By Wendy Anders

Results of the second study on “public transparency” in which 206 of Costa Rica’s governmental agencies’ websites were scrutinized were made public today.

Progress was found to be slow.

The Municipality of Palmares was the only agency to score above 70 (out of 100) on ‘citizen participation’, which means their website allows for a moderate level of citizen involvement.

The study, carried out by the national Ombudsman’s office together with the Center for Research and Training in Public Administration at the University of Costa Rica (CIPAC-UCR), examined how accesible information on the agencies’ public websites is to the public.

The goal of the Public Sector Transparency Index (ITSP), now in its second year, is to promote public transparency by allowing citizens to access information and data on governmental program plans and results, information about the agencies, their staff, hiring process, budgetting and accounting, as well as their services and procedures.

While some institutions scored high in some areas, when all the areas ranked in the index were averaged, all except the Palmares local government received scores under 70.

The Costa Rican Institute on Drugs (ICD, in Spanish) ranked 65/100, as did the National Archives. The judiciary ranked 10th with a score of 55/100 on transparency, and the remaining almost 200 agencies scored at or below 50/100.

Greater efforts are required by public institutions in order to allow for accountability, citizen participation, and access to open government data, stated the index authors.

Last year, only 105 institutions were evaluated as compared to this year’s 206. The Ombudsman’s office said they plan to continue to increase the number of agencies they evaluate.

Montserrat Solano Carboni, Costa Rica’s Ombudsman, said that the index, in addition to being a measurement, can also be used as a tool for agencies to improve in the areas where they can and should.