The Guatemalan Association of Construction Contractors (Agcc) presented a proposal to modernize, organize, simplify and digitize the different processes for contracting the construction or maintenance of road infrastructure carried out by the Ministry of Communications, Infrastructure and Housing (Micivi).
The approach is to completely change the mechanism that has been used for many years for one that was presented with the report “Index of efficiency in investment for the development of road infrastructure”, which during 2023 was prepared by the National Economic Research Center (Cien), at the request of the Agcc.
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The entity investigated the efficiency of public investment management and clarified that it only covered the issue of road infrastructure executed by Micivi, although in the future, the methodology can also be used to measure port and airport systems.
The methodology used was from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and included only developing economies in order to be able to compare between relatively similar countries.
Bulk clutter
Hugo Maul and Irene Flores, researchers at Cien, explained the entire line of intervention that results in the contracting of road works; the linkage and the opinions in the National System of Public Investment (SNIP) of the General Secretariat of Planning and Programming (Segeplán); and the budgetary extensions to Micivi for projects or works that do not respond to planning or priorities, but to interests, especially political ones.
For example, it was found that in the planning section, 134 files were found for an investment of around Q7 billion, of which 102 did not comply with the parameters or were incomplete, and only 32 met all the conditions established in the regulations.
Another of the strong points made during the presentation is that there are no priority projects, apart from the fact that there are 276 indicators that do not have a cost estimate, while for the General Government Policy (PGG) 340 strategic actions were found, as well as 70 for Current Public Policies.
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For the Institutional Strategic Plan (PEI) 2022-2032 of Micivi there is a strategic result and for the Road Development Plan 2018-2032 it is expected to achieve 10 objectives, both with an estimated cost structure.
For the National Strategic Plan for Cargo Logistics 2015-2030 (Penlog), eight strategies and 79 strategic actions were identified, with a preliminary cost estimate. And finally, for the Sustainable Tourism Master Plan 2015-2025, there are 10 strategic objectives, without quantitative estimates.
Concrete realities
Jorge Toruño, vice president of the Agcc, said that the index presented reflects concrete realities based on technical indicators with international standards and is a baseline that allows identifying where the current infrastructure management is and how road investment can be managed.
“Much of this involves simply changing processes, as there are advances such as the Law on the Simplification of Procedures.”
Jorge Toruño, Vice President of the Guatemalan Association of Construction Contractors
Regarding recommendations, Toruño indicated that changes need to be made gradually, since they range from planning to auditing projects. In addition, it is necessary to create working groups with different institutions to advance in an orderly manner; and a third suggestion is to achieve the political will to introduce these changes, since many of them do not require legislative reforms or going to the Congress of the Republic. “Much of this involves only changing processes, since there are advances such as the Law for the Simplification of Procedures.”
Regarding the prioritization of works, Toruño asserted that it must be seen from the general planning of the country and not only from a Geographic List of Works, since emergencies must also be considered.
Urgent improvements promised
Max Alejandro García Rodríguez, Deputy Minister of Communications, explained that the index shows the catastrophic situation of the country and demonstrates the calamity in which the ministry found itself, since the study was carried out last year, although the sample is an advantage because it allows obtaining an x-ray of the works and thus determining the steps to follow.
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Processes to be improved include the implementation of digitalisation; improvement and analysis of project reviews; and public disclosure of all administrative acts, from the planning of works, supervision, design to completion.
To this end, he explained that work is already underway on a comprehensive project control system, which covers planning, design, execution and control, not only of new construction, but also of its maintenance. “The most realistic and immediate thing is the digitalisation of the processes – awarding and maintenance – which will reveal other things that need to be changed.”
He cited as an example that projects will have to be born digitally or electronically “and stop using paper processes, which is where information is hidden. Part of the real problem of corruption is that there is no time to review a file of five thousand pages to make a payment, but it is easy to keep track of works that is visible to everyone, and when a problem is detected, anyone can raise the alarm,” he concluded.
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