Government at a Glance : latin america and the caribbean 2020.

200 Pages·2020·2.626 MB·English

by  OECD

Government at a Glance Latin America
and the Caribbean 2020
This third edition of Government at a Glance Latin America and the Caribbean provides the latest available
Government at a Glance
evidence on public administrations and their performance in the LAC region and compares it to OECD
countries. This publication includes indicators on public finances and economics, public employment, centres
of government, regulatory governance, open government data, public sector integrity, public procurement Latin America
and for the first time core government results (e.g. trust, inequality reduction). Governance indicators are
especially useful for monitoring and benchmarking governments’ progress in their public sector reforms. Each
and the Caribbean 2020
indicator in the publication is presented in a user‑friendly format, consisting of graphs and/or charts illustrating
variations across countries and over time, brief descriptive analyses highlighting the major findings of the data,
and a methodological section on the definition of the indicator and any limitations in data comparability.
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ISBN 978-92-64-46823-8
9HSTCQE*egicdi+

Government at a Glance:
Latin America
and the Caribbean
2020
This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and
arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the OECD member countries, or the Inter-
American Development Bank, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.
This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over
any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.
The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of
such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in
the West Bank under the terms of international law.
Note by Turkey
The information in this document with reference to “Cyprus” relates to the southern part of the Island. There is no single
authority representing both Turkish and Greek Cypriot people on the Island. Turkey recognises the Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus (TRNC). Until a lasting and equitable solution is found within the context of the United Nations, Turkey
shall preserve its position concerning the “Cyprus issue”.
Note by all the European Union Member States of the OECD and the European Union
The Republic of Cyprus is recognised by all members of the United Nations with the exception of Turkey. The
information in this document relates to the area under the effective control of the Government of the Republic of Cyprus.
Please cite this publication as:
OECD (2020), Government at a Glance: Latin America and the Caribbean 2020, OECD Publishing, Paris,
https://doi.org/10.1787/13130fbb-en.
ISBN 978-92-64-46823-8 (print)
ISBN 978-92-64-45546-7 (pdf)
ISBN 978-92-64-31646-1 (HTML)
ISBN 978-92-64-68582-6 (epub)
Photo credits: Cover © Jeffrey Fisher.
Corrigenda to publications may be found on line at: www.oecd.org/about/publishing/corrigenda.htm.
© OECD 2020
The use of this work, whether digital or print, is governed by the Terms and Conditions to be found at http://www.oecd.org/termsandconditions.
FOREwORD
This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and Foreword
arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the OECD member countries, or the Inter-
T
American Development Bank, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.
his third edition of Government at a Glance: Latin America and the Caribbean, a joint project of the
This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over OECD and the IDB, addresses the growing demand for quantitative and qualitative evidence on the workings of
any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. governments in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region.
The publication covers key aspects of public governance, allowing policy makers and citizens to analyse the
The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of
performance of LAC governments and benchmark them against a broad range of other countries. This edition
such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in
contains indicators on the entire production process of government, from inputs to processes to outcomes; and
the West Bank under the terms of international law.
covers public finance and employment, budgeting practices and procedures, human resources management,
regulatory governance, open government data, public procurement public integrity and core government results.
Note by Turkey
The information in this document with reference to “Cyprus” relates to the southern part of the Island. There is no single
authority representing both Turkish and Greek Cypriot people on the Island. Turkey recognises the Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus (TRNC). Until a lasting and equitable solution is found within the context of the United Nations, Turkey
shall preserve its position concerning the “Cyprus issue”.
Note by all the European Union Member States of the OECD and the European Union
The Republic of Cyprus is recognised by all members of the United Nations with the exception of Turkey. The
information in this document relates to the area under the effective control of the Government of the Republic of Cyprus.
Please cite this publication as:
OECD (2020), Government at a Glance: Latin America and the Caribbean 2020, OECD Publishing, Paris,
https://doi.org/10.1787/13130fbb-en.
