The Open Government and Transparency portal has a specific module for Catalan councils that facilitates the automatic activation of different economic management indicators with the aim that, in a graphical, understandable and accessible format, it is easier for citizens to consult 'information linked to the economic management of a body.
The activation of the module by the councils is very simple as you only need to indicate "YES" in the menu that is offered. In addition, it is possible to activate the module both on the "home" of the transparency portal and on the access screen of the "Economic Management" family. Once activated, the new module makes it easier to view a series of indicators on the portal.
The work methodology has been to work with the available data to show comparable data between the different municipalities and to give information about each municipality in the most reliable way possible, while facilitating the visualization of data from the last 5 years, as well as being able to know their impact per inhabitant/year, or see the evolution with respect to the county, provincial and whole of Catalonia (as long as complete data is available).
The model facilitates the visualization of the last 5 years, to know its impact per inhabitant/year, or to see the evolution with respect to the county, provincial and whole of Catalonia.
The data, - in an open and reusable format, - have been obtained from different supra-municipal sources that are public on the different open data portals of the entities that have the Transparency and open data portal of the AOC. Specifically, they have been activated on the various recruitment portals
In addition, and in order to be able to show the impact at the inhabitant level and territorialize them, they have been combined with the population register data available in MUNICAT, building new sets of aggregated data that make it easier for us to generate the graphics and published data associated with information at the inhabitant level and according to territory. These datasets with aggregated data and territorialized averages are also public on the corresponding open data portals.
Economic indicators available
The set of economic indicators available in the module as well as their data source are described below:
BUDGET: How much does my council spend?
- Forecast data and initial appropriations of the City Council's budget with its local autonomous bodies (municipal companies are not included), with their evolution, according to the latest available data.
DEBT: How much does my council owe?
- The City Council's debt to financial institutions with its evolution, according to the latest available data.
INVESTMENTS: How much does my council invest?
- Amount of Chapter 6 (real investments) as well as Chapter 7 (capital transfers), of the total settlement of the City Council's budget with its local autonomous bodies (municipal companies are not included), with its evolution, according to the latest available data.
TAX BURDEN: What tax burden does my council have?
- Sum of revenue per chapter 1 and 2 (taxes), fees (articles 30, 31, 32, 33), special contributions (article 35) and urban planning fees (concept 396) of the City Council with its local autonomous bodies (municipal companies are not included), divided by the population (with its evolution, according to the latest available data).
CURRENT INCOME: How much money does my council have?
- These are the income that the municipality has to finance its regular activity, own income contributed by citizens (taxes, fees and public prices), property income, plus external income contributed mainly by the central or regional administration. The total amount of current income must at least cover current expenses and repayments.
- It includes chapters 1,2,4,5 of the budget settlement in its entirety. Also chapter 3 where special contributions and urban quotas and income from urbanization activities are exempted.
- The data include the rights recognized income from the liquidation of the entity's consolidated budget with its local autonomous bodies (excluding public companies), with its evolution according to the latest available data.
CURRENT EXPENSES AND AMORTIZATION: How much money does my council need to operate?
- These are the resources that the city council dedicates to its regular operation.
- It includes personnel expenses, current contracts, interest on loans and repayment thereof, contributions for other current expenses to third parties such as individuals, public or private entities (via grants and subsidies), autonomous bodies, municipal companies, and other miscellaneous expenses.
- It includes chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 and 9 of the budget settlement in its entirety. Therefore, current expenses plus loan repayments from the City Council's budget with its local autonomous bodies (municipal companies are not included).
- In order to define the current expenses for the year, the total amount of the current expenses should be reduced by the recognized obligations financed with the cash balance of the previous year, as this information is not available this adjustment has not been made .
SAVING CAPACITY FOR THE YEAR: Is my council solvent?
- It is understood as the difference between current income and current expenditure after paying the loans (repayments) of the City Council's budget with its local autonomous bodies (municipal companies are not included).
- A positive savings for the year indicates investment capacity, capacity to borrow and in short: solvency.
- For the calculation of the net savings for the exercise established in art. 53 of the revised text of the Local Finance Regulatory Law RD 2/2004, it is necessary to know the theoretical annual amortization. The lack of this information for our calculation, involves using the amounts from chapter 3 (interest) and 9 (amortization), and defining the concept of "savings capacity for the year" as the difference between all current income and expenses current once the repayments of the loans have been paid.
The source of data to work on all these indicators is mainly the Secretariat of Local Governments and Relations with Aran. Specifically, it has been based on the following sets of supra-municipal and public data (which are published on the various transparency portals of each entity):
- Budgets by programs
- Budgets for expenses and income
- Liquidation of the budget by detailed programs
- Settlement of the budget for expenses and income
Regarding the "Indebtedness" data set, the source has been the Ministry of Finance (MINHAP which publishes the living debt of the municipalities on an ongoing basis at:
This information, which is downloaded and converted to open data format prior to publication on the transparency portals, is the basis of the data source for the item: debt.
From these sets of data we have made the relevant calculations for the different indicators discussed (following the different methodological descriptions above), and in order to show the impact at the inhabitant level and territorialize them, they have been combined with the data from register of inhabitants available in MUNICAT.
All in all, we have built new sets of open (aggregated) data, which make it easier for us to generate graphics and published data associated with information at the level of inhabitant and according to territory. These datasets with aggregated data and territorialized averages are also public on the corresponding open data portals. Specifically:
1.- Calculation of the economic summary of data for an entity (resource that collects the set of economic data of the entity with calculation of its impact linked to the population):
http://dadesobertes.seu-e.cat/csv/resum-indicadors-economics-ens.csv
2.- Calculation of the summary of economic indicators aggregated by territory, (resource that collects the calculation of the summary of economic indicators aggregated by territory, based on the information from the budget and debt data sets. From these sets of data, the population data has been incorporated for each entity and the territorial vision has been worked on to offer regional, provincial and Catalan comparisons):
http://dadesobertes.seu-e.cat/csv/resum-indicadors-economics-agregats-per-territoris.csv
In these sets of data, work has been done to incorporate for each entity its population data (according to the last data published in Municat), as well as with the territorialization of the data to be able to offer regional, provincial and Catalan comparisons .
All these supra-municipal and public data sets can be found on the different open data portals of each entity. You also have the possibility to download the global data set at the following link: http://dadesobertes.seu-e.cat/
Description of views:
HIGHLIGHT: a box shows a summary of the data in absolute value and per inhabitant, and the difference compared to the previous year.
GRAPHIC INFORMATION: a graph shows the overall evolution of the indicator over the last 5 years, as well as a comparison in terms of territorialized inhabitants (county, province, Catalonia). It should be noted that in the event that data grouped by the whole of a territory is not available, the territorialized comparison includes the information up to the last available year. At the same time, the entities (in internal management mode) can also choose not to show averages for any of the indicators.
Finally, it should be noted that from the editor of the transparency portal of each entity there is a space "Observations on the indicators" where each entity can make assessments, comments, document publications or links to clarify or provide more information to this section, with the premise of making it as close to citizens as possible.