Public governance

Measuring regulators’ performance can strengthen the contribution of regulatory policies to sustainable growth and development. While measuring a regulator’s performance is a fundamental function of a 'world class' regulator, it is challenging, starting with the definition of what should be measured and including the attribution of outcomes to regulators’ actions and the availability of robust and evidence-based evaluation methodologies. This review is the first application of an innovative methodology that helps regulators address these challenges and improve the way in which they assess their own performance. The mehtodology puts performance measurement in the wider context of governance arrangements of economic regulators. The review finds a close link between the independence of the regulator and performance. It also stresses the importance of focusing on regulatory tools and processes and measuring their quality to help improve performance. It highlights the need to define clear goals to develop output and outcome indicators that can be actionable and useful for the regulator. The review provides a roadmap for strengthening performance assessment by Colombia's communications regulator and is expected to help advance the better regulation agenda of other Colombian regulators and economic regulators of OECD members.

Regional development policy is a priority of Colombia’s government. The country has experienced sustained economic growth over the past decade; yet several territories still lack development opportunities. To promote growth in all regions the government has engaged in a series of reforms. For instance, it started allocating royalty payments generated by hydrocarbon resources to all departments and most municipalities, including those that are not endowed with natural resources. The reform also promotes better multilevel governance and represents a good policy practice for countries seeking to link natural resource development with regional development. To support the current efforts of Colombia’s government, this report illustrates policy recommendations to help national authorities adopting a territorial approach to inclusive economic development. In particular, the OECD recommends to: a) improve the quantity and quality of regional statistics and formulate urban and rural taxonomies that help tailor policies to places; b) involve territorial constituencies in the design of policy interventions and allocate to them more implementation responsibilities within the framework of the National Development Plan; c) promote coordination among subnational bodies to scale up investment in territories to avoid that public investment – and royalty payments – gets dispersed in a myriad of small-scale projects.

Prudent macroeconomic management and recent structural reforms have helped Colombia weather the recent financial crisis remarkably well.  The Government of Colombia has placed particular emphasis on simplifying formalities affecting business and citizens.  In addition, a number of initiatives have been launched to make the administration more transparent and accountable vis-à-vis citizens. However, after several years in place, this approach needs to be re-shaped , in order to go deeper into the legal background of regulations.  Colombia still lacks a whole-of-government policy for regulatory quality and needs to rethink the institutional set up to implement different regulatory tools in a coherent manner.  It also requires the adoption of a systemic approach to challenge the reasons for and the logic behind formalities (trámites) and, most importantly, regulations.  Furthermore, as in many other countries, the development and application of a comprehensive regulatory governance approach for sub-national governments and multi-level co-ordination are pending issues.