Right to Information in Mexico : the First Eight Years

1. Right to Information in Mexico : the First Eight Years Juan Pablo Guerrero A. April 2010 Public Sector and Governance Courses, PREM-WB

2. Contents of presentation • Adoption of a RTI Law in Mexico • How does RTI work at the Federal Level • Who benefits? • How & where can it make a difference • Right to know, accountability and the institutional environment • RTI & people empowerment: is there a chance?

3. Adoption of RTI: a unique context • 70 year long one-party rule system came to an end in 2000 • Open government: a campaign commitment of the challenger/winner (Vicente Fox) • Engagement of civil society in legislative process: 3 initiatives (Left, Executive, Oaxaca Group) and public debate • Key high officials were unaware (Finance; Justice Dept)

4. The Mexican Federal Experience on RTI (2002-2003) • Fundamental right established in the Constitution; public information is free • RTI applies to all branches of Federal Government (no exclusions) • Exemptions are clearly established and frequently require harm test

5. The Mexican Federal Experience on RTI • Time framework for response and complaints is clearly established • Complaints to independent Commission with binding decision powers (IFAI) • Complaints can challenge administrative silence and other ways of not providing information

6. Institutional Settings: the Federal Institute for Access to Public Information (IFAI) • Requesters have 15 days to complain to IFAI (administrative appeal); rulings are mandatory for government agencies • IFAI has investigative powers and calls for public hearings when necessary • IFAI is obliged to help the applicant (remedy deficient complaints)

7. Role of the Information Commission: Administrative Court of Appeals • IFAI manages and monitors the electronic system for requests and appeals • IFAI can verify classified information at any time • IFAI can initiate a process of administrative responsibility against violators(BUT follow-up & verdict is Comptroller Dept’s task)

8. Information technology at the core of RTI in Mexico • IT has been widely utilized to support RTI • Proactive information, requests, responses, complaints and search tool on the Web (infomex, portal transparencia, zoom)

9. 1. Main results: Trust & efficiency • Anyone, anytime, anywhere, can request information via the internet • Anonymity: officials focus on whether the information is public or not; concerns about who is requesting and why are eliminated • Reduced risk of harassment or retaliation, results in less than 4 months

10. 2. Main result: Trust & Efficiency • Decentralization of demand (considering unreliable postal service & highly centralized Federal Government) • Accessibility is enhanced by publicizing information already released through the Internet • The Commission can better supervise and enforce ATI

11. Costs of Right to Information IFAI’s  yearly average budget since 2003: US $ 25 million Federal Executive’s yearly average budget : US $ 250 billion One dollar of IFAI’s budget represents 10 thousand of the Federal Budget One dollar to support RTI can shed light on 10 thousand dollars expended at the Executive Branch If one takes into account human resources for management of the RTI systems in all 240 agencies (close to 2 million public servants). Total annual spending would be US $60 million for RTI management: i.e. $2.4 dollars for transparency costs to follow the information on about US $10000 of Federal Public Administration budget.

12. Statistics (June 2003-Dec 2009) • 490,000 requests (but 181,000 users in total) • 25,000 complaints to the IFAI • Profile of requester: not an average citizen young metropolitan male with high income (63% male; 54% in Mexico State-DF; 50% between 20 – 34 old; 31% academia; 18% business; 12% bureaucracy; 9% media) • High concentration: 9,000 users account for 53% of total requests; 2,000 account for 38 % of total requests

13. 1. Some highlights: RTI revealing secrets • Public information on military procurement • Disclosure of emails from Interior Department and Executive Office • Disclosure of public trust funds (previously classified as banking secret) • Disclosure of files related to investigations into crimes of the “dirty war” (70’s)

14. 2. Highlights: RTI making a difference • List of guests & expenses of Presidential Birthday party • Access to poverty alleviation subsidies by local community • Personal access to medical files • Disclosure of results of personnel examinations for civil services posts

15. RTI: the meaning for accountability • Inequality of the law: opacity in the income side of the budget (subsidies are public; tax privileges are not) • Other state or public actors are left behind: legislative, judicial, political parties, labor unions • Risk of capture of the IFAI: how to keep the Commission independent & accountable?

16. 2. RTI and Accountability • Quality and relevance of information provided is not always verified (complying/lying) • Record keeping failure: frequent “inexistence” of documents in a chaotic archive environment • Limits of enforcement and open insubordination of some agencies, with the Comptroller’s Dept. complicity

17. Missing links in Mexico • Independent and powerful anti-corruption agency is missing • No protection for claimants/accusers/whistler blowers • Lack of credible regulation of the conflict of interest • Questionable efficiency/honesty of Judiciary branch • Unreliability/opacity of public registries (land, companies)

18. RTI: too much expected • Where institutional failures of accountability: RTI cannot resolve, by itself, problems like corruption or impunity • But how much can it do for an individual, for a social group, for a community?

