Two digital search engines created by the Catalan engineer Gerard Giménez have brought to light a personal data leak in the Generalitat's Transparency Portal, a case that is now being investigated by the Catalan Data Authority. The incident led the Generalitat to deactivate the portal's information flow for a few hours to correct the publication of personal data of subsidy beneficiaries.
Giménez launched a month ago Contractes.cat, focused on public procurement, and Subvencions.cat, dedicated to public aid, with the aim of facilitating access to information already available on the Transparency Portal. The initiative even reached the last plenary session of the Parliament, where it was cited during the session.
A simpler access to contracts and grants
The two portals allow for more agile consultation of contracting and subsidy data, in addition to a register of awards from the beneficiary entities. Subvencions.cat estimates at almost 5,000 million euros the subsidies granted by the Generalitat in 2025.
Among the entities that would have received the most funds in the last ten years are, always according to that search engine, the Barcelona City Council with 501 million euros, the Catalan Bar Council with 397 million, the Foundation for the Open University of Catalonia with 228 million, the University of Barcelona with 125 million and the Sant Pau Hospital Foundation with 120 million.
Menjòmetre expands the model with its own indicators
In parallel, Menjòmetre has appeared, a project that replicates the initiative and presents itself as "an independent observatory of grants and contracts". The tool adds a scoring system, a percentage of awards without competition, and calculations on the number of doctors that could be hired or playgrounds that could be built with the awarded amounts.
In one of its examples, Menjòmetre argues that the volume of subsidies granted to the Barcelona City Council would be enough for 830 doctors, 228 bike lanes and 380 new parks in one year.
Debate on the political use of data
"Data is never neutral" - Cristina Garde, researcher at Pompeu Fabra University
The appearance of these tools has opened a debate on how public data is presented and interpreted. Cristina Garde, a researcher in Media, Communication and Culture at Pompeu Fabra University, maintains that the moment the world is represented from data, an ideological choice is already made. In her opinion, Menjòmetre is sold as an aseptic and objective platform, but it instrumentalizes the tool.
Garde also warns that cooperation entities are constantly singled out and considers that selection is not accidental. In his analysis, the presentation of entities that receive public money places them as part of a clientelist network and contrasts taxpayers with the alleged beneficiaries of that system.
The digital environment of Aliança Catalana and Junts is among the most active in supporting the tool. Xavier Fargas, districts coordinator of Aliança Catalana, summarized that approach with a message spread on networks.
"The people know how to add. It's time to settle accounts. Fewer handouts" - Xavier Fargas, Aliança Catalana
For Garde, behind that discourse there exists an exacerbated nationalism that appeals to an us instead of the notion of public thing. He also links this phenomenon to the crisis of traditional media and to the growing role of X users who believe they should directly scrutinize public information.
Eleven years of law and a little formed citizenry
The transparency law in force in Catalonia is already over eleven years old. Irene Araguàs, professor of Law at the University of Barcelona, admits that it surprises her that tools of this type had not appeared before. In her opinion, the exposure of data makes the State more vulnerable, but at the same time reduces spaces for corruption.
Araguàs maintains that the current situation is better than the one prior to the law, when the administration published information more discretionarily. However, he believes that this right has not fully reached the citizenry because it has not been sufficiently disseminated nor has the population been adequately educated to use it.
The professor argues that public information should be offered neutrally, but also comprehensibly. In that balance, she proposes that the administration incorporate popular resources such as graphics to bring numbers closer to the population without interpreting the data, but by facilitating their reading. Meanwhile, the case opened by the dissemination of personal data has placed the focus not only on the usefulness of these tools, but also on the limits and risks of poorly deployed transparency.