The bureaucratic gymkhana

There's so much news that it doesn't matter when you read it. For example, the annual report of the Ombudsman's Office. In the 2024 chapter, presented this Tuesday, Ombudsman Esther Giménez-Salinas concludes that the administration "is like a bureaucratic gymkhana," that citizens must submit the same documentation to different administrations because they don't speak to each other, that the language is unclear because "I don't understand some of the administration's information, which is intended to facilitate the internal management of processes and to simplify the lives and exercise of the rights of those governed."

Not many days ago, the Amparo Moliner I explained on this page the surreal experience of having to send the administration a quote for a job they've assigned to you and for which they've already told you how much they'll pay. But of course, if the system says you need to attach a quote, you must send it at all costs.

The complaint about bureaucracy is always the same: that it's slow and complicated, and this becomes even more serious with each passing year, because the ease and speed of the digital age are supposed to come to our aid. No Catalan government has come out ahead, even though autonomy gave us a golden opportunity to start from scratch and do things better. Administrative guarantees seem to be the best excuse to keep our distance from citizens. And at a time when the Catalan government can expand its powers in such important matters as the treasury, rail transport, and immigration, we should be able to start afresh and avoid falling into old habits.