The Administration should also be held accountable

By Álvaro J. Díaz-Mella

What happens when a citizen fails to fulfill an obligation to the Administration? We all know the answer. The real question is something else: what happens when the Administration itself fails to fulfill its obligations to the citizen?

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Today, a Spanish citizen maintains an ongoing relationship with a number of public authorities that would have been hard to imagine a few decades ago. The European Union enacts regulations that are incorporated into the national legal system. The central government regulates taxes, Social Security, and the justice system. Autonomous communities manage healthcare, education, and social services. Municipalities handle urban planning, mobility, permits, and local taxes. Added to this are regulatory bodies, agencies, provincial councils, and consortia. This constant presence entails a growing burden of obligations: filings, authorizations, inspections, fees, and administrative procedures. In a complex society, rules are naturally necessary. The point of contention is whether this increase has been matched by a corresponding improvement in administrative efficiency—and, above all, by effective accountability when those in charge fail to meet their obligations.

When a citizen submits a document past the deadline or fails to meet a requirement, the consequences are usually immediate: they may lose a right, face a penalty, or have to initiate proceedings to remedy the situation. Conversely, when the administration misses a statutory deadline, delays a decision, or leaves a request unanswered, the citizen is forced to press the issue—submitting further documents, filing appeals, or turning to oversight bodies—while the process drags on without any equivalent cost to the party that failed to comply.

These are not isolated cases. The Ombudsman recorded nearly 1,300 individual complaints regarding delays in disability assessments during 2025. The institution views this as a structural problem; in the vast majority of cases, the wait time far exceeds the statutory six-month deadline. Regarding transparency, 45.5% of complaints filed with the Council for Transparency and Good Governance in 2025 stemmed from administrative silence on the part of the General State Administration. This figure rises to 75.3% at the regional and local levels. In matters concerning immigration, nationality, and other procedures, the routine failure to meet the deadlines set out in Article 21 of Law 39/2015 is a widespread issue.

There is no single cause for these delays. Contributing factors may include a lack of staff and resources, regulatory complexity, undeclared political priorities, or poor internal organization. Lumping the General State Administration, regional governments, and municipalities together under a single diagnosis obscures real differences and hinders the development of solutions. A delay in a small municipality does not stem from the same root causes—nor does it require the same corrective measures—as a delay within the Tax Agency or a regional dependency care service.

Formal mechanisms exist. Administrative silence allows a request to be deemed granted or denied, depending on the subject matter, and opens the door to legal challenge. Liability claims offer, in theory, compensation for the abnormal functioning of public services. Contentious-administrative appeals, disciplinary liability, and political oversight complete the picture. The problem is not a lack of instruments, but rather their practical effectiveness. Invoking them tends to be slow, costly for the interested party, and offers little deterrent to the non-compliant party. A liability claim requires proof of harm, a causal link, and unlawfulness, and the proceedings can drag on for years. In so many significant cases, administrative silence does not resolve the matter; instead, it compels the individual to fight.

Decisions by the Transparency Council can be challenged in court by the affected bodies, and the Council itself maintains a record of appeals filed against its rulings by ministries, public agencies, state-owned enterprises, and private individuals. When a public authority appeals a decision made by the body established to guarantee the right of access to information, the citizen becomes trapped between public institutions, and the cost of defending that right falls—disproportionately—back upon them.

It is not a matter of questioning the existence of a capable public administration. An advanced society requires institutions that guarantee rights, provide services, and enforce the law. Precisely for this reason, the greater an institution's capacity to impose obligations, collect taxes, or exercise sanctioning powers, the greater its duty to be held accountable when it fails to act in accordance with the law. Behind every regulation, budget, and priority lie the political officials who manage resources derived from the efforts of taxpayers. Political accountability cannot be limited to the inauguration of projects; it must also extend to delays, inefficiencies, and management outcomes.

Correcting this imbalance requires more than mere complaints. It calls for setting realistic deadlines accompanied by consequences that are automatic or easily triggered by citizens. It requires publishing deadline-compliance indicators for each agency, designing clear incentives—and penalties—for public managers linked to actual performance, and streamlining compensation processes for unjustified delays.

The quality of a democracy depends not merely on the volume of regulations it enacts or the size of its administrative apparatus. Above all, it depends on the rigorous and equal application of rules to everyone and on subjecting power to effective mechanisms of oversight and accountability. Demanding accountability from citizens is entirely compatible with demanding it from those who wield power; indeed, the one lacks legitimacy without the other.

Álvaro J. Díaz-Mella
Vigo, September 2026

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Image: Meta.ai. Translation: Elentir.