is to transform a legal fulfillment into an opportunity for dialogue between the Municipality and citizens, who can thus understand how and where the public money, what is the state of health of the municipality and become a truly active subject in the relationship with the Public Administration. At the same time we will collaborate with Fondazione Etica for the further development of a methodology that is already effective but in constant and necessary updating".
The collaboration with the Municipality of Milan - comments Paola Caporossi (co-founder of the foundation) - is a sign of great value for all the Municipalities: the most modern and performing Municipality in Italy is not satisfied with the results achieved and is open to external evaluation and independent of its stakeholders (citizens, entrepreneurs, associations) for a constructive comparison on whether and what to improve in the performance of one's own administrative machine. How are real estate assets managed, how do online services work, what are the payment times for suppliers, etc., ? By answering these questions in a comparative key with other Municipalities, the Public Rating will serve as a tool for bringing administrators and administered people closer together, highlighting the points of possible improvement for the former and providing the latter with information tools for constructive participation and capable of impacting .
The Public Rating will also serve the Municipality of Milan to attract investments from institutional funds, convinced by the good performance, as well as to gain further accreditation on international scenarios: the World Bank, in fact, follows the use of the Public Rating by the Municipality of Milan as an example of social accountability. Finally, the project also sees the support of Fondazione Cariplo”.
