Only 2% of executive directors are appointed by competition

The low quality and low training of career officials of the national government have deepened over the past two years. last years. Only 2% of national and general directors of the National Executive are nominated by competition and are part of the state's permanent factory. The percentage corresponds to the end of 2017 and is significantly lower than at the end of 2015, where it stood at 6%.

This is the main conclusion of the "GPS of the State", the Center's platform for the implementation of public policies of equity and growth (


CIPPEC
) which periodically badyzes the evolution of the national public sector.

In the same line, the report states that at the end of last year only 18 percent of PEN directors met the formal requirements of their position, whereas in 2015 this percentage was 32%. During the same period, the proportion of professionals also decreased from 72% to 66% over the same period.

Abundance of Ministries

On the other hand, the "GPS of the State" shows a paradox: the deterioration of the executive executive space coexists with the expansion of the structure of the national public sector since 2015. With the arrival of


Changing
in power, the national cabinet reaches a record number of ministers. With 21 departments, including the Cabinet Office, the


Argentina
ranks sixth among the countries with the most portfolios in Latin America behind Venezuela (31), Ecuador, Chile and Brazil (23) and the Dominican Republic (22). At the other end of the table are Paraguay (12), Honduras and Uruguay (13) and El Salvador and Guatemala (14).

With the number of ministries, the number of secretariats and undersecretaries has increased. The total political positions of the higher authorities, namely the ministers, the under-secretaries and the under-secretaries, increased by 25% between 2015 and 2017.

The Cippec study also reflects a high level of rotation in the national public administration. The 25% of national executives who were appointed in 2016 were replaced in early 2017 and by the end of the year, only 9% were still in office. "With the high turnover rate and a temporary appointment regime, the managerial space ceases to act as the institutional memory of the administration and, at the same time, the organizational learning process within the organization. Orbit of the state is interrupted, "said Gonzalo Dieguez, director of Cippec's public management program and co-author of the" State GPS ". "

The specialist also warned that the low level of compliance with the requirements of performing posts and reducing the participation of professionals" compromise the ability to strategically and operationally manage the action of the company. 39; State. "And he concluded:" The strengthening of senior public management is still a pending account. "

Political Positions

The report is supplemented by a section devoted to political offices, that is, those that make up executive power without being part of what is called "senior public management". Political positions are divided into higher authorities (ministers, secretaries and under-secretaries) and extra-religious offices (officials of similar rank to higher authorities but not part of the formal structure).

This year, with Decree 174, according to Cippec, political positions fell by 76%, although many displaced officials were recruited again. Non-confessional political positions increased from 3252 to 590 between December 2017 and March this year, a decrease of 82%. However, mechanisms such as retributive units and special project units were used to rehire most of the fired officials