Gouvernance publique

This report explores ways for Mexico’s supreme audit institution, Auditoría Superior de la Federación (ASF), to strengthen its use of analytics. While the report focuses on the use of data to enhance the detection of integrity risks, it also recognises the implications of better analytics for the ASF’s broader digital transformation strategy. It offers a range of proposals for enhancing ASF’s data governance and embedding analytics into strategic initiatives. It also looks at building ASF’s analytics capacity, including addressing integrity considerations through better co-ordination, digital skills development and nurturing a data-centric culture.

To support Mexico’s supreme audit institution, the ASF (Auditoría Superior de la Federación), in fulfilling its mandate, this report analyses good practices in OECD countries for incorporating governance issues into public works audits. It provides examples and assesses different strategic considerations for ASF’s infrastructure audit organisation and practices, including objectives and resources. Finally, it analyses infrastructure auditing practices in the context of emergencies.

Governments can use artificial intelligence (AI) to design better policies and make better and more targeted decisions, enhance communication and engagement with citizens, and improve the speed and quality of public services. The Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region is seeking to leverage the immense potential of AI to promote the digital transformation of the public sector. The OECD, in collaboration with CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, prepared this report to help national governments in the LAC region understand the current regional baseline of activities and capacities for AI in the public sector; to identify specific approaches and actions they can take to enhance their ability to use this emerging technology for efficient, effective and responsive governments; and to collaborate across borders in pursuit of a regional vision for AI in the public sector. This report incorporates a stocktaking of each country’s strategies and commitments around AI in the public sector, including their alignment with the OECD AI Principles. It also includes an analysis of efforts to build key governance capacities and put in place critical enablers for AI in the public sector. It concludes with a series of recommendations for governments in the LAC region.

This paper provides recommendations to foster integrity and transparency in decision making in the State of Mexico, by regulating access and promoting stakeholder engagement; and to enhance transparency and integrity in the funding of political parties and election campaigns. It addresses current challenges related to political finance such as cash contributions and clientelism, as well as the need to ensure adequate audit capacities and effective sanctions that advance accountability. Likewise, it analyses the state of play in terms of interactions between stakeholders, on the one hand, and public officials and legislators, on the other, providing recommendations to prevent policy capture, preserve integrity, and strengthen transparency.

Many Latin American countries have experienced improvements in income over recent decades, with several of them now classified as high-income or upper middle-income in terms of conventional metrics. But has this change been mirrored in improvements across the different areas of people’s lives? How’s Life in Latin America? Measuring Well-being for Policy Making addresses this question by presenting comparative evidence for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) with a focus on 11 LAC countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay). Spanning material conditions, quality of life, resources for future well-being, and inequalities, the report presents available evidence on well-being both before and since the onset of the pandemic, based on the OECD Well-being Framework. It also identifies priorities for addressing well-being gaps and describes how well-being frameworks are used in policy within Latin America and elsewhere around the world, providing lessons for governments on what is needed to put people’s well-being at the centre of their action. The report is part of the EU Regional Facility for Development in Transition for Latin America and the Caribbean.

A clear, efficient, and modern regulatory framework for pesticides is essential for addressing their impacts on human health and the environment, supporting a life-cycle approach to their management, and ensuring crop protection and a sustainable agricultural industry. This report identifies the gaps, barriers, implementation flaws and inefficiencies that affect the regulatory framework of pesticides in Mexico. It takes stock of the regulatory framework and recent reforms, and identifies both the areas that pose the greatest challenge for the effective regulation of pesticides and those where regulation – or lack of it – in pesticides most affects policy objectives and economic activity. These challenges and practices are assessed in view of OECD principles and country experiences, and recommendations are provided to support better regulation efforts. The report finds that Mexico would benefit from adopting a comprehensive, mutually-agreed policy strategy for pesticides, recognising that pesticide management is a shared responsibility across national and local governments, the pesticide industry, pesticide users, as well as the general public.

This review analyses the public procurement system, processes and tools applied in the State of Mexico, the biggest federal entity in the country in terms of population. It assesses the extent of centralisation of the procurement function, its implications and areas of opportunity to reap the benefits of such strategy. By analysing the degree of competition in public tenders, the review provides alternatives to increase competitive pressures to maximise efficiency and value-for-money. Likewise, it evaluates the e-procurement platform COMPRAMEX and its potential to incorporate new transactional functions. Finally, the review assesses measures implemented to advance integrity in public procurement and the professionalisation of the procurement workforce. It provides concrete proposals addressing every aspect of the procurement lifecycle, from planning and market consultations to contract management.

This review analyses the Anti-corruption Policy of the State of Mexico and Municipalities, highlighting its strengths (i.e. inclusion and rigour) as well as the need to include specific integrity risks (i.e. policy capture) to make it more comprehensive. The review analyses how the State Government could develop ownership of ethical rules and values to effectively influence public officials’ behaviour. It also assesses the internal control and risk management scheme of the State of Mexico, providing an overview of its good practices and weak points. Finally, it examines the role of the administrative liability regime for state public officials and its effectiveness in ensuring accountability. It describes the legal framework for administrative responsibilities, which provides a comprehensive and solid foundation for enforcing integrity rules and standards, but requires support to improve implementation.

Pursuing sustainable development requires a whole-of-society effort, where the public sector engages with citizens, the private sector and civil society organisations. With this goal in mind, in 2014, the Nuevo León (Mexico) government created the Nuevo León’s Council for Strategic Planning to develop, inter alia, a 2015-2030 Strategic Plan. This review provides an assessment of Nuevo León’s monitoring and evaluation systems for this Strategic Plan, as essential tools for achieving long-term objectives and delivering results. The review also assesses the general role of the Council in providing policy advice. It draws on a wealth of comparative international experiences in promoting sustainable development through long-term planning, as well as in monitoring and evaluation of policy priorities through inclusive and participatory processes. The report’s recommendations seek to promote an evidence-informed approach to public governance, and, ultimately, help Nuevo León deliver better results for citizens, paving the way for inclusive and sustainable development.

This paper studies the potential drivers of governments’ approval rates in 18 Latin American countries using Internet search query data from Google Trends and traditional data sources. It employs monthly panel data between January 2006 and December 2015. The analysis tests several specifications including traditional explanatory variables of governments’ approval rates – i.e. inflation, unemployment rate, GDP growth, output gap – and subjective explanatory variables – e.g. perception of corruption and insecurity. For the latter, it uses Internet search query data to proxy citizens’ main social concerns, which are expected to drive governments’ approval rates. The results show that the perception of corruption and insecurity, and complaints about public services have a statistically significant association with governments’ approval rates. This paper also discusses the potential of Internet search query data as a tool for policy makers to understand better citizens’ perceptions, since it provides highly anonymous and high-frequency series in real-time.