Public Governance in Costa Rica
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│ 1 PUBLIC GOVERNANCE IN COSTA RICA PUBE © OECD 2021 2 │ FOREWORD This volume consists of two background reports prepared by the OECD Secretariat in the context of Costa Rica’s accession process to the OECD, which was launched in April 2015 by decision of the OECD Council (see the Roadmap for the Accession of Costa Rica to the OECD Convention, [C(2015)93/FINAL]). On 15 May 2020, the OECD Council decided to invite Costa Rica to accede to the OECD Convention and thereby become a Member of the Organisation upon deposit of its instrument of accession to the OECD Convention, which was pending at the time of publication. These reports were prepared to support the evaluation of public governance tools and practices of Costa Rica undertaken by the OECD Public Governance Committee in the context of its accession review. The information presented in the first part of this report was accurate as at April 2017, and covered the following topics: sound structure of government; transparency and accountability; integrity and public procurement; budget performance; public employment and human resourses managemen; digital government; and multilevel governance. The second part provides a shorter update on specific core priority areas, i.e. center of government coordination, budgetary governance and public employment identified by the Public Governance Committee and was accurate as at April 2019. The corresponding assessments refer to the state of affairs at these two respective moments. The Public Governance Committee agreed on 27 July 2020 to declassify the reports in their current versions. They were published in July 2021. The reports were coordinated by Ms Eva Beuselinck and Ms Emma Cantera, with input from the different divisions of the Public Governance Directorate. © OECD 2021 │ 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I – 2017 ACCESSION ASSESSMENT REPORT .................................................................. 8 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 9 SECRETARIAT'S PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT ..................................................................... 11 Position of Costa Rica vis-à-vis OECD legal instruments ................................................................. 11 Policies of Costa Rica ......................................................................................................................... 19 Recommendations .............................................................................................................................. 24 SECTION 1: SOUND STRUCTURE OF GOVERNMENT ............................................................ 32 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 32 Sound structure of government, including the separation of powers ................................................. 32 Co-ordination, leadership and foresight capacity within the Centre of Government ......................... 47 Effective justice institutions ............................................................................................................... 58 Critical Risk Management .................................................................................................................. 81 Strengthening the Delivery of Gender Public Policies ....................................................................... 95 SECTION 2: Transparency and accountability .............................................................................. 105 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 105 Legal framework............................................................................................................................... 106 Policy framework ............................................................................................................................. 109 Institutional framework .................................................................................................................... 110 Implementation of transparency, accountability and citizen engagement initiatives ....................... 118 Preliminary assessment and recommendations ................................................................................ 121 SECTION 3: Integrity in the public sector and public procurement............................................ 123 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 123 General characteristics ...................................................................................................................... 123 Institutional arrangement of the Costa Rican Public Integrity System ............................................ 126 Values and standards of conduct ...................................................................................................... 129 Conflict of interest ............................................................................................................................ 131 Internal control ................................................................................................................................. 134 Lobbying ........................................................................................................................................... 137 Whistle-blower protection ................................................................................................................ 138 Public procurement ........................................................................................................................... 139 Preliminary assessment and recommendations ................................................................................ 150 SECTION 4: Budget performance ................................................................................................... 152 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 152 Legal and institutional framework .................................................................................................... 152 Managing budgets within clear, credible and predictable limits for fiscal policy ............................ 158 Aligning public expenditure with the medium-term strategic priorities of government .................. 163 Designing capital budgeting to meet national development needs................................................... 165 Ensuring that budget documents and data are open, transparent and accessible .............................. 166 Providing for an inclusive, participative and realistic debate on budgetary choices ........................ 167 Present a comprehensive, accurate and reliable account of the public finances .............................. 169 Actively plan, manage and monitor the execution of the budget, financial management ................ 169 © OECD 2021 4 │ Ensure that performance, evaluation and value for money are integral to the budget process ........ 170 Assessing fiscal risks: off-budget funds and public guarantees ....................................................... 171 Promoting the integrity and quality of budgetary forecasts and independent fiscal institution ....... 172 Budgeting for the subnational governments ..................................................................................... 173 Preliminary assessment and recommendations ................................................................................ 174 SECTION 5: PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR ............................................................................................................................. 176 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 176 Composition, Structure and Legal Context ...................................................................................... 176 Institutional foundations of HRM in Costa Rica’s Central Public Administration .......................... 177 Data-informed HRM......................................................................................................................... 179 Workforce planning .......................................................................................................................... 181 The Civil service career .................................................................................................................... 182 Salary determination ......................................................................................................................... 183 Performance management ................................................................................................................ 185 Training and Development ............................................................................................................... 187 Senior Civil Service .......................................................................................................................... 188 Industrial relations ............................................................................................................................ 189 HRM at subnational