The Lobby Law (Ley del Lobby), was created for a more transparent and “cleaner” form of contact with officers in government agencies. The adoption of the Lobbying Act is a key component for transparency, accountability, and citizen engagement in public affairs, and was designed to address two critical issues:
● To reduce influence peddling by requiring registry and transparency of authorities’ and elected officials’ agendas, travel, and donations
● Providing mechanisms and opportunities to improve citizens’ access to authorities. Chile was the first country in Latin America to implement legislation on lobbying disclosure.
The main provisions of the act include:
● Establishing legal definitions for lobbying, active subjects (paid lobbyists and unpaid interest’s managers) and passive subjects (ministers, vice ministers, heads of departments, regional directors of public services, mayors and governors, regional ministerial secretaries and ambassadors, and other public individuals and entities).
● Creation of public registers where authorities must disclose information on meetings and the individuals/ lobbyists who attended those meetings.
● Sanctions and fines.
● A mandate for the Chilean Transparency Council to consolidate data on lobbying activities and make it public via its website.
