Revista de Administración Pública

Esta revista forma parte del acervo de la Biblioteca Jurídica Virtual del Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas de la UNAM
www.juridicas.unam.mx
http://biblio.juridicas.unam.mx
Plata Córdoba Study made by the OECD about the budgetary process in Mexico
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OECD, Study made by the OECD about the budgetary process
in Mexico. Paris, Ediciones OCDE, 2009, 170 pp.
ISBN 978-92-64-07342-5
Erika Plata Córdoba
It is about the Report made by a group of experts and officials, formed
by Teresa Curristine, Eduardo Aldunate, Richard Emery, Philipp
Krause and Agustin Redonda. The study was finished on the month
of June, 2009. Its reading is quick and shows in a very clear way how
the budgetary process amendment has been taking place during the
last decade in Mexico. It is a highly recommended lecture for every
public server, but most of all, for those who are new in the job. Its
structure consists of five chapters.
In the first chapter, it talks about the fiscal performance of the
Mexican economy and the challenges to be faced. The second one is
centered in the budget creation process. Chapter three analyzes the
role of Congress in the budget process; while the fourth one studies
the execution process of the budget, and on the last chapter, the
establishment of a new budgetary model according to the performance
evaluation and administrative improvement is revised.
The content of the first chapter deals with the structure of the
Federal Government and the particular characteristics of the fiscal
federalism. It is mentioned that the budgetary balance measures have
gone through two important amendments. Both had the purpose of
ending with the fiscal challenges, such as reducing its dependency
on oil income, improving the economical growth rate, increasing the
tax revenue as well as efficiency and performance of government
spending and strengthening the fiscal federalism. All of these, in
contexts controlled by financial crisis and global recession.
DR © 2010. Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública, A. C.
Esta revista forma parte del acervo de la Biblioteca Jurídica Virtual del Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas de la UNAM
www.juridicas.unam.mx
http://biblio.juridicas.unam.mx
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Revista de Administración Pública XLV 1
On the second chapter the process of budgetary creation is described.
It begins by describing the structure of the Secretariat of Finance and
Public Credit and its main activities. The function of the President
of the Republic is mentioned in detail as well as his relation with
other State Secretariats and the CONEVAL (Consejo Nacional de
Evaluación de la Política de Desarrollo Social).
The annual process, content and structure of the budget are detailed
in a very clear way, as well as the main fiscal laws, the economic
aspect and short term expenditure, the long term sustainability. It
concludes that the creation process of the budget shows acceptable
function levels and the following recommendations are made:
To establish a more integral frame of mid-term expenditure which
improves planning and offers more stability to the government`s
fiscal framework; to specify restrictions to the budget limits but only
when it is possible to facilitate the appropriation of resources to the
secretariats and to the managers of programs with the sole purpose
of strengthening its performance; to contribute in improving the fiscal
sustainability with generation and employment of long term prognosis;
consider the possibility of financing investment programs upon multiannual basis; improve the budget presentation and continue with the
creation process which is centralized by the Secretariat of Finance
and Public Credit.
The analysis of the approval stage of the Expense Budget of the
Federation and the central role of Congress are mentioned in detail
on chapter three, in which there is also a brief description of the
Mexican political system and the structure of its parties. This part
of the text is very interesting due to the formulations made around
de legislative approval cycle, the role of the presidential veto and
the function of the Superior Audit of the Federation as the technical
supervisory instance. Among the recommendations which are given
in this aspect, we can mention the possibility that the Congress
assumes a greater commitment with the introduction of a budgetary
process based on performance; to establish an informal advisory
committee about the budgetary amendment and that the Superior
Audit of the Federation must consider the possibility of generating
more efficient and easy to understand information.
The fourth chapter analyzes the execution of the budget and the
financial negotiations considering the layout process, the structure of
assignments and the relative budgetary flexibility. It also deals with
government accounting issues, specifically, the Integral System of
DR © 2010. Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública, A. C.
Esta revista forma parte del acervo de la Biblioteca Jurídica Virtual del Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas de la UNAM
www.juridicas.unam.mx
http://biblio.juridicas.unam.mx
Plata Córdoba Study made by the OECD about the budgetary process in Mexico
223
Government Accounting. It is interesting to observe the description
made by the authors about the internal control as well as the audit,
because a little analysis about the Career Professional Service Law
and the results obtained five years since it was put into force. Last, it
also informs about the government acquisition process.
In reference to the specific recommendations in these issues, it is
suggested to analyze the budgetary execution functions to improve
the discretional capacity and flexibility of the officials in charge of
the budget; generate realistic expectations around the temporary
horizons and the future challenges in the management of the
implementation process of the accounting amendment; that the
internal control facilities should take care of improving programs
instead of carrying out fulfillment audits. They also insist that there
should be an evaluation of the implementation and results of the
Career Professional Service Law and last, but not least, to make
emphasis in strengthening the performance management in the
functions of personnel, acquisitions and regulation of the Mexican
government.
Chapter five analyzes the most recent amendments about budget
and management according to performance. They are taken as the
most recent background to the establishment of the Performance
Evaluation System (SED), PROMAP and PRONAFIDE. Details are
offered about how the SED has two basic components: the first one
refers to the evolution of the programs and politics related to the
budget; the second one to the evaluation of management process. It
also includes a brief description of the Logic Framework methodology
and how it was used in Mexico to generate Result Indicator Matrices
(MIR) and for this certain specific outlines as well as a training
campaign have been established.
The chapter concludes with the analysis of the mechanism established
for the result presentation of the evaluations made to the federal
programs in a semaphorization system developed by the CONEVAL
and it mentions how performance results have begun to be used for
making budgetary decisions.
It is in the final chapter where the main conclusions of the study
are mentioned, like future challenges for the establishment of a
budget based on results. Among them, the improvement of industrial
cooperation and coordination is highlighted, mainly between the
Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit and Public Function with
DR © 2010. Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública, A. C.
Esta revista forma parte del acervo de la Biblioteca Jurídica Virtual del Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas de la UNAM
www.juridicas.unam.mx
http://biblio.juridicas.unam.mx
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Revista de Administración Pública XLV 1
the CONEVAL, to improve the quality and meaning of the information
about performance and integrate it to the budgetary process; to go
from fulfillment, to a performance point of view, transforming culture
as well as behavior of the public officials.
It is important to mention that the authors of the study make an
implicit recognition to the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit
leaving aside the participation of the Secretariat of Public Function,
even though it has the faculty and structure which are directly related
with the issues studied.
DR © 2010. Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública, A. C.