Public Administrations (PA) must guarantee the right of interested parties not to provide data or documents that are already in the possession of the acting Administration or have been prepared by any other Administration.
In order to guarantee this right, we PAs carry out data and document exchanges through intermediary platforms, which guarantee interoperability (and the necessary security).
However, the management and organization that -internally- entails the operation of interoperability for each AP can be a complex and unknown task, both for those who want to start consulting data, and for those who already do so and want to expand the queries they make.
All of this can be a disincentive to making inquiries through Via Oberta (VO). For this reason, this FAQ sets out some questions that may be helpful in starting to interoperate.
First of all, it is advisable to consult the Catalogue of interoperable data and documents in Catalonia to familiarize ourselves with what data we have at our disposal (the Catalogue is also known as Via Oberta Service Charters ).
Next, it is advisable that we review the organization's procedures, with the aim of identifying what data and/or documents should not be required because we can consult it in the Catalog.
It is possible that, from this review, the need to make changes to the procedures will be identified. For example:
- Structure of the forms (for example, enabling a box to object to queries or adding a section to reference the data for document location purposes);
- In the section describing the procedures, to inform that interested parties can avoid attaching the documentation.
Secondly, we must follow the steps indicated in the FAQ How do I join the Interoperability Framework Agreement (IMF)?
Then, we must process the Authorizations to access the relevant data, according to the needs we have detected. For these purposes, there is more information in the FAQ How do I request registration for Via Oberta services?
Public employees linked to the PA that needs the data (which has been previously authorized by the transferor) can make interoperability inquiries.
In application of the regulations, it is necessary to identify the employee involved in the data consultation. This is also a condition set by the data providers.
For this reason, interoperability queries are made by a public employee with a qualified electronic certificate that certifies their direct link to a PA with an official or contractual relationship.
On the other hand, a person who works for a company that has been awarded a tender cannot make inquiries (extended in the following section).
Employees who perform interoperability queries need:
- Have a qualified electronic certificate that certifies the person's direct link to an AP, for example a T-CAT on a card or software (it is not essential that the trusted service provider be the AOC).
- Be registered with EACAT.
- Have authorization from the organization to which you are linked to be a VO user and also for the specific consumption of the service.
NOTE : workers who make inquiries through PICA (platform of the Administration of the Generalitat de Catalunya), must consult the respective areas or units.
NOTE : the T-CAT of a linked person cannot be used to carry out interoperability queries because it is not a public employee certificate (the holder is not directly linked to a public administration in Catalonia but has a service or functional relationship with it).
In fact, "Organizational Unity" which appears in this certificate does not refer to the Administration where it provides services and, as a consequence, does not contain the information required for queries.
In light of the above, the AOC security policy establishes that access to VO queries through the EACAT screens must be made by a public worker. Therefore, VO cannot be accessed with:
- Public worker certificate from a PA different from the one to which the EACAT user is assigned at the time of making the query;
- idCAT certificate, because it is a citizenship certificate (it does not bind the holder as a worker of a PA);
- Other citizenship certificates issued by other providers, for the same reason as the previous point.
Below is a glossary with the specific terminology used in interoperability queries:
- Authorizations : request for each of the services (it is not the VO request).
- Service letters : document that contains the consultation conditions (technical, legal and functional), as well as the information available in the service.
- Catalog of interoperable data and documents in Catalonia : instrument that contains all the data that Catalan PAs can consult.
- Queries : is the entire exchange process from the time the AP requires data until it obtains it. That is, a query includes the request and the response. The traces that are kept by the service are those of the query.
- Interoperability node : these are the functions that the AOC carries out from the VO service and any other in matters of interoperability.
Law 39/2015: art. 28 and 53
Law 40/2015: art. 44 and 155
RD 203/2021: art. 25 and 61
Via Oberta and e-TRAM