More than an improvement of the management of the State, the proposal of reform to the spent public could be a strategy of Government to prepare citizens for the tax changes proposed by the reform fiscal and tax reform that is coming.
“This is part of a strategy of convictionso that the population understands that the Government is doing its part by reducing the spent public and, in that way, achieve support or neutralize disapproval for the reform “tax reform, which will bring more and new taxes,” said Haivanjoe Ng Cortiñas, an economist with experience in public service.
The dean of the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, Ciriaco Cruz, agrees with this, explaining that governments usually “build a story” before implement changes of as much weight as a reform structural that affects a country’s taxes.
“It seems like a vision to me extremely optimistic of the Governmentwhich requires more information,” Ciriaco Cruz observed.
Explain the how
Although the merger of councils and institutions to ministries, as well as the elimination of entities public it’s a advance in the management State, others economists consulted by Free Newspaper They question that the Government be able to achieve the goal proposal, of save 25,000 million pesos through these operations.
57.7% of the budget of 15 of the 17 institutions that would be reformed corresponds to the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (Mescyt), of which 17,356 million are transfers channeled by that entity for the issuance of scholarships, the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) and the Technological University of the Eastern Cibao.
The expert in finance publicNelson Suárez explained that, unless these amounts are covered with 4% of GDP for education, the savings real with the rest of the institutions indicated is not viable.
For this reason, he considers that the Government should have started the other way around, presenting the country actions practices to generate the savingsand then present a balance of the proportion that would be needed to close the public deficit gap and then introduce the reform tax. “We have a problem of management very serious, nobody touches it,” he lamented.
The vice president of the Regional Center for Sustainable Economic Strategies, Miguel Collado Di Franco, believes that it is up to the authorities inform to the population of the processes to merge or eliminate the institutions.
“This would be the efficiency: be transparent with the taxpayers and point out the you save in general, administrative and personnel expenses,” he said.
He added that while the proposal represents a advanceit is a very small amount: if saved, the 25,000 million pesos barely represent 0.3% of the GDP estimated by the Government by 2025.
For Ng Cortinas, a approach integral of the reduction of the spent public requires that the Government I stopped making the budget of the nation based on the increase in spent to each institution, with respect to the GDP. “It must assume the formulation of the budget based on zero, for which each ministry must justify each peso appropriated to it, backed by expected results,” he said.
For financial consultant Franklin Vásquez, a comprehensive reform of public spending cannot be done without reducing payrolls, since the State is called upon to focus on achieving greater administrative efficiency.
“When you talk about improving efficiency, increasing productivity, seeking to produce quality goods and services from the State, the focus should be on the processes, not on the people,” he concluded. Ng Cortiñas differed in this regard, indicating that the merger of entities would increase unemployment in the public sector, which would undermine economic growth after a fall in aggregate demand, and considers that there are other alternatives to reduce spending, such as the reduction in state advertising, which amounts to 11.15 billion pesos. Given the authorities’ announcement that some employees will be relocated and others will have to retire, Ciriaco Cruz believes that, rather than a reduction in terms of resources, what there will be is a reorganization and distribution of salaries and the public payroll among the already merged entities.
