Vienna Receives Award as Austria's Most Transparent Municipality
In a report by the Transparency International Austria organization, Vienna was named the most transparent city in Austria. With an impressive result of over 87%, Vienna was able to defend its first place for the third time in a row and achieved the best result ever. Particularly decisive for this good performance is Vienna's city administration, which provides relevant information for the population on its websites in a proactive, easy-to-find manner and to a high degree.
Transparency City Councilor Christoph Wiederkehr and Mayor Michael Ludwig with Eva Geiblinger and Alexander Picker from Transparency International / Picture: © Magistrat der Stadt Wien / Christian Jobst / PID
Vienna has once again been named the most transparent city in Austria. This is the result of the organization Transparency International Austria, which analyzes the 80 most populous cities and municipalities in Austria in its "Index Transparent Municipality" report.
This is the third time after 2017 and 2019 that Vienna has taken first place and can pat itself on the back with a strong result of 87.45 out of 100 possible points, which represents an increase of 4.22 percent compared to the last ranking.
Particularly decisive for this good performance is Vienna's city administration, especially in the subject areas of public administration, public procurement, subsidies and funding, personnel selection, social affairs, as well as spatial planning and political strategies.
"We reach out to the Viennese by proactively informing them about how public administration and political decisions are made. However, we are not resting on our laurels from the past, but see this award as an incentive to continue improving in the various areas of public administration," said Mayor Michael Ludwig.
"The award is no reason to sit back - on the contrary, we will continue to work ambitiously and at a very high level. How serious the Viennese Progressive Coalition is about transparency is shown, for example, by the fact that there is a separate chapter on the topic in the government agreement. In the spirit of transparency, there is the Vienna Government Monitor, which provides information online at any time about the current progress of more than 800 government projects," explained Transparency City Councilor and Deputy Mayor Christoph Wiederkehr.
Particularly impressive: Wels, which is listed in second place, already has a massive gap on the federal capital with an overall score of 78.61 points. The national average is 40.20 percent, which makes Vienna's performance stand out even more.
Transparency International Austria examined the websites of the 80 most populous municipalities and cities in Austria and checked the information published on them for completeness, clarity and findability based on 50 criteria in ten categories. The ten categories include budget, sale of public property and subsidies.
Prof. Eva Geiblinger, Chairwoman of TI-Austria, explains: "TI-Austria uses this tool to analyze the administration of Austrian cities and municipalities. Transparency is the only antidote to corruption. Municipalities should be motivated by the index to provide their citizens with important information and to close potential gateways for corruption."