ISBN 978-92-64-46823-8 (print)
ISBN 978-92-64-45546-7 (pdf)
ISBN 978-92-64-31646-1 (HTML)
ISBN 978-92-64-68582-6 (epub)
Photo credits: Cover © Jeffrey Fisher.
Corrigenda to publications may be found on line at: www.oecd.org/about/publishing/corrigenda.htm.
© OECD 2020
The use of this work, whether digital or print, is governed by the Terms and Conditions to be found at http://www.oecd.org/termsandconditions.
GOVERNMENT AT A GLANCE: LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN 2020 © OECD 2020 3
ACkNOwLEDGEMENTs
Acknowledgements
G
overnment at a Glance Latin America and the Caribbean 2020 was prepared by the OECD Directorate
for Public Governance, under the leadership of Marcos Bonturi, Director and by the IDB Institutions
for Development Department, under the leadership of Moises J. schwartz, Manager. The work was led
by Zsuzsanna Lonti (OECD), Carlos Pimenta (IDB) and santiago González (OECD) under the direction
of Monica Brezzi (OECD), Emilio Pineda (IDB) and Lea Giménez (IDB). The Publication was drafted
by Barbara Baredes (OECD), Maria Veronica Cetrola (IDB), santiago González (OECD) and Alessandro
Lupi (OECD). Major drafting contributions were received from, Frederic Boehm (OECD), Monica Brezzi
(OECD), Adam Ostry (OECD), Barbara Ubaldi (OECD), Edwin Lau (OECD) and Roberto de Michele (IDB)
(Chapter 1 Good governance for Latin America representing the interests for all). Mariano Lafuente
(IDB) and Edgardo Mosqueira (IDB) (Chapters 3 Public Employment and Chapter 4 Institutions); Andrew
Blazey (OECD), Roberto García Lopez (IDB), Delphine Moretti (OECD), Anne keller (OECD), Ana María
Ruiz (OECD) and Lisa Von Trapp (OECD) (Chapter 5 Budget Practices and Procedures); Mariano Lafuente
(IDB), Luciano srazza( IDB), Daniel Gerson (OECD) (Chapter 6 Human resources management); Benjamin
Gerloff (OECD), Anna Pietikainen (OECD), Cristiana Vitale (OECD), Alexis Durand (OECD), Renny Reyes
(OECD), Pedro Farias (IDB), Delia Rodrigo (IDB), Gustavo Zanabria (IDB), Manuel Gerardo Flores Romero
(OECD), Christiane Arndt-Bascle (OECD) and Paul Davidson (OECD) (Chapter 7 Regulatory Policy and
Governance); Miguel Porrúa (IDB), Nicolas Dassen (IDB), Arturo Rivera Perez (OECD) (Chapter 8 Open
Government Data); Roberto de Michele (IDB), Frederic Boehm (OECD), Mariana Pratts (OECD), Felicitas
Neuhaus (OECD) (Chapter 9 Public sector Integrity); Leslie Harper (IDB); Ana Cristina Calderon (IDB);
Minjoo son (OECD) (Chapter 10 Public Procurement); Carlotta Ballestra (OECD), Elena Tosetto (OECD)
(Chapter 11 Core Government Results). we also thank Andrea Uhrhammer (OECD) and Roxana Glavanov
(OECD) for editorial support as well as Jennifer Allain for their help in preparing the document for
publication. we thank Julio Bacio Terracino (OECD), sebastian Nieto Parra (OECD Development Center)
and José Antonio Ardavin (OECD) for their comments. Translation in spanish was made possible thanks
to Evelyn Cermeno Vargas (IDB). Zoltan Mikolas was in charge of preparing the contextual annex.
The cover is an original drawing from Jeffrey Fisher.
This publication is the result of contributions from a wide range of sources and expertise. This
work is financed with resources from a technical support by the IDB. It greatly benefitted from inputs
provided by the IDB/OAs/CRDI network of e-Government in Latin America and the Caribbean (Red
GEALC), The Inter American Network on Government Procurement, the OECD-LAC Network on Good
Regulatory Practices and the OECD/IDB Network of senior Budget Officials for Latin America and the
Caribbean (LAC sBO). The authors express their gratitude to country officials from Latin America and
the Caribbean who replied to the surveys and helped during the data cleaning and validation process.
