The Mexican commitments made in its Open Government Partnership action plan promise a range of information disclosures about government services, release of databases and creation of online windows for commercial and corporate transactions, among other things.
Mexico is one of the founding members of the partnership, officially kicked off in New York City Sept. 20. (See FreedomInfo.org overview.) The 46 countries joining the effort agree to write action plans containing their commitments and the first eight released theirs on Sept. 20.
The plan also stresses “development of the citizen support website, (www.gob.mx) so that it becomes an interactive tool of information exchange and execution of personalized procedures between the Government and its citizens.”
The government said it will “strive to promote the integration of processes related to digital services and the use of common platforms and information systems in order to foster the use of raw databases by citizens.”
The plan also states: “With this challenge, the Mexican Government will have a new generation of digital public assets based on reliable information centers related to the rights and basic needs of citizens, such as identity, property and health registries.”
The Mexican Government “will update and strengthen the procedures through which Federal branches must identify and publish said data,” according to the plan, which goes on to stress more budget transparency and how to achieve it by improving training and developing a better bidding system.
Other commitments concern the sectors of security, telecommunications and fossil fuels. The plan states:
Concerning Security, information regarding felonies committed will be increased through the development of tools that allow the export of information so that each citizen can access it and make his or her own analysis. In addition, the criteria for the distribution of funds destined for public safety to States and the Federal District will be published requiring reports to be sent by States to the Executive Secretary of the National Security System. These reports will be disclosed.
In the telecommunications sector, transparency criteria will be determined in accordance with international parameters and accordingly, the rate of compliance by telecommunication service providers will be published since this is a subject of great interest to our citizens.
Regarding fossil fuels, geological and geophysical information will be published in accordance with international transparency parameters so that projects may be publicly scrutinized.
More transparency in the education sector is also pledged.
To increase corporate accountability, the Mexican plan envisions a “Business Integrity Workshop.”
Also, “In concert with civil society organizations, the number of companies that disclose the structure of their corporate governance, their balance sheets and their eco-friendliness will be increased.”
“The Mexican Government will continue to foster the creation and implementation of self-regulatory mechanisms in order to increase corporate integrity and accountability practices amongst the private sector. With this in mind, a mechanism will be developed which will permit the recognition and evaluation of businesses that have designed and implemented anti-corruption and public contract process fulfillment programs,” the plan states.
The last item indicates an intention to have public consultations.
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