Junts advocates refounding the administration to reduce bureaucracy and end the “time tax”

In the final stretch of the last Catalan legislature, the bureaucratic obstacles that affect both citizens and various economic sectors, especially the first sector, crept into the debates of the Parliament, with the example of farmers and ranchers as the most clamorous.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
05 May 2024 Sunday 16:22
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Junts advocates refounding the administration to reduce bureaucracy and end the “time tax”

In the final stretch of the last Catalan legislature, the bureaucratic obstacles that affect both citizens and various economic sectors, especially the first sector, crept into the debates of the Parliament, with the example of farmers and ranchers as the most clamorous. Junts has championed this in the institution and has opted to reduce administrative and bureaucratic procedures.

For after May 12, the training proposes a “refoundation and a profound reform of the administration”, with a change of model that involves “accompanying” both citizens and those who undertake projects instead of “suspicious” from the start, As in other countries in the European environment, the post-convergent candidate, Carles Puigdemont, has highlighted, who has spoken of ending “the time tax” that bureaucracy imposes today on both citizens and public servants. “We must simplify procedures, apply digitalization and end the time tax and the digital divide,” stressed the former president, who has called for a “cultural change”: “end distrust.”

In a press conference, in which, in addition to Puigdemont, Glòria Freixa and Salvador Vergés, who were already deputies and have addressed this issue in the Catalan Chamber, also participated, the party indicated that its idea is that there be a dual model that takes into account The digital divide is taken into account and procedures can be done both in person, especially for older people, and electronically. “We will unify procedures in a single portal, there will be an effective single window,” the former Catalan president has promised, which guarantees that every time there is a digital leap, no one will be left behind. “Don't be scared,” he said.

Likewise, JxCat is committed to “positive administrative silence”, so that waiting time does not slow down projects, and “self-responsible declarations”, with a subsequent inspection. “It is an emergency,” said Puigdemont, who wants the next legislature to be one of “bureaucratic transformation.”

“The good government that we propose begins with the administration,” said the former Catalan president, who added that “a profound refoundation of the administration has to be the nuclear mechanism of political functioning” in the coming years. Thus, he stated that it is important to “overcome the paralyzing web of absurd rules and regulations, often useless and sometimes inhibiting activity.” “There are successful experiences that tell us that it is possible. But we must listen to the sectors, the employers' associations and the public servants," said the independence leader, who has assured that "they are not afraid of the process, but rather of the paperwork."

Furthermore, the former Catalan president has pointed out that "with the minority that does not comply with the laws" and takes advantage of these mechanisms to defraud, "the administration has to be inflexible." “We cannot make everyone pay because of their fault and the controls have to be of much higher quality,” he prescribed. “There will be fraudsters who will have to be pursued,” he continued, saying that there cannot be “coffee for everyone” because some “abuse the model.” “This way we don't reward those who do well,” he stressed.

Vergés has summarized the reform that Junts wants to undertake in five points, which implies “a business mentality in the administration and that the steps and procedures are carried out in parallel and not in a chain, one after the other; proportionality and ”that the same requirements are not asked for large and small projects; positive administrative silence so that “if the administration does not respond in a timely manner that it is not at the expense of the administrator” – “it is a basic pillar”, the leader has said –; “self-responsible declarations”, in which it is stated that the regulations are known and the commitment to apply them is made explicit – “if they do not comply, the law will come after them”, Vergés pointed out–; and, fifthly, that there be a single window.

Freixa, in his speech, regretted that the administration does not listen to the sectors and that there is a “disconnection” between the institutions and the productive sectors and the citizens and has evoked the “national ambition and good management with which for many years Catalonia shone.” “He was an example for everyone,” she noted.