During the second National Council for Urban and Rural Development (Conadur), President Bernardo Arévalo announced that departmental cabinets will be formed that will make up the recent departmental governors and representatives of the ministers in each locality. The objective explained is to improve coordination and progress in the departmental work plan.
“We are not going to appoint new officials, we are not announcing here that a new layer of officials is going to be created, we know that we do not have the resources for that,” the president told those present.
He explained that the departmental government team will meet periodically and will be governed by a departmental development work plan. The role of the governors will be to coordinate this plan, dialogue with the mayors and follow up with the members of the cabinet.
“This means that we are going to transfer, not only the planning, but the management of development to the level of local departmental actors. And the relationship between these actors will be much more immediate,” Arévalo assured.
The Secretary of Executive Coordination, Víctor Hugo Monroy, explained that a regulation will be created that will establish this new methodology. In addition, he emphasized that it is a measure that complies with the decentralization of the State.
“What the Executive Law mandates is to make regulations for the government of the departments. That is being foreseen right now to avoid complications, only to develop what in the Law of the Executive Body is called departmental government,” he commented.
He pointed out that this measure should have been taken 40 years ago, as indicated in the Constitution. He pointed out that funds are commonly only transferred to the territories but the necessary institutional framework is not available.
It is expected that they will begin operating in January of next year and that the methodology will be established for the following government administrations.
“He – the governors – is going to be like the driver or leader of that effort, but not only is he the one who is going to decide, but there are sectoral policies that each of the departmental delegates have to comply with, in education, in health and infrastructure,” he said.
Immediate responses
This methodology might generate delays in the procedures and may not be functional, according to the analysis of Edy Cifuentes, a specialist in local governments. Likewise, he commented that he does not see any change in the methodology because within the governor’s functions is to see the development of public administration and that he might centralize management more, instead of decentralizing it.
“It is to create a figure that in the end what is going to do, in this case, is to empower the governors in a much better way and hopefully they are really clear regarding what the responsibility of their position is, but in fact the function is that , but I think it will not be functional,” criticized the expert.
He recalled that in the government of Álvaro Colom it was planned to create a supervisor of governors, however, it was not achieved. He considers that this measure was more positive and provided a benefit to the public administration. He added that in the Ministry of the Interior there is a control body for the governorates, but it is not functional.
“The mayors are going to express themselves, but I would believe that, by generating that expectation of a departmental government, what it is going to do is generate confusion for the mayors. In reality, then, they need more immediate responses , no more bureaucracy,” concluded Cifuentes.
Reforms
In January of this year, the Executive approved a change to the regulations of the National Urban and Rural Development Council Law. The reform was applied to the election of governors, so it created a new mechanism for the election of a shortlist and the final designation made by the president.
The presidential reform included three new articles, among them that citizens may present accusations once morest the candidates and that those who apply must include a work plan in their file. Of the 22 departmental governors, Arévalo still needs to appoint two.
Meanwhile, in the Congress of the Republic last February, deputy Gustavo Cruz, representative of the Viva bloc, delivered to the Legislative Directorate a bill that proposes reforms to the same norm, as well as to the Law of the Executive Branch.
The proposal proposes two specific changes, that the representatives of civil society have alternation in their participation in the Departmental Development Councils and that they do not have any responsibility for presenting shortlists of candidates for governors to the Executive, since, according to the congressman, this is responsibility of the President of the Republic.
Financial rescheduling
During the development of Conadur, President Arévalo expressed the intention of adding an article in the budget expansion, which might be presented to Congress in August, so that funds that are not executed by the Departmental Development Councils (Codede) are not sent to the common fund, but rather that they be reallocated to the Codede budget for 2025.
“We are including in the budget expansion law initiative a rule so that this year the funds allocated to the Development Councils can be reprogrammed for next year, without having to go into the public fund, and without affecting the money. and next year’s funds,” the president announced.
Godoy expanded on the reason for this measure and recognized that it is due to the low execution of the Codedes derived from delays in programming, planning and signing of project agreements. According to him, this derives from the delayed appointment of governors, but also from the election of new mayors in the municipalities.
“The idea is that this does not happen – delays in execution – but for this year. It does not mean that the same thing will be resorted to every year,” the secretary warned.
The offer of the Executive authorities was liked by the mayors representing the regions before Conadur, who applauded and requested that this point be included in the minutes of the session. They also assured the president of his support to go to Congress when the initiative is presented.
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