Other Public Sector Study

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The World Bank's Support for Subnational Governance in Large Federal Countries: Lessons Learned from Argentina, Brazil and Nigeria

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022) Stoykov, Petar Georgiev ; Yilmaz, Serdar

Limited local tax revenue and low public sector efficiency are two critical problems of public sector management and key constraints for the economic and social development of many subnational governments in large federal countries. To create fiscal space without compromising macroeconomic stability and fiscal sustainability, there is a need for reforms that lead to better use of public resources and improved expenditure efficiency through reforms in budgeting, procurement, and tax administration. This note presents lessons learned from the World Bank’s subnational governance projects in three large federal countries - Argentina, Brazil and Nigeria - between 2008-2017. These lessons learned can be useful in shaping the design of future subnational governance projects in other federal countries, particularly those projects seeking to improve service delivery, public expenditure systems and core governance institutions.
Ethics and Corruption in the Federal Public Service: Civil Servants' Perspectives

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-12-09) World Bank

This Survey on Ethics and Corruption in the Federal Public Service was held online from April 28 to May 28, 2021, in partnership with the Office of the Federal Comptroller General (CGU), the Ministry of the Economy, and the National School of Public Administration (ENAP). All civil servants were represented in the sample, totaling 22,130 respondents. The sample covered all federative units and ministries. Most civil servants report having witnessed some sort of unethical practice during their time in the public sector. Of all respondents, 58.7 percent stated that they witnessed some unethical practice during their career in public service. The most frequent practices were using one's position to help friends or family and bending the rules under pressure from one’s superiors. Over the past three years, around one third of all civil servants (33.4 percent) witnessed some unethical practice, according to their reports. Corruption in the public service is multifaceted, thus requiring granular information about its nature, prevalence, and vulnerable actors. In view of its scope, thematic scope, and representativeness, the data generated by the study could become a valuable source for the development of knowledge about corruption in the federal public service. We hope that this Survey on Ethics and Corruption in the Federal Public Service becomes a tool to complement current and future efforts to fight corruption.
Promoting Competition in Local Markets in Mexico: A Subnational Application of the World Bank Group's Markets and Competition Policy Assessment Tool

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-06-01) World Bank

Stagnant productivity growth and high disparities in productivity levels across Mexican states have been holding back economic growth. In general, Mexico’s federal government has a solid competition policy framework in place. Subnational regulations in transport, agriculture, tourism, retail, and other sectors are holding back the potential of local economies to grow and provide consumers with affordable goods. Anticompetitive regulations for professionals such as notaries also increase the cost of doing business. The World Bank Group (WBG) was requested to address a critical gap and to pilot a reform-oriented engagement on competition policy at the subnational level. WBG engaged to motivate an actionable reform plan that can unlock competition in key markets at the local level. This note discusses the main findings of the WBG’s markets and competition policy assessment tool (MCPAT) application to various subnational governments in Mexico and the initial reform experience. It draws on the results of multiple pieces of analysis and implementation support projects since 2012 to assess, identify, prioritize, and modify regulations that restrict competition at the subnational level in key markets. This note is structured as follows: section 1 gives an introduction, section 2 discusses the international experience on the role of competition at the local level for development. Section 3 provides a brief presentation of the methodological steps of the MCPAT subnational application. Section 4 discusses incidences of anti-competitive regulation (some of which have been removed) to exemplify their harmful effect. Section 5 provides several examples of how to prioritize and design reforms based on how government interventions at the subnational level interact with particular features of subnational Mexican markets, as well as based on their feasibility and their potential effects.
The Political Economy of the 2016 Tobacco and Proposed Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax Increases in Colombia

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-09) Garcia, Maria Isabel ; Villar Uribe, Manuela ; Iunes, Roberto

