Introduction.
In the last 10 years, the Administration of the University of Antioquia has refused to go decisively into adopting reforms that allow a greater development of relations between the administration and the academy. The development plan
1995-2006 practically did not deal with this issue or did it in a timid way, proof of this is that despite having more than three years of existence, the project for the implementation of the University System of Integral Management (SUGI) has not yet makes significant contributions in this regard.
In May 2002, a specification with a proposal for the "Administrative Restructuring of the Vice-Rectories, Directions and Offices of the Central Administration of the University" was presented to the Rectoral Committee, with the intention of fulfilling the commitment established in the Strategic Sector IV (Planning and Administrative Modernization) of the Development Plan 1995-2006.
At that time, options for reform of the organizational structure were basically oriented to develop, effectively, Title IV of the General Statute of the University regarding the conformation of the Divisions, conceived so that the faculties were organized through this figure academic - administrative.
The members of the Rectoral Committee expressed their opinion regarding restructuring in the Vice-Rectories and Directions, or better, the Central Administration, since it was mistakenly believed that the administrative reform of the University was the reform of the Central Administration. In some cases, such as in the Office of the Vice President for Research with Columbus, they had already undergone a structure analysis.
After several discussions, the need for a restructuring based on the review of the University's processes was raised, to adapt it to the new conditions that were presented to it and allow it to achieve its missionary objectives in an effective way. A commission was then created, made up of the Administrative Vice-Rectory (Leader) and the Planning Office with the accompaniment of the Office of Internal Control, to present a proposal that would meet the stated objective.
In the first semester of 2004, as a result of a first approach to the current project, the document "Elements for the formulation of a university system of comprehensive management -SUGI-", whose authors were Álvaro, was published in the Magazine Contaduría Universidad de Antioquia number 44 Pérez R, Carlos Figueroa A, Flavio Restrepo C. and Luis Ovidio Ramirez A.
In the second semester of 2006, as a result of the meetings of the project commission, expanded with some deans, Professor Mauricio Alviar Ramirez, prepared a draft document called “Rethinking the Academic-Administrative Structure of the University of Antioquia”. At the analysis and discussion meeting on the document, the SUGI commission agreed to make observations on it, with the aim of enriching it and broadening the debate on a topic of such importance for university life and for the future development of the Institution..
At the time, the observations on the annotated document were sent by the author, which have been taken as the basis for this document, whose main objective is to record his thoughts on a topic of such importance to the University, since his Withdrawal from the Institution will not allow its participation in the subsequent debate.
Administrative modernization or reform of the University?
“(…) It is enough to be familiar with the pedagogical literature of these times; There is nothing to expect from those who do not shudder from the extraordinary poverty of our spirit and from the true circus dance that reigns in this field.
Here our philosophy must begin not with amazement, but with dread. ”1
Meeting the public administration is the worst thing that can happen to the citizen: he is mistreated, his attention time is prolonged, he is subjected to an ordeal in which his dignity is annihilated and his patience is exhausted. This seems to be the constant in all public entities, including universities.
The administration of the Colombian public University in general and particularly, the central administration of these institutions, have a bad image, not only before the academic units (perception of teachers and students) but before the external interest groups. This is due, in part, to the lack of adequate communication channels between the different university levels and between them and society. The administration, with few exceptions, does not carry out periodic accountability to the university community and society. For these, what the former does (and how it does) becomes a real mystery.
To confirm the above, Edgardo Castro affirms that: “(…) the function of philosophy as critical thinking would be to analyze and prosecute, from the point of view of truth and ends, procedures, products and claims of technical rationality. The content of a philosophy of the University would be given, then, by what the technical rationality, in this case applied to the university institution (to its organization, to the relations between its parts, to its objectives), neglects or because it is inaccessible to him or simply because he is not interested. ” two
A second factor of bad image of the central administration of the University can be found in the empowerment that the administrative career servers or “residents” have in their positions (term that will be analyzed later), who permanently use their position or the support of the unions to carry out demonstrations of power. It seems that whoever is more rude and aggressive towards his peers is the one who achieves respect and recognition: the characteristic of a violent country like ours.