Furthermore, we thank the IDB country representatives and country staff, who assisted whenever a
question arose, and facilitated channels of communication with government authorities.
4 GOVERNMENT AT A GLANCE: LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN 2020 © OECD 2020
TABLE OF CONTENTs
Table of contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Executive summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Reader’s guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Chapter 1. Good governance for Latin America and the Caribbean:
Representing the interest of all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
1.1. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
1.2. why public governance, and in particular integrity, matters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.3. Ensuring integrity and social accountability of public decision-making . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
1.4. sound public management for effective implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
1.5. Conclusion: Tying things together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Chapter 2. Public finance and economics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
2.1. General government fiscal balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
2.2. General government structural balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
2.3. General government gross debt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
2.4. General government revenues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
2.5. General government tax revenues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
2.6. General government expenditures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
2.7. Revenues and expenditures structure by level of government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
2.8. General government expenditure by economic transaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
2.9. Government investment spending. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
2.10. Fiscal revenues from non-renewable natural resources (NRNR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Chapter 3. Public employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3.1. Employment in the public sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
3.2. Gender equality in public sector employment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Chapter 4. Institutions (CoG) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.1. Functions of the Centre of Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
4.2. Degree of influence and role in policy coordination of Centre of Government. . . . . . . . 82
4.3. strategic management and monitoring in Centre of Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Chapter 5. Budgeting practices and procedures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.1. Institutional setting and characteristics of the Central Budget Authority. . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5.2. Fiscal rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.3. Medium Term Expenditure Frameworks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
5.4. Budget Flexibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
5.5. Complementary budgets and reserve funds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
5.6. Earmarked funds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
GOVERNMENT AT A GLANCE: LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN 2020 © OECD 2020 5
TABLE OF CONTENTs
5.7. Budget transparency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
5.8. stakeholder engagement in the budgetary process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Chapter 6. Human resources management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
6.1. HRM organisation and delegation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
6.2. Recruitment and selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
6.3. Flexibility to restructure the public workforce. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
6.4. Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
6.5. Performance appraisal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
6.6. Compensation of civil servants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Chapter 7. Regulatory governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
7.1. General trends and institutional settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
7.2. stakeholder engagement for subordinate regulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Table of contents
7.3. Regulatory impact assessment for subordinate regulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
7.4. Ex post evaluation and administrative simplification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
7.5. Competition-friendly regulatory environment: the PMR indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
7.6. Governance of regulators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Chapter 8. Open Government Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
8.1. Open government data: Enabling policy maturity and sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
8.2. Data availability: Policy frameworks, stakeholder engagement and data release. . . . . . 136
8.3. Data accessibility: open, free and accessible formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
8.4. Engaging users: promoting awareness and re-use of open government data. . . . . . . . . 140
Chapter 9. Public Sector Integrity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
9.1. Mainstreaming integrity policies: Reaching the organisations and all levels
of government. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
9.2. Influence in decision-making through lobbying and political finance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
9.3. Asset and Interest Disclosure system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
9.4. Risk management and internal audit for public integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Chapter 10. Public Procurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
10.1. size of public procurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
10.2. strategic public procurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
10.3. Electronic government procurement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
10.4. Central procurement agencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
10.5. Procurement and the delivery of infrastructure projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Chapter 11. Core government results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
11.1. Trust in Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
11.2. Income inequality and redistribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
11.3. The Rule of Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
11.4. Citizen satisfaction with public services and institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Annex A. Composite indicator on Use of a medium-term perspective in the budget process . . . 175
Annex B. Classification and definition of occupations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Annex C. OECD Indicators of Regulatory Policy and Governance (iREG) for Latin America 2019. . . 179
Annex D. OECD methodology for constructing the OURdata Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Annex E. Composite indexes on public sector integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Annex F. Additional figures accessible online. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
6 GOVERNMENT AT A GLANCE: LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN 2020 © OECD 2020
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