In 2008, Colombia joined the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which includes measures related to price and taxes designed to reduce supply and demand. By 2015, the overall prevalence of smokers in the country had decreased slightly but still reached 17 percent. The impact of tobacco on the mortality and quality of life of Colombians was estimated as a direct loss of more than 600,000 years of life and more than 26,000 deaths each year. The price of cigarettes in Colombia in 2015 was so low (approximately 2 US dollars per pack of 20 cigarettes), that it was higher than just one other country in Latin America and in the Caribbean. At the time, Colombia was contending with shrinking oil revenue (owing to a sharp drop in oil prices) and constantly rising public expenditure. In the health sector cost pressures stemmed, among other factors, from a change in the government's responsibility for health coverage in the subsidized system that covers the cost of health services for the country's lowest population segments. It was in this context that the government in early 2015 created a committee of experts responsible for proposing changes in the country's tax structure. This document describes the course of events that led to the phased adjustment of the tobacco tax approved by Congress in December 2016, with a view to aligning the price of cigarettes in Colombia with the Latin American average. Despite the failed attempt to introduce a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, the discussion was framed and will most likely be renewed in the future.
Peru: Building a More Efficient and Equitable Fiscal Decentralization System

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-05-02) World Bank Group

Over the past two decades, Peru has achieved remarkable economic success. Average annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth has exceeded 5 percent since 2001. Poverty has been consistently reduced, and sustained improvements have been observed in social and human development. The poverty incidence rate fell from 58 to 23 percent between 2004 and 2014, and households’ incomes at the bottom 40 percent grew 50 percent faster than the national average. The structural transformation of Peru’s economy striking fast and widely shared growth transformed Peru into an upper-middle income and diversified economy. This report analyzes recent trends of the fiscal decentralization process in Peru and presents a set of reform options designed to harvest the envisaged efficiency and equity gains in service delivery that the fiscal decentralization was expected to bring. The analysis and policy options are presented in a conceptually logical order: (i) departing from institutional arrangements in the vertical structure of subnational governments passing to (ii) the need of a clearer definition of spending responsibilities among levels of government that needs to be followed by (iii) a commensurate redefinition of revenue assignments and (iv) enhancing equalization role of the transfer system.
Lei das Agências: An Analysis of Draft Law on Regulatory Agencies

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017) World Bank Group

Since 2013, a new legislation was being drafted by the Senate of Brazil, in response to the perception that the Agencies often lack financial, administrative and decision making autonomy, are subject to capture by both overt and tacit political interference, with appointees lacking the necessary skills and independence. In infrastructure, regulatory uncertainty and the resort to the court of law in matters that should normally be decided by the agencies and accepted by affected parties is particularly harmful when government faces excess (and growing) demand for infrastructure services. After being discussed and approved in two key Senate commissions, the draft law (DL) was approved unanimously by the Senate Special Commission on National Development with no need to go to the floor. The DL provides the agencies with considerable formal autonomy, being no coincidence that this is made explicit at the outset of the legislation (Article 3). While the DL provides substantial autonomy to the agencies, it also defines the mechanisms for external control and accountability in its second chapter. The fundamental reason for the support of the DL is the high degree of autonomy conferred on the agencies, guaranteeing independence of political interests, technical excellence, and greater transparency and accountability. Finally, the DL strongly encourages inter-agency cooperation, partly in response to a recurrent criticism regarding barriers facing firms when dealing with different government agencies both national and subnational.
Peru - Selected Issues in Fiscal Policy: Taxation and Equity

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-06-11) Junquera-Varela, Raul Felix ; Vostroknutova, Ekaterina

This report takes an in-depth look, from a policy perspective, at the trade-offs between increasing tax collection and improving the equity of the fiscal system. As part of this effort, the report places the Peruvian tax system in an international context and considers the key challenges the government is facing in its drive to increase revenue. It also conducts qualitative and quantitative analyses of the impact of taxes and transfers on inequality and on the distribution of income. The report then makes several policy proposals that would increase tax collection without jeopardizing equity, and it then simulates the impacts of these changes on collection and equity. This advice spanned the 2012-2014 period, and included research on several tax policy-related issues, such as legal advice on double-taxation treaties and in-depth analyses of tax exemptions. To keep the focus tight, some of the work is not included in this report. Contributions were originally written in Spanish to provide the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) with timely advice on the subject and were discussed with the counterparts during and immediately after its preparation. As a result of prioritizing this process, two teams focused on different areas of research and were able to contribute to the analytical base behind the ongoing tax reform. The report summarizes the main elements of this process and resulting advice. It comes out at the same time as the finance ministry announces the first set of tax reforms that were informed by this work.
Review of International Practices for Determining Medium Term Resource Needs of Spending Agencies

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-05-01) Di Francesco, Michael ; Barroso, Rafael