Another cause of such a situation is the discomfort generated by the delay in the procedures and the management of the processes, or the laziness with which the servers are often attended, which generates a rejection to resort to the central administration, since in its opinion "is an inoperative and careless bureaucracy." The most significant cases of neglect occur in the areas belonging to the Administrative Vice-Rectory, although in general terms, the situation is constant in the other departments or sections of the central administration. This image should be changed with a true concept of service, because despite the fact that some processes and dependencies are certified under ISO standards, the impact of this process on the quality of services and on the satisfaction of university servers has been almost none.
It is worth highlighting the importance for the University of having an adequate organizational structure that allows the timely, efficient, effective and excellent achievement of its missionary objectives. Obviously, the need to continuously and permanently adapt the academic-administrative structure, seeking that its objectives generate greater value for academic processes, since administration (being a support process) must be at the service of processes. missionaries.
Additionally, the administration must be designed in such a way that it is also aimed at facilitating the normal development of the activities of the administrative servers (misnamed “Non-Teachers”), through their proper inclusion in the processes.
There is a marked conflict between the administrative and academic areas, which has its maximum expression in the Academic Council, a place where both instances converge. Constantly, the academic part ruthlessly criticizes the Rectoral Committee but at the same time claims its right to participate in the central administration. This criticism seems to have its origin, among others, in the fact that the deans are the representatives of the Rector in the faculties, but are not appointed by him, which generates a situation of ungovernability at the University.
Understanding the structure as an element of university management is essential to avoid falling into the trap that "the bad thing is the structure" and the mere fact of modifying it ends the problems. There are other elements in the university management process that must be considered as a whole.
In the introduction to the study "University Philosophies and Conflict of Rationalities", its compilers note:
“The expression conflict of rationalities is not haphazard. If the modern University has been defined as the place of reason (E. Kant, Le Conflict des Facultés en trois Sections, Paris, Vrin, 1793), if reason has been its differential element, that which at the same time provides its foundation and that gives meaning to the institution, today that sense has given way giving rise to a conflict between different rationalities. Said conflict is expressed in at least two registers: one is related to the mission, goals and institutional life of the University within the framework of its relationship with society and the State. The other is related to the differentiation of university knowledge and the corresponding epistemological debate. ”3
Understanding this conflict of rationalities is essential to focus the debate on the reform of the academic-administrative structure in Alma Mater. However, it must be kept in mind that few institutions are as conservative and as resistant to change as the University, which persistently refuses to question their administrative and academic structures. Don't be scared, because “from its beginnings, the history of the University was the history of its reforms. So close is this connection that the term reforma, reformatio, already appears in the first statutes of the University of Paris ”(1215) 4.
Conflict-based reforms
The General Statute of the University in its Title IV conceives the academic-administrative structure from the Faculties organized into Divisions (currently known as Areas), Schools and Institutes, the latter two because of their relationship with applied or basic research. Some Schools and Institutes have a presence on the Academic Council as guests, but the same does not happen with other Schools and Institutes, old or newly created in the Faculties, which presents a great confusion to understand their operation. The Corporations have entered a subsistence crisis whose discussion on the validity or otherwise of their reason for being and their objectives, must be addressed by the Academic Council and the Superior Council.
The most recent case of structural changes is the proposal of the Faculty of Medicine on the creation of the Institute for Medical Research, as a result of the merger of the Center for Medical Research and the School of Medical Research. A similar case occurs with other instances such as those mentioned above, academic corporations. The proliferation of administrative instances continues in light of personal conflicts or administrative inefficiencies, which should not be a criterion for creating or removing dependencies, without mediating serious studies in light of the needs of the University and its development plan.
