Paper #3 - Performance-Informed Budgeting in Latin America Experiences and Opportunities.

Governments around the world are having to adjust institutions, including their budget systems, to operate in a more global, market-orientated environment. For many OECD, and increasingly for emerging market countries, including those in Latin America, this incorporates the move toward performance-informed budgeting, i.e. systematically incorporating nonfinancial performance information into budgetary decision-making and allocation processes.

This paper firstly distinguishes how performance-informed budgeting differs from traditional budget systems through: the explicit, and greater, focus on the results of public program objectives; institutional arrangements that seek to promote a performance culture through a network of structured performance agreements; and the emphasis on holding senior officials accountable for deliverables, often in return for greater delegation of authority. The paper then provides a framework for analyzing the potential roles of key decision-makers and institutions that create this network of structured performance agreements throughout budget cycle. The framework is applied in four selected Latin American countries to highlight the progress made so far and also to identify possible opportunities for deepening the reforms. Lastly, the paper offers some suggestions with regard to the broader public sector reforms that are necessary to support performance-informed budgeting, particularly in the Latin American context.

Paper #2 - Public Management Reforms and Property Tax Revenue Improvements: Lessons from Buenos Aires. 

Property taxes in Buenos Aires represent a concern from both a fiscal perspective and an equity perspective. From a fiscal perspective, the weight of property taxes in Buenos Aires has been decreasing steadily over the last seven years, due to the existing property assessment process. Apart from reducing potential government expenditures, the significant reduction in property tax revenue adds to the regressive nature of the overall tax structure: as property ownership tends to be heavily concentrated among the wealthy in developing countries and often income tax is either very difficult to collect, or does not exist, property taxes are often seen as a vehicle that contributes to vertical equity. From an equity perspective, the distortions generated by the current system have created serious inequities and represent a very important concern for the citizens of Buenos Aires and their local authorities.

This paper recommends options for improvements to property tax revenue in the city of Buenos Aires, focusing on management reforms based on international experiences, and provides potential lessons for other local governments in Latin America.

 

Paper #1 - Review of the Policy Utility of the Worldwide Governance Indicators for the Countries of Central America.

Conditions for good governance in Central America have improved considerably over the last ten years. New governments have prioritized good governance and reinforced the reform processes. However, there are particular governance concerns for Guatemala where the consolidation of democracy is still fragile and problems related to the impoverished indigenous population remain largely unsolved. Nicaragua and Honduras also continue to face important governance challenges. The World Governance Indicators (WGI) data shows little advance in the quality of governance for the Central American countries. The average percentile rank for the Central American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama) continues to be below the Latin American regional average.