This volume presents two research reports carried out with the objective of advancing practical knowledge in costing and use of cost information in the public sector. Both reports were carried out with support of the Governance Partnership Facility Trust Fund and in partnership between the Brazilian and Indonesian country offices of the World Bank. The first report aims to review international practices for determining medium term resource needs of spending agencies (what is also referred to as bottom-up costing for medium term expenditure frameworks). The principal objective is to compile comparative information on practices and methodologies used by selected OECD countries to determine program costs as part of their medium term expenditure planning. The second report details the experiences of three selected subnational governments in Brazil: Sao Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul and Pernambuco with the development and use of cost information. The main objective is to present comparative information on practices adopted by these jurisdictions. It is expected that this volume helps to fill a gap in the technical literature by presenting practical examples of the development and use of cost information within budgetary and fiscal planning frameworks in advanced and developing countries both at the national and subnational level.
Colombia - Programmatic Strategic Engagement on Public Sector Management and Governance : Concept Note

(Washington, DC, 2011-03-14) World Bank

This concept note presents the strategic engagement of the World Bank in the areas of public sector management and governance in Colombia. It describes the short and medium term approach through which the Bank will provide support to the country on those areas of reform, as well as their links and synergies with other sectors activities. It also provides a summary of the Bank's public sector management and governance recent activities and their links with the program proposed by this strategy. This concept note lays out the strategy and program of financial support, knowledge and convening services to continue supporting the Government's public sector reform agenda in a demand-driven and flexible manner. The program aims to contribute to improve sustained and inclusive growth and competitiveness through strengthened government's management and improved service delivery. Its objectives are aligned with the National Development Plan (NDP) pillars and cross-cutting themes of good governance and regional development and integration, as well the Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) outcomes. The remainder of this note is structured as follows: (i) section two summarizes the trend public sector reforms have been following in Colombia; (ii) section three provides an overview of the trajectory the reform key National Government Management Institutions (NGMI) has followed in Colombia, summarizing the current status of Government's efforts in this area and outlining the pending policy reform agenda; (iii) section four presents a review of past Bank engagement in NGMI' s reforms and a description of the strategy to respond to the Government's priorities and pending reform agenda, including key expected outputs; (iv) section five provides an overview of the trajectory decentralization reform has followed in Colombia, summarizing the current status of Government's efforts in this area and outlining the pending policy reform agenda; (v) section six presents a review of past Bank engagement in decentralization reforms and a description of the strategy to respond to the Government's priorities and pending reform agenda, including key expected outputs; and, (vi) section seven contains a resource section, describing the timeline of proposed activities, budget, team composition, and processes for quality review, monitoring and evaluation.
Base Line Study : Transparency in the Public Construction Sector in Guatemala

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-11) Multi-Stakeholder Group

This study examined the level of transparency in the public construction sector in Guatemala to create a benchmark for the implementation of the CoST (Construction Sector Transparency) Initiative in the country. It was based on an analysis of the disclosure of 31 indicators of Material Project Information (MPI), as defined by the CoST Initiative. The study showed that disclosure of Material Project Information in Guatemala is supported significantly by the national legal framework. The law mandates online disclosure of almost 87 percent of the MPI required by the CoST Initiative. This is the highest percentage among countries participating in the CoST Initiative to-date. Yet, an analysis of 16 projects selected randomly in seven Procurement Entities (PEs) - four at the central level and three at the local level - revealed that actual information disclosure only amounts, on average, to 38 percent of the MPI required by law. This represents 34 percent of the MPI required by the CoST Initiative. Procurement Entities (PEs) at the central government level disclose on average 40 percent of the MPI required by the law online in the GUATECOMPRAS (Contracting System of the State of Guatemala) system; PEs at the local level disclose 35 percent. In the project cycle, the stages registering the lowest levels of information disclosure were: design (6.29 percent of the MPI required by the law), execution (5.50 percent), supervision (4.13 percent) and post-contract (19.25 percent). Road infrastructure projects under analysis underwent, on average, 17 variation orders, with additional times and price amounting to 123 percent and 103 percent, respectively. Based on the results of the study, the Guatemalan CoST Initiative will collaborate in its pilot phase with selected PEs to facilitate the analysis and disclosure of MPI throughout the project cycle.