The Public Governance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) granted a formal opinion on the entry of Costa Rica into the organization. Some of the main achievements are the advances in fiscal matters and public employment, which contribute to better governance and public management.
The evaluation process led by the Ministry of Planning and Economic Policy (Mideplan) began in 2015, when this Committee published a Study on Public Governance in Costa Rica.
This report, in addition to making a diagnosis, provided a series of recommendations in different areas such as: management capacity and coordination of the government center; monitoring and evaluation; public budgets; public employment; regional development and integrity policies in public procurement.
Costa Rica had an important challenge: to approve a fiscal reform that would give sustainability to public finances. Achieving this task was not easy, it was a work of several years, which managed to unify the thinking of different political forces motivated by a greater awareness to address the structural challenges facing the country. Through this law and its implementation, a great step is taken towards a more efficient fiscal and budgetary governance oriented towards the fulfillment of strategic objectives,”
said Rocío Aguilar, Minister of Finance.
In terms of public employment, administrative measures were implemented to contain spending and regulations governing remuneration in the public sector, which seek standardization in the wage system; additionally, it was defined from the rectory of public employment in Mideplan, and the creation of a performance evaluation system linked to institutional goals and competencies.
At the center of government, efforts have also been made to strengthen the mechanisms of direction, coordination and accountability of the Ministries of Planning, Finance and the Presidency on the institutional decentralized sector.
The Minister of Foreign Trade, Dyalá Jiménez, -coordinator of the process of joining the OECD- commented that
the process of Costa Rica’s entry into the OECD, and in particular to this Committee, has required regulatory changes and a profound transformation of the institutional culture. These changes have involved technical and political challenges that have been overcome thanks to the committed, hard and articulated work of the Ministries of the Presidency, Finance and Planning, and other entities and powers of the Republic.”