It’s time that public sector audit bodies in Spain caught up with much of the developed world and made use of social networking to disseminate their reports and opinions
Social networks have experienced an exponential increase in user numbers over the past five years. This has allowed access to more information and encouraged participation with and feedback from individuals, companies, organisations and institutions.
As a result, there are thought to be 945 million users of social networks across the world. In Spain, 75% of internet users are involved in social networks, reaching 15 million Facebook users and an estimated 4.5 million twitterati. In contrast, only 12% of Spaniards are daily newspaper readers.
And yet, audit watchdogs in Spain prefer to publicise their opinions and reports through official bulletins and newspapers rather than social media. This includes Spain’s Court of Auditors, the supreme body responsible for auditing the public sector, and the 13 regional external control bodies. Not one of these organisations incorporates social networks as a means of disclosing information.
In Spain, and in many Latin American countries, there is a generation of leaders who see more risks than benefits in the new media. In general, the leaders of the control bodies have a non-technical and political profile as they are elected by the parliament. They are accustomed to broadcasting their opinions and sending out reports and other publications without having to justify their decisions.
For such people, the use of social netwoks would entail a series of uncomfortable changes in the way business is run. They believe that institutions should ‘speak only through reports’ in order to avoid breaking professional confidentiality. Greater transparency and the integration of social networks would result in greater public knowledge of the inner workings of the institutions, which could be used by the media for partisan purposes.
Adopting social media would inevitably change these organisations; they would cease to be solely emitters of information and become prosumers (producers/consumers). But perhaps they would fulfil a more useful role.
A more enlightened approach is taken in other parts of the world. Public sector watchdogs such as the UK’s National Audit Office (NAO), the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), the European Court of Auditors (ECA), the Austrailian National Audit Office and the Controller and Auditor General of New Zealand have embraced social media.
The NAO uses Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Google Plus, YouTube and RSS feeds to get its message across, while a section of its website is devoted to work in progress. Similartly, the ECA has its own YouTube channel and the GAO makes good use of podcasts. So the question arises: what do Spanish audit bodies have to fear?
With social media, audit bodies could be empowered. They would receive immediate responses to their publications, without these having to be assessed, retouched or re-edited by the press. The outdated press release could be replaced by effective use of social media.
Audit bodies in Spain have adopted a comfortable position. But it is unlikely that they can remain comfortable as the world moves on. They should embrace the social media revolution that puts the sender and the messenger on the same plane.
If not, their users may choose to get their information elsewhere. Audit bodies should bear in mind the wise words of US academic Henry Chesbrough. ‘Most innovations are bound to fail. And companies which do not innovate are bound to disappear.’
Marta Riera López is an auditor at the Auditing Authority of the Principality of Asturias in Spain
