The Municipal Modernization Plan of the Cabildo distributes two million euros this year among all the municipalities of Tenerife. The island councilor for the Presidency, Finance and Modernization highlights that “support for all municipalities is consolidated, but with special attention to those with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants.” The initiative covers “such important areas” as cybersecurity, electronic administration, transparency, accessibility or the promotion of digital citizenship. There are a total of 22 projects, 15 of them new and the rest a continuation of those already started before, whose financing is increased by 29% compared to 2021.
Berta Pérez explains that “small town halls have less management capacity.” In addition, the counselor highlights that the 2022 Modernization Plan is the first to be processed in accordance with the Regulation of Comprehensive Assistance to Municipalities, which the Cabildo approved last year, The document is being a reference for the municipalities in various areas referred to to the management of public services provided to citizens. The consistories have until next March 21 to request their adhesion to the different projects.
Electronic administration.
Among the most outstanding designs are those aimed at improving the electronic administration of municipalities, such as the hosting of electronic offices and internet portals and the financing of electronic administration platforms. In addition, as explained by the insular director of Modernization, Daniel González, one of the strategic axes of the Plan is the improvement of the digital skills of citizens for the proper use of electronic administration. «Although they already use electronic media in a high percentage when relating to the council, more than 70% monthly average, we want to advance in the development of digital skills so that anyone can use these media». González insists that “it is about not leaving anyone behind in the process of moving towards a more digital society.” To do this, a new integrated project is going to be developed in the Insular Network of Digital Inclusion Centers (RICID)”.
“We consolidated the Modernization Plan with 22 projects and 29% more financing”
Cybersecurity.
The cyber security is another of the objectives of the 2022 Municipal Modernization Plan. This area is to be given a significant boost. «During last year we executed the implementation of the project in the five smaller municipalities and during this year another twelve will be incorporated, with which a cybersecurity service will be provided to all municipalities with less than 20,000 inhabitants, a total of 17» , indicates Berta Pérez, who adds that “in fact, this is the project that within the plan has the largest budget allocation with a total of 630,000 euros.” The cybersecurity project of the Cabildo de Tenerife with the 31 municipalities of the Island is a good practice recommended by the National Cryptologic Center. Pérez recalls that with this state body “we have signed a collaboration agreement.” And she sentences: “It is a reference for other councils and councils in the country.”
Transparency.
Likewise, the insular director Daniel González refers to the objective of supporting improvements in transparency of the municipalities. To achieve this goal, the Cabildo offers hosting services for transparency portals and support for the publication of open data. “This will allow knowing those of the municipalities in reusable formats and that, therefore, can be used by society to create value.” The insular director of Modernization recalls that the Cabildo de Tenerife has revalidated the outstanding in the last transparency evaluation published, relative to 2020. In addition, the 37 entities dependent on the Insular Corporation have obtained a remarkably high average.
Other projects.
The rest of the projects that the 2022 Municipal Modernization Plan will develop are linked to a backup service for contingencies, which will allow municipalities to have a copy of their computer systems at the Cabildo facilities; support for local corporations to comply with the regulations on accessibility of internet portals and mobile applications that guarantee access to people with disabilities or with some difficulty, as well as, finally, the Protection Delegate service Data and advice and training in this area.
centralized internet.
Improving information and communication technology infrastructures is another objective. It will be deployed, among other resources, through centralized internet access. To this must be added the opening to the so-called Sara network, a communication node for public administrations, through the Cabildo with the intention of improving efficiency and security. Likewise, we must add the hosting of municipal equipment in the D-Alix system, which meets the highest security and availability standards, or the virtualization of servers and desktops. This relieves the municipalities of a large volume of work and that allows them to have technologies and methodologies that they could not implement in any other way.
Finally, the connection of the electronic headquarters of the consistories to the insular fiber optic ring will be facilitated, which will allow them to have greater security and faster communications with citizens.