19. Is it possible to engage low income and marginalized citizens on RTI ? • IFAI-Comunidades Project: supported by Hewlett Foundation ($750,000USD, 2005-07) • It was accompanied by an independent impact evaluation conducted by researchers at Mexico's National Autonomous University (UNAM)

20. IFAI-COMUNIDADES PROJECT • Objective: find effective ways to raise awareness of the RTI in marginalized communities • The project operated in 9 states, in 116 communities, and in collaboration with 20 different local grassroots organizations • Participants were 40% indigenous, 60% women, and 70% live on less than US $2/day

21. Obstacles for the RTI in poor communities (1) • Geographical barriers, lack of infrastructure and technological gap • Lack of knowledge about government (functions, administrative structure, mandates, etc.) • Low social consciousness and civic participation culture • High level of mistrust towards any authority

22. Obstacles for the RTI in poor communities (2) • Government promotion strategies, tools and materials for RTI inappropriate for specific social target • Complex mechanisms to request information • Government responses fragmented & provided via documents with highly technical contents and specifications • Long wait to get, gather and interpret information and make any needed responses

23. Strategies to overcome the obstacles IFAI established a partnership with legitimate intermediaries that: • Use the RTI as a new tool to question authorities and request government information • Enhance the potential impact of their social work • Inspire acceptance and eventually confidence within the poor communities • Become a reliable local mentor in the process of exerting the RTI in the longer term

24. Strategies for RTI awareness Key factors: • Strategic involvement of CSOs in the dissemination of the RTI • Trust the community members placed in the organizations, with high level of recognition and solid networks within those communities • Clear advocacy strategies directed at specific groups, linked to the defense of basic rights or attention to community needs, in order to achieve the assimilation of the complex RTI

25. Role of Government counterpart • IFAI played major role in mentoring and training the organizations on how to express the requests in technical terms and to analyze or translate the agencies responses into meaningful terms • Therefore, prior knowledge of the RTI was not essential for success: lack of experience was compensated by training provided by IFAI and learning processes involved

26. Success stories, Ifai-Comunidades • Former gang-members and other at-risk teenagers requested the operating rules of a federal "Safe Schools Program”; they learned that there were no formal rules. As a result, the program has been suspended while rules are developed - with the input of students. • Poor women in the state of Veracruz learned that their names are on the lists of beneficiaries for health and housing programs - benefits they have never received. They also identified men on the list of beneficiaries for Pap smears and mammograms. These women are now pressing for the benefits they are entitled to.

27. Success stories, Ifai-Comunidades • A poor community in the state of Mexico used the law to halt a federal construction project on their land - by proving there was no environmental impact study, as required by law. • Federal prisoners - the majority of whom are too poor to have a lawyer and are behind bars for petty offenses, used the law to gain access to their personal files. They were initially denied the information so they appealed, and in a precedent setting ruling, they won the right to information for all prisoners. Once they exercised that right, 36% of them walked free.

28. Results: communities used RTI… • To stop abuse • To defend other basic rights • To engage in local development • To secure access to public services and benefits they are entitled to Source: External evaluation, FCPS-UNAM

29. Results, IFAI-Comunidades • 90 % reported that exercising RTI helped them resolve community problems • 80 % affirmed they would continue to exercise their RTI after the project was finished • 94% identified a useful application of the RTI in their personal, family, or community context Source: External evaluation, FCPS-UNAM

30. Benefits in organizations • They followed-up on requesting information and made use of it • They assumed the RTI as a tool to strengthen their work & activities • They have increased their institutional advocacy abilities and strategic support to the communities • They have improved their ability to supervise the Federal Government and their influence on policies that affect their communities Source: External evaluation, FCPS-UNAM

31. Lessons • Government information is difficult for civil society to get and to use; but it is strategic for the construction of citizenship • RTI acquires meaning and usefulness when it becomes a practical tool for preserving basic rights and addressing specific social needs • Poor communities can be empowered by the assimilation and use of the RTI; with useful information they can get involved in the public arena, engage in their development and improve their own environment

32. Contact information: Juan Pablo Guerrero Program Manager Mentoring Government for Budget Transparency and Participation Program International Budget Partnership guerrero@cbpp.org