In her studies on this topic, Professor Mónica Jaramillo R., a professor at the School of Philosophy of the Industrial University of Santander - UIS, states:
“(…) Academic culture is, first of all, cultural and knowledge democracy (professionalization of disciplines should not be confused with cryptic knowledge, dogmatic closure and academic autism); cultivation of the multidisciplinary spirit and civility. I would like to emphasize this, because of the academic fundamentalism and insularity of knowledge that prevails in many of the academic units of the UIS, the "Conflict of Faculties" (to paraphrase the title of Kant's excellent booklet on the philosophical character of the university) In addition, there is an increasingly growing trend towards the fragmentation of academic and administrative bodies, which fosters attitudes of misunderstanding, ignorance of the other and - mutual mistrust. There is no real knowledge on the part of the university community,of the proper functions to the different administrative instances. ” 5
A contribution to the reduction of these conflicts may be the consolidation of ethical protocols, based on agreements that define a universal scope of the university community. The document "Manifesto for the University to live", signed by the Academic Council and the Student Assembly, can be the basis for the construction of this great ethical agreement, if the teachers, the workers union and the administrative employees also welcome it. as your own. The Office of Internal Control had been promoting an approach with people interested in discussion and analysis regarding the issue of ethical protocols for the University of Antioquia; Likewise, the publication of the Phronesis column in the Alma Mater newspaper has made contributions to this first-rate discussion at the University.
Financial aspects
"The public character that is assigned to a university, like any other institution, does not come exclusively from its dependence on the State with regard, for example, to the main origin of the funds that support it, but to the sense of its activity, … ”6
The tendency of governments to decrease their contributions to public universities, worldwide, has forced them to seek new sources of financing and to launch into the market, where they compete with the business sector (Sale of goods and services, including marketing technology and scientific innovations) and with private universities offering a significant number of graduate programs.
Another source of resources, is conceived in the Extension, through the provision of advisory and consultancy services, a role that is strongly questioned by some graduates who consider them to be unfair competition or in more favorable conditions for the University, especially from the point of view fiscal. Research is, in turn, a source of financing for its own projects, as well as international aid and, more recently, the generation of university companies and the development of business projects, such as that carried out through the “Temporary Union (UT) University of Antioquia-OSP (Mexico) ”to commercialize the SIPLEX development of the Microelectronics Group of the Faculty of Engineering and the“ UT National University, Jaime Isaza Cadavid Polytechnic, University of Antioquia-Medellín Metro ”,to provide the driving charges for the Medellín Metro.
Regarding the use of financial resources, the research at the University of Antioquia increased its demand in 2005, it also presented an increase in the number of researchers but decreased in the number of projects, with which the trend that the system had been showing of investigations was distorted.
A great threat to the sustainability of income, and in general, of the University's finances, arises with the possibility of taxing sales and consultancies carried out by public universities with the sales tax.
In this sense, the newspaper El Colombiano, dated October 17, 2006, published an article called "Tax Reform Strikes Scientific Research", whose sections read:
"(…) To make matters worse, the next tax reform would reduce state participation in research by abolishing special treatment for the corresponding projects and taxing VAT on research material.
In addition, the contributions made by companies for research in universities would be eliminated, destroying initiatives such as those mentioned at the beginning.
Despite the government's speech about increased interest in research, the tax reform does exactly the opposite… "
Although this aspect did not happen in the tax reform, it is important to keep it in mind for the future. The guidelines and approaches of the State and multilateral organizations will be aimed at achieving the removal of this prerogative for the Public University.
The Academic Council, with the aim of studying the issue of the economic contributions that the dependencies must make to the central administration for the extension projects, created the so-called “Academic Commission of Costs” (The most typical case of inefficiency of a commission), which, for more than three years, has been discussing the matter without giving a concrete proposal on it. Perhaps some things have become clear, such as the fact that the University does not know how to pay, does not know how to negotiate and instead of selling, they buy from it. Some of the projects offered by the University for extension activities result in significant losses, due to the lack of correct budgeting and costing.Other times they are executed without even analyzing them from a financial point of view because they correspond to political commitments that the central administration or the administrations of the academic units must fulfill.
Sometimes, and depending on the interests, "the University" is assimilated to the Central Administration or general funds, and the academic units are the faculties, schools, institutes or corporations, revealing an apparent separation between the latter and the concept of College.
