Deltebre approves the Code of Good Governance and reinforces internal control

The Municipal Plenary of the Deltebre City Council approved the municipality’s Code of Good Governance in an ordinary session on September 17, 2026, and subsequently modified it through an agreement adopted in the ordinary session of October 22, 2026. The full text, with the modifications incorporated, is published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Tarragona on October 23, 2026, with the official reference CVE 2026-09864 and a length of 11 pages. The document is signed by the acting secretary, David Torres Fabra, in Deltebre, on October 22, 2026.

A specific framework for municipal government

The Code is configured as internal regulations for the Deltebre City Council and aims to establish the principles and commitments that must guide the municipal organization and activity. According to the preamble, it develops Law 19/2014, of December 29, on transparency, access to public information and good governance, which understands good governance as the set of principles, obligations, and best practices for managing public interests with objectivity, transparency, responsibility, effectiveness, and citizen participation.

The text does not replace the municipal Code of Ethics and Conduct, but rather complements it: the Code of Ethics maintains the ethical principles and individual standards of conduct, while the new Code establishes the institutional and organizational commitments for planning, decision-making, management, evaluation, and accountability. The scope of application covers the City Council and all linked or dependent municipal entities.

The immediate precedent is the first version of the Code, also approved on September 17, 2026, and published in the provincial gazette on September 18, 2026 (CVE 2026-08662, 9 pages). The document’s management file now identifies version 2.0, with formal approval on 17.09.2026 and revision on 22.10.2026.

Eleven principles and ten management commitments

Chapter I lists the principles that must govern municipal activity:

• Legality and legal certainty.
• Service to the general interest.
• Objectivity, impartiality, and equal treatment.
• Institutional integrity and prevention of corruption.
• Transparency, accountability, and citizen participation.
• Effectiveness, efficiency, and economy in the use of resources.
• Quality of public services and citizen orientation.
• Professionalism, responsibility, and institutional loyalty.

Chapter II deploys specific commitments across ten articles: planning and decision-making with verifiable objectives, regulatory quality and simplification, responsible management of public resources with separation between proposal, authorization, execution, and control, quality of services, transparency and public information, accountability, open government, institutional integrity, coordination and information management, and responsible public procurement.

Regarding integrity, the Code is integrated into the municipal system formed by the Code of Ethics and Conduct, the Anti-Fraud Measures Plan, the Anti-Fraud Committee, and the Ethics Channel, accessible from the municipal website. Possible infractions must be reported through this channel, and the City Council must identify the management areas with the highest risk of irregularity and establish proportionate prevention and control measures.

The Plenary as the primary space for accountability

Chapter III, dedicated to democratic control, recognizes the Municipal Plenary as the primary area where government action must be accounted for. No proposal for an agreement can be submitted to the Plenary without councilors having, from the time of the call, all the documentation to which it refers, including technical, legal, and economic reports.

The text also mandates maintaining public and updated information on the execution status of each Plenary agreement and the person responsible for its compliance, and establishes that questions, petitions, and requests for information from councilors receive a reasoned response within legal deadlines, with written responses that must be made public. Integrity codes, plans, and protocols must be developed by the Department of Communication and Transparency and forwarded to all municipal groups before approval, with a prior report from the competent informative commission.

Institutional communication must distinguish government information from institutional information, and municipal media must guarantee the presence of all groups under equal conditions. The annual evaluation report must include indicators on response times to councilors’ initiatives, the percentage of executed agreements, proposals reaching the Plenary with incomplete documentation, and the participation of groups in integrity instruments.

Application, review, and publication

Chapter IV regulates the application and review of the Code, which must be done in a coordinated manner with the other integrity instruments, especially the Code of Ethics and Conduct, and also when substantial regulatory or organizational changes occur. Doubts regarding interpretation are resolved by the competent area for good governance and transparency, with the advice of the municipal secretary and, in matters of integrity or fraud prevention, the Anti-Fraud Committee.

The second final provision establishes that the Code must be published in full in the provincial bulletin and on the Transparency Portal of the Deltebre City Council. With this step, the municipality completes an internal control framework that binds governing bodies, municipal areas, and dependent entities to verifiable obligations of transparency, traceability, and accountability to the citizenry and municipal groups.

Source: Official Bulletin of the Province of Tarragona, no. of 10-23-2026, section I, pp. 1-11 (official reference: CVE 2026-09864).