The Office to Combat Corruption of the Guadalajara Municipality invited NGO CCRC to present relevant aspects of the citizen participation mechanism called Social Witness.
Last Tuesday, May 21, 2013, the Office to Combat Corruption of the Guadalajara Municipality, coordinated by Dr. José Sosa, had the pleasure of inviting the NGO Contraloría Ciudadana para la Rendición de Generales, AC, with the intention to present what were the achievements around the investigation called: The Social Witness: experience of incidence of civil society in public management, carried out during 2011.
Regarding citizen participation mechanisms, the Directors of CCRC NGOs, Sergio Rivera Sánchez and Ernesto Gómez Magaña, spoke of the importance of contributing, from organized citizenship, to the establishment of such necessary legal figures as the Social Witness. In that sense, they outlined a profile of the figure concerning the Social Witness, where the attributes and obligations that allow them to contribute to the public administration to face the great challenges that lately afflict them in such an acute and persistent way were pointed out, such as the case of the phenomenon of corruption.
And it is that, although significant achievements have been made from the work carried out in collaboration with the citizens and the government, it is also necessary that these efforts allow the development and implementation of citizen participation mechanisms in the spaces of the public administration in which they are most needed.
The Social Witness, for example, is a representative of civil society who participates as an observer, with the right to speak, in government procurement procedures. In this way, Mtro. Sergio Rivera pointed out that the figure of the Social Witness helps the development of better governance, since it favors citizen participation in the construction of a better government.
He added that this citizen participation mechanism is applied only in five states of the Mexican Republic and in the Federal Government. In this sense, he considered that the effort of organized citizens and governments should try to cover the spaces of public administration that are currently neglected and where there may be factors that allow the development of the evil of corruption.
On the other hand, he considered that the Social Witness is also a mechanism that allows the creation of new public information. In this sense, the convenience of the participation of the Social Witness in government procurement procedures is quite significant.
On his part, Lic. Ernesto Gómez Magaña recognized that this citizen participation mechanism has potential that, without a doubt, can be used immediately for the benefit of citizens and their governments. The Social Witness is a legal figure that can be implemented in different areas of the administration and not only during public tenders.
As noted above, the research represented by the publication called El Witness Social: Experience of civil society advocacy in public management, covers the experiences of a good part of the individuals and legal entities that participate as Social Witnesses in Mexico.
The presentation was attended by the President of the Institute of Transparency and Public Information of Jalisco, Jorge Gutiérrez Reynaga; the head of the Transparency and Access to Public Information Unit of the municipality of Guadalajara, Nancy Paola Flores Ramírez, among other experts on the subject. Likewise, Fernando Dablantes Camacho, who has made testimony as a Social Witness for 10 years, was present as commentators, as well as Bernardo Jaen Jiménez, who participates as a member of the municipal Transparency and Accountability Commission.