Additionally, the State of Mexico Institute for Transparency and Access to Public Information reports that municipalities that do provide required information on the Internet only partially fulfill the standards set out by law.EL UNIVERSAL reporters requested information in the urban municipalities of Tlalnepantla and Naucalpan, controlled by the National Action Party (PAN), Ecatepec and Nezahualcóyotl, governed by the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), and Huixquilucan and Chimalhuacán, controlled by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
While new regulations provide detailed steps local authorities must follow, the process varied widely in all municipalities.
Chimalhuacán and Ecatepec provided timely, complete responses to the petitions, while Huixquilucan did not respond to the inquiry at all.
The remaining three municipalities complied only partially.
Overall, the municipalities controlled by the PRD received the best marks. PAN-governed municipalities replied promptly, but with incomplete data.
One PRI municipality fulfilled all of the requirements, while the other did not respond.
The information requested was the salaries and benefits of the municipal president and other top officials. The petitions were placed on the same day, Oct. 25.
The law stipulates that municipalities have 10 days to reply.
Ecatepec responded first, via e-mail, with clear, concise information. Naucalpan followed, four days later - but the local officials´ benefits were excluded.
The response from Nezahualcóyotl arrived seven days after the request, and included complete information.
Tlalnepantla and Chimalhuacán sent the data 10 days later. Tlalnepantla´s e-mailed response referred the reporter to a web site, but the salaries and benefits of local officials were not available.
Officials from Huixquilucan argued they had 30 days to respond, not 10.
Ivett Tinoco García, a researcher at the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico, said municipalities and local governments have consistently been the last to comply with new transparency regulations. "Opacity is a way of governing and it is difficult to leave it behind," she said.
Luis Gustavo Parra Noriega, currently a federal deputy with the PAN, was a local lawmaker who pushed the transparency law that was approved by the state assembly in 2005. He said implementation of the bill in his state has been "irregular."
According to the state transparency institute, only 80 percent of petitions for information were fulfilled in the state from August 2005 to August 2006.
