Puka Reyesvilla writes in La Prensa:
REQUIEM FOR THE SAFCO
The origin of the Law of the integrated financial governmental management, started with the Supreme Decree 22407, promulgated by Jaime Paz Zamora in 1990, it ordered the referral of the project to the Congress.
The instrument known as SAFCO – of control and governmental management – formed part of a series of provisions whose philosophy was the institutionalization and modernization of the State – as collateral measure, one can mention the election of the General Comptroller of the Republic by a two-thirds vote of Congress -.
The main objective of the SAFCO is to avoid the discretion in the use of public resources, starting with the authorities and ending in the last of officials – today so-called public servants. From small amounts not accounted for by their recipients up to large sums arranged irregularly, they were detected by the institutionalized Comptroller and, depending on the type of responsibility, sanctioned.
It did not prevent acts of corruption by some, certainly, but it persuaded many more to commit, or engage into coercive processes which could be subjected. At the best of the institutionalization, employees had to pass a workshop on this system to access – or keep them – into their jobs.
I do these considerations on the occasion of regret that one of the great rules of institutionalization of the State as it is (it was?) the law SAFCO has officially been overlooked from the administrative nomenclature. I say ‘officially’ have been many exceptions to its application that, in practice, already meant nothing to the regime that “just do it”. Although formally continues in force, the coup de grace was recently triggered when the Government decided to release, and before it, the public utilities from the control of SAFCO.
All the social energy that was the design and implementation of a mechanism of such magnitude has been thrown overboard. Discretion was already part of the management of the regime has been ratified with this barrabassades.
Corruption has just won a new space to extend its tentacles, with the blessing of the regime. By the way, for how many years ago is that Bolivia is with an interim controller?
Lets remember that Transparency International has found that Bolivia ranks among those countries with the highest perception of corruption. For a full Spanish ERBOL article on the subject, use the link below:
Bolivian Thoughts | Pensamientos Bolivianos (Bilingual/Bilingüe) 