Regarding the information generated by the financial area, it should be noted that few people have access to the Financial Statements of the University of Antioquia, either due to technical ignorance to access them or because they become inaccessible. This is a matter that produces rejection, not only in the university community (which does not seem to be interested in these issues, provided that the check arrives properly or its stability and self-determination are not impaired), but also in the Directorate of the University. Hence, their analysis and understanding are limited to those few people who recommend, think and pontificate about what others do not even discuss. This situation becomes more dangerous when that small number of people intervene in accounting consolidation, in the financial committees of the Superior Council,in the Committee
Coordinator of Internal Control, budgets and the financial area, in addition to lobby relations with control entities, thus closing any possibility of leaving loose ends or of not performing the adequate “shielding” in the financial and resource management area of the institution.
Accounting information is of low quality and therefore unreliable, it is not useful for making decisions in real time; The processes in the financial area are still not integrated, thus generating a large number of errors, rework and high costs. Finally, the human resource that participates in this process shows a very high resistance to change and does not have the adequate competences to respond to the demands that are presented today to a modern and committed administration.
On the other hand, although it is true that the University must be very prudent with its indebtedness, and continually complains about the lack of resources to achieve its missionary objectives (in part it is true), a reading of the Financial Statements of the In recent years, it shows that the level of indebtedness has been declining (reaching the same level in 2001 as in 2005). The financial investments represented in an important stock exchange portfolio, close to $ 50,000 million on average in the last 6 years, add to significant cash surpluses.
SOME FIGURES OF THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
(Figures expressed in millions of pesos)
| A ñ or Concept | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 |
| Cash | 6,840 | 1,627 | 3,972 | 9,184 | 14,188 |
| Short-term investmentsLong-term investments | 43.17516.754 | 70.90824.439 | 62.50329.467 | 53.80928.930 | 24.56727.770 |
| Total Investments | 59,929 | 95,347 | 91,970 | 82,739 | 52,337 |
| Total Assets | 371,302 | 438,964 | 510,720 | 529,293 | 552,431 |
| Total liabilities | 136,255 | 207,542 | 198,128 | 192,634 | 136,648 |
| Total appreciations | 134,456 | 129,779 | 182,112 | 164,692 | 165,491 |
| Indebtedness (including appreciations) | 36.70% | 47.28% | 38.79% | 36.39% | 24.74% |
| Indebtedness (not including appreciations) | 57.53% | 67.12% | 60.29% | 52.83% | 35.32% |
| Financial income | 8,473 | 14,851 | 7,954 | 2,974 | 15,262 |
| Financial expenses | 3,090 | 5,618 | 5,465 | 8,086 | 4,214 |
Source: Accounting Section - Financial Statements (Balance Sheet and State of Economic and Social Activity).
The unsuspecting reading of the financial statements does not contemplate the restrictions that the University has regarding the administration of its General, Special, Social Security and University Welfare funds. Traditionally, four (4) budgets have been formulated, one for each category of fund mentioned, violating the principle of universality that must be observed when preparing the budgets of any state entity in Colombia. The above generates confusion when reading the financial statements prepared by the accounting, which do take into account the principle of universality, since there are not four accounting but only one. How do you explain then that budgets go on one side and accounting on the other? A simple sum of all four budgets would help minimize confusion.
On the other hand, the Special Funds, administered autonomously (autonomy also generates responsibility) from the academic units, have been showing significant increases, since the result of the efforts in recent years is highly positive. Special Funds have gone from $ 24,758 million in 2000 to $ 66,180 million in August 2006, which means an increase of 267%.7
This is not bad, on the contrary, it shows a great dynamism of the academic units in matters of university extension, however, there may be a temptation to hoard and accumulate these resources indefinitely (some such as that of the Vice-Rectory for Teaching exceed the $ 10 billion as of October 2006). The resources of the special funds must be appropriately and rationally used, actions should be taken with them that benefit academic activities in the short and medium term, and not be exposed to investment risks that may negatively impact them as happened in 2006 by the fall of the stock market.
The Special Funds must also be the object of an exhaustive analysis by the Superior Council, since there are important resources that do not have adequate control, in part, due to the autonomy of the administrative and academic units to manage them. The most recent case is that of the National School of Public Health, which in just two years went from a significant surplus to a budget deficit.
