Former President of the Republic, Francisco Sagastispoke about the bill announced by the Government of Dina Boluarte on July 28, which proposes to create the Ministry of Infrastructure He said that the initiative contributes “absolutely nothing” because, in his opinion, the country’s problems cannot be solved by creating new institutions.
The former president pointed out that in the country there is often a “fetish” when facing problems that affect the development of the citizenry. In addition, he recalled that at the time the creation of the Ministry of Science and Technology during Pedro Castillo’s administration. However, he stressed that encouraging scenarios cannot be generated with purely bureaucratic solutions in the presence of “structural problems.”
“Absolutely nothing. The problem we have here in Peru is that we have the fetish that when there is a difficulty, a ministry must be created. You will remember the announcement of the creation of the Ministry of Science and Technology, now the Ministry of Infrastructure. We cannot give bureaucratic solutions to a structural problem,” he said in an interview with RPP.
There needs to be a different conception of the State, says Francisco Sagasti
Francisco Sagasti He expressed the need to have another conception regarding the Peruvian State regarding the challenges that citizens face today, both at the internal, national and international levels. He stressed that the solution does not lie in sectorizing “ministry by ministry”, but in implementing a defense of public administration with meritocracy.
He also criticized the fact that some State institutions are trying to ‘destroy’ the National Civil Service Authority (Servir)“by appointing teachers without passing regulatory examinations, which would generate an unfavorable context for the country’s education.”
In addition, it is necessary to modify the higher education system, creating universities in different parts of the national territory with professors who do not have the necessary level to provide students with quality content. He stressed that this cannot be done “bureaucratic solutions to structural problems.”
“Here what we need is to have another conception of the State and not only that, but the challenges we face today at the national, internal and international level, require another conception of what public management is and not to sectorize ministry by ministry, not to join or mix squares or rectangles like an organizational chart, but to try to defend a meritocratic and capable public administration. Not to do what is being done now, trying to destroy service, trying to appoint teachers and pass exams. Trying to destroy the higher education system by creating universities left and right without having professors to teach budget, etc. (…) Bureaucratic solutions to structural problems have never worked,” he said.
Francisco Sagasti described Dina Bolurte’s message to the nation as “inconsequential”
For his part, when asked about the Five-hour speech given by President Dina Boluarte On the occasion of the National Holidays, Sagasti criticized the lack of self-criticism and the lack of recognition of the mistakes made.
“What we have seen from the Executive is no intention to amend, no intention to acknowledge errors. A triumphalism of five hours that is totally inconsequential,” he lamented.