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Colombia Public Administration
Before 1957 the administrative system was a spoils
system in
which patronage served to reward political followers and
public
resources were used to promote party loyalties. Each time
a party
fell from power, the bureaucracy had to be totally
revamped. The
absence of any career civil servants or public service
ethic was
not conducive to policy continuity and long-term planning.
The creation of the National Front in 1958 led to the
establishment of a public service-oriented bureaucracy.
According
to the amendments approved by the 1957 plebiscite, party
affiliations are not to be considered in the hiring,
firing, and
promotion of career administrators, and government leaders
are
obliged to follow civil service norms passed by Congress
in dealing
with administrative personnel. Although career bureaucrats
retain
the right to vote, they are not to engage in any other
political
activity.
To implement the amendments, the government enacted a
career
civil service law in 1958 and put it into effect by
executive
decree (Law Number 19) in 1960. Law Number 19 and
subsequent
decrees established the Commission of Administrative
Reform to
study ways to reorganize the executive branch and the
National
Civil Service Commission to centralize the government's
personnel
policies by establishing a professional civil service
through oral
and written examinations. It also created the Higher
School of
Public Administration (Escuela Superior de Administración
Pública--
ESAP) to train middle- and upper-level bureaucrats by
offering a
four-year college program, as well as graduate courses in
public
administration, urban planning, international relations,
and other
fields relevant to government service.
Law Number 19 also sought to complement the civil
service by
developing national planning and long-term programs
through the
creation of the National Council for Economic Policy and
Planning
(Consejo Nacional de Política Económica y
Planificación--CNPEP) and
the Administrative Department of Planning and Technical
Services
(Departamento Administrativo de Planificación y Servicios
Técnicos-
-DAPST). The DAPST's mission was to formulate long-term
development
plans and create long-range programs of public investment.
These
administrative reforms created the conditions for
developing a
technically competent bureaucracy and served to
standardize
procedures, elevate the role of planning, and provide some
administrative consistency.
Additional reforms in 1968 made various personnel
offices of
the ministries and agencies responsible for developing a
career
service (carrera administrativa) and allowed
government
employees to apply for competitive positions in the civil
service.
The career civil service system remained, however, highly
partisan
and small; by 1970 career service employees numbered only
18,000.
In the mid-1980s, civil service employees still
constituted only
about 15 percent of the bureaucracy; the rest were
patronage
appointees. The sizable bureaucracy existed primarily to
provide
educated young people with socially prestigious and
relatively
well-paying jobs. It remained generally overstaffed,
inefficient,
and partisan, with appointments frequently made on the
basis of
political patronage, private influence, connections
(palancas), or nepotism.
In addition to the various governmental reforms, the
technical
development of the small, professional, and public-service
oriented
segment of the civil service was furthered by the
proliferation of
decentralized agencies and the assistance of international
and
foreign agencies in supplying training and expertise. This
group
was able to legitimize planning, develop long-term
programs,
generate some grass-roots support, and occasionally
minimize
conflicts involved in administering programs. Three kinds
of
semiautonomous or decentralized agencies existed: the
independents,
such as Incora; the government-operated and
government-controlled
public enterprises, such as the Coffee Bank; and the mixed
enterprises, which were financed and controlled by a
combination of
public and private sources. The proliferation and
independence of
these agencies during the 1960s and early 1970s, however,
inhibited
governmental coordination. Although a ministry or
government
department directed each agency, the large number of
agencies
limited the degree of control actually exercised by the
executive
branch.
Data as of December 1988
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