CiF Office of New Technologies chief Rafael González has announced the successful completion of the administration's bid to take its directory of services paperless. The project dates back to the final quarter of 2016, when the related applications were first acquired and installed by the Council.

The process of going digital got under way January 1 and concluded August 31. According to the councillor, the overhaul will mean that “the same formalities and requests are going to become significantly easier”. “Two years ago, we offered 15 of our services online,” explained González, “the rest required an in-person visit”. Now, he says, absolutely all of them—some one hundred—can be done online.

To date this year 30,727 administrative formalities have been carried out on the web. Some of the most popular are proof of residency/travel certificates (16,608), renewals of a la Savina parking pass (3,026), invoice submissions (2,428), fishing permits (245), summer school registrations (178), early enrolment for students of the music school (118), small construction permit requests (108).

González called the effort to digitalise formerly paper-based procedures “an incredible opportunity for us to improve our resident services and response time”.

Línea Verde
The councillor reminded residents of the app, Línea Verde, that lets people easily notify the Council of black spots around the island. 

The information technologies arm of the Formentera Council has announced that from today, Monday January 16, e-certificates from the Royal Mint of Spain can be processed through the Citizen's Information Office (OAC). Although formerly processed at the Formentera branch of the Regional tax agency, Agència Tributària de les Illes Balears, local service was suspended in January 2015 and since then islanders have been forced to travel to Eivissa to process such requests. That drove the Council's decision to accredit both OAC and the civil registry to grant e-certificates locally.

The president of the Formentera Council, Jaume Ferrer, unveiled today in press conference the administration's new online agenda, www.agendaformentera.cat. The site hosts a comprehensive directory of activities —organised by the Council or which have benefitted from its support— that are open to the public. The president said the new portal would“bring together all the activities and events the CiF puts on,” encompassing culture, sports, tourism and “programming sponsored by any of the Council's other departments for Formentera residents and visitors.”

Devised to be responsive, the website is also perfectly adapted for smart phones — a use President Ferrer says the Council hopes will catch on. The site constitutes a cross-cutting tool for the Council, whose offices will each contribute information to the agenda and in turn use it for internal operations. Culture councillor Susana Labrador, tourism councillor Alejandra Ferrer and sports councillor Jordi Vidal, who were also at this morning's press conference, painted the offices they head as the site's driving forces.

IT councillor Rafael González was on hand to explain the practical aspects of the agenda. He described the break-down of events by daytime, nighttime, health and sports, kids, weekends and general categories. He also hailed the possibility of accessing the agenda via mobile with an app, called Llançador. The app, noted González, allows for easy sharing of events across social media sites and is equipped with an “intuitive calendar” that promises effortless use.

The programming for the new site was handled by Existalia, an Eivissa firm directed by Juan Carlos Flórez. Flórez was in attendance this morning as well, and Councillor González took the opportunity to thank him for Existalia's work on the initiative. The project had a total cost of 3,000 euros. The councillor of the president's office, Bartomeu Escandell, social welfare councillor Vanessa Parellada and environment councillor Daisee Aguilera, as well as Isidor Torres, the CiF's director, Ana Mateos, the head of PIMEF, the island's association of small businesses, and other CiF staff were also at the launch.

The Formentera Council has unveiled its contribution to an initiative called 'Islas Inteligentes' (smart islands) launched by the state-run Red.es website, an outgrowth of the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism. Formentera's proposal, entitled «Formentera, the smallest but the smartest», is founded on the principle of using next generation technology to preserve our surroundings and improve public services.

The head of the new technologies department, Rafael González, said the 'Islas Inteligentes' call for applications had been an opportunity to breathe life into projects «that we'd worked on but never made public due to budgetary restrictions».

According to Councillor González, «if the Ministry wanted to use the proposed projects it would be a giant step forward. It would be an opportunity to implement initiatives that were imagined for some point in the future». He continued, «we're realistic though. We tailored the bid competitively, but know we're up against some steep competition».

Among the many measures proposed in the bid, there is the idea of installing scales in rubbish bins that would warn collection vans in those cases a bin is only partially full, hence saving vans a pointless journey. Another proposes advising travellers of the time before a bus arrives. A third suggests dimming pavement street lamps when no pedestrians are detected. Still another proposes allowing residents to carry out municipal formalities on the Internet.

The Council estimates the initiatives would require a budget, tax included, of 1,932,642 euros. 'Islas Inteligentes' set the maximum budget at 10 million euros per project. Councillor González explained Formentera's decision to keep the figure low «came from our desire to make something both financially-solvent and realistic». He continued: «More than a letter to Father Christmas, we wanted to draft proposals of projects we knew we could implement and maintain. Projects in keeping with what we try to promote here on the island: respect for the natural surroundings and tranquility».