‘The structure of the public administration makes no sense’: Ocampo

He former Minister of Finance and Public Credit of the government of President Gustavo Petro, Jose Antonio Ocampospoke about the importance of the structure of the national public administration.

Through an opinion column in EL TIEMPO, the former head of the current government portfolio stated that The importance of the administrative organization of the State has been a priority for the governments that Colombia has had during the last six decades.

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“ORA central element was that the Presidency of the Republic and the ministries were formulators and coordinators of the policy, and its execution was in charge of the decentralized institutes and public companies“, highlighted Ocampo.

Ocampo mentioned that the structure of proliferation of entities attached to the presidency of the Republic today “Has no sense“This is due to the fact that only the departments that fulfill the most basic functions should be attached, such as the case of National Planning, Public Function and Intelligence.

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Similarly, Ocampo suggested that “Dane could be attached to National Planning, and Social Prosperity should become an executing agency of a ministry, for example the new Ministry of Equality. All other entities of the Presidency should be moved to other parts of the Administration“.

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Another suggestion from the former minister is to reduce the number of ministries that exist today, as well as reverse the number of vice ministries and sub-directors that exist in each portfolio.

“The classic a quarter of a century ago was a deputy minister and deputy head in administrative departments. We must return to that structure and certainly avoid the five deputy ministries in the Ministry of Equality. That structure doesn’t make sense.“Ocampo mentioned.

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Similarly, the former minister spoke about the weakening of the National Council for Economic and Social Policy (Conpes)since this division is in charge of dealing with economic, social and environmental issues, unlike the ministries, which deal with political and security issues.

“The latter were presented with the plans for each sector, drawn up by the respective ministry and National Planning, to further guarantee their coherence with the National Development Plan. In addition, this council discussed their progress, as part of the follow-up on the execution of the plan.“, he added.

According to Ocampo, support for the process of decentralizationthis in charge, as mentioned, of the corresponding ministries and the Department of National Planning.

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“It is the most necessary addition to the structure designed in 1968. This must exclude, however, any budget execution by Planning, which has been another negative trend“, he mentioned.

PORTFOLIO​