The Faculty of Agrarian Sciences deserves special mention, whose deficit continues above $ 10,000 million, as a result of a loan that would be offset by the sale of the El Progreso hacienda. Fortunately, for the University this estate has not been sold, despite the constant offers of different kinds; soon its price will be increased significantly when the Bello-Hatillo dual carriageway is completed and other important infrastructure works that positively impact mobility to that place, but the aforementioned deficit will continue to weigh on the Faculty.
This is not the time to analyze the efficiency in the use of the resources of the haciendas, or if the size of their businesses is purely academic and if the businesses conceived there are profitable or not. This discussion is well known to the Faculty and has its origins, on the one hand, in the breach of commitments made by the Central Administration with the Faculty, and on the other, in the obstinate idea of remaining with the same academic and business structure (concentrates, oversizing of the egg and poultry business, weak controls on these businesses, etc.). On these and other related aspects,Substantial measures must be taken, such as the one proposed in the creation of the Agricultural Services Corporation - CORAGRO - that administers these projects outside the University administration.
As stated, the University must urgently adapt its academic-administrative structure to the demands of its missionary objectives. It is very likely that the Institution will find the greatest obstacle to its development in the impossibility of closing the gap between the needs of the Academy and the solutions provided by its administrative processes, and the agility with which said structure responds to them. In fact, the autonomy that has been given to the University Research Headquarters - SIU is the answer, in part, to the inefficiency and lack of timely and effective solutions that the Central Administration must provide to the Research processes that are coming. advancing in the Institution.
Despite carrying out the most important projects and hosting the most prestigious groups, centers and researchers, the SIU does not have sufficient controls by the Office of Internal Control and by the General Comptroller of Antioquia, desirable due to the importance of the resources that are managed there. The first does not have sufficient independence to be able to carry out the audit process on such headquarters and the second does not have it in its work plans.
Now, another threat that is posed on a financial level for the University is the growing demand for resources by research groups. In 2005 the University was relegated from the first place in research. The figures related to the Institution's research system show how the number of groups increased and, of course, the resources demanded increased. As previously stated, these increases must be related to quantity and / or quality indicators with respect to the results of the investigations, since excessive autonomy, isolated from any type of independent evaluation, is also highly harmful to institutional objectives. There will be no lack of academic discourse that research cannot be measured by the number of projects,or that it is an adventure in which you do not know where you will go, but the analysis must be done based on what the trends show.
The reform to Law 80 Mortal blow or put on waist?
"Immunity I owe, first of all, to mine who lacking almost everything, envied almost nothing."
Albert Camus
The reform to Law 80 of 1993 represents, in the current financial scheme, the most serious of threats to income from extension activities of public universities, by eliminating the inter-administrative agreements that allow these institutions to avoid much of the process contracting, for not having to participate in these as any provider.
This point, which has occupied much of the discussions at the University in recent years and has required innumerable studies and commissions, must be analyzed in greater depth due to the way it has been handled.
On July 18, 2006, after more than a year of discussions, the work tables carried out by the Public Universities (through the SUE) with the Comptroller General of the Republic for the implementation of a special fiscal control to the entities were closed. freelancers. The coordination of these tables was carried out by the Interinstitutional Committee of Internal Control of Public Universities - CIUP, chaired by the author of this document, at that time, Director of the Office of Internal Control of the University of Antioquia, At the working tables, special attention is paid to the issue of hiring in higher education institutions, emphasizing the need to recognize the constitutional mandates for both instances: on the one hand for public universities as autonomous entities and on the other for the state control body.
As it is known, Law 30 of 1992 confers autonomy to the universities in development of the constitutional mandate and Law 42 of the same year regulates, for its part, matters related to fiscal control.
In terms of contracting, university autonomy has not been taken into account by tax control entities, in part due to the lack of knowledge of the auditors about Law 30 of 1992 and the special conditions of the autonomous university entities. But on the other hand, a large part of public universities have not made use of that autonomy, as they do not develop their own contracting statutes. The University of Antioquia adopted through the Superior Agreement 095 of 1996 its own contracting statute, which contemplates the limits and the instances to which one must go in the case of contracting.
Although recommendations from the Office of Internal Control of the University of Antioquia were made on several occasions to modify the General Contracting Statute, these were not taken seriously by the Administration and they were not even provided with a thorough debate.
