Strategies to increase compliance with National Transparency Law by increasing response rate of the ITA index

Access to information from public entities or other organizations that receive public funds is a citizen right in Colombia. This data also assists the National Government in tracking and monitoring decentralized operations and entities. However, ensuring that information is made public and accessible can be difficult especially in a decentralized context like Colombia’s. In 2014, the National Government passed the National Transparency Law which defines a set of transparency indicators (the ITA matrix) that must be made public, as well as which entities or subjects are obliged to comply with the reporting of these data. The Transparency Law requires the Inspector General’s Office (the PGN) to promote or enforce compliance with the National Transparency Law. Public sector entities and entities that contract with the state must complete the ITA matrix, which allows for calculation of a score on the ITA Index. The ITA matrix is used as a measure of compliance with the National Transparency Law and constitutes the main monitoring tool of the National Government.
Filling out this matrix is mandatory for all obliged subjects (public and private sector entities). Nevertheless, the response rate has been very low and thus leaves the PGN and the State with limited information on compliance with the National Transparency Law. As such, this study seeks to evaluate which communication strategies work best to improve obliged subjects’ participation in the ITA Matrix and consequently increase the response rate of the ITA and transparency of public information. Four treatments are implemented in a factorial design. Obliged subjects will be randomly assigned into one of seventeen treatment arms. In a pure control group, mandates to complete the ITA matrix are disseminated through 76 “sector heads” following the communication strategy used in 2019. The other arms share the information mandate directly with subjects (bureaucrats or contacts within the entities) and vary: (1) the repetition of requests for information; (2) access to trainings on how to complete the ITA Matrix; (3) acknowledgement of completion/non-completion of the past ITA; and (4) communication that responses could be audited. The treatments seek to identify which communication strategy increases completion and accuracy of the ITA matrix in accordance with the Transparency Law. These estimates will also provide information about the barriers to decentralized data collection.