Integridad pública y rendición de cuentas en la administración del gobierno autónomo descentralizado municipal del cantón Sucre. periodo 2022-2024 Public integrity and accountability in the administration of the decentralized autonomous municipal government of Sucre canton. period 2022–2024

Abstract

This research was carried out in the Decentralized Autonomous Municipal Government of the Sucre canton, Manabí province, Ecuador, during the period 2022–2024, with the objective of diagnosing the dimension of public integrity and accountability, in order to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement. The research was justified by the absence of technical studies that evaluate the application of the Open State approach in local governments. A mixed-methods approach was applied, with an exploratory and descriptive scope, and a non-experimental design. Regarding the methods, the inductive, deductive, and analytical–synthetic approaches were employed, and for the data collection process a structured observation sheet was used, complemented with a survey applied to officials from different areas of the GAD. The main tool was the Open State Metric, which enabled the assessment of key dimensions such as public procurement, ethics, budgeting, anti-corruption, information systems, and accountability. The results show a high level of institutional openness in most of the evaluated items (0.75), although significant gaps were identified in the use of open formats, the implementation of the code of ethics, and the certification of the anti-bribery system. It was concluded that, although there are advances in institutional transparency, technical limitations still persist that must be addressed in order to consolidate an integral, participatory, and Open Government–aligned public management. Therefore, this research constitutes a practical and theoretical contribution to institutional strengthening in decentralized contexts