One of the most risky and due to its contempt, significant deviations can be made in budget execution, is related to the additions in civil works contracts.
Law 80 of 1993 (not binding for the University) contemplates a maximum of additions equivalent to 50% of the initial value of the Contract. The Superior Agreement 095 does not limit the additions of construction contracts at the University, with which additions have been presented in percentages greater than 200% and 300% and in values of more than $ 3,000 million, as is the case at Headquarters. of Caucasia, or for more than $ 5 billion as in the case of the Engineering Block. The core of meals “only” was added in about $ 400 million, that is, an addition equivalent to 100% of the initial budget. These minimal examples clearly show how autonomy has been used, invoking it to justify the lack of planning and improvisation in this type of contract. The norm is perverse in this regard,to say the least and the observations made by the Internal Control office in this regard, created a deep unease in the administration of the University.
There are other events that bear a certain similarity to what was presented at the University of Antioquia, such as that of universities that, without having a faculty of engineering, carried out important inter-administrative contracts, assigned directly to carry out infrastructure works. Others sold software that does not comply with the parameters initially offered and through arguments supported by deceptive presentations, which do not have sufficient technical and scientific support, place their "clients" in difficult situations before the entities of fiscal control, since the patrimonial damage originated in a bad negotiation it must be explained before the mentioned organisms.
The end of each budget term is particularly hectic in the universities, since at the last minute they participate, through inter-administrative agreements, in contracts that transparently could not be executed in the ordinary management of state entities, in order to actively participate in abnormal execution of public budgets.
Another determining and delicate aspect in public procurement is that related to the auditors. In matters other than work contracts, these roles are arbitrarily assigned and on many occasions the selected public servants do not even know about the topic in which they are intervening.
The University of Antioquia has adopted an Audit Manual whose non-compliance by those responsible is notorious. On the work contracts side, the auditors defend the management of the contractor more than the interests of the University. The most recent case is that of the Engineering block, with the interventor explaining the deviations in the budgets, looking for arguments for the lack of forecasts, justifying the additions and extensions, explaining the inconsistencies of the soil studies, leaving aside the aspects that deeply injured the interests of the University, a fundamental objective of its management as an auditor. Incidentally, the contractor develops significant strengths that condition the University to a disadvantageous position.
All these considerations must be taken into account when questioning the reforms to Law 80 of 1993 and to ask whether what these reforms really intend is to give a fatal blow to the universities or put them on the waist in the face of the disarray that has seized them in recruitment.
Academic - Administrative Structure: a Proposal
The organizational structure must respond to the institutional strategy. As stated in the General Statute of the University, the administration must be at the service of the academy and not vice versa. The relationship of the academic-administrative structure with the processes (missionary, strategic and support), consists in that it is defined based on these and considers other elements such as the staff, the operation manuals and the competencies and responsibilities of servers. In other words, the structure proposed for the University must respond to its Development Plan with the basic objective of achieving the goals defined in it.
It goes without saying that the structure must be dynamic and allow rapid adaptations according to the changes that take place in the environment, be they cultural, political, economic or social.
At the University of Antioquia, the academic-administrative structure must respond as a priority to the needs of the academy in general and particularly to research, which has been defined as its primary strength and objective.
Technological Component.
The academic-administrative structure of the University must be supported by a strong technological component; in a robust technology (SAP, GD Edwards or Oracle type), that allows an integration of information systems and provides tools that allow monitoring in "real time" the state of management.
There are successful examples in the use of this type of technology such as that of the University of Montevideo under the slogan "Technological Excellence in Academic Management". By adopting this type of technology, duplication of operations is minimized and decision-making in real time is facilitated. Institutional Management is made more efficient and effective.
In this regard, Mr. Diego Moreira, Head of the Systems Department of the University of Montevideo points out:
"Like any organization in its early years, specific systems were used for each department, with the consequent duplication of processes and data, which increased the margin of error and made decision-making more difficult».8
Temporality
(Before moving forward, I would like to highlight the request of Professor Mauricio Alviar Ramírez, to maintain an academic spirit, deterritorialize and depersonalize the discussion and prevent the debate, made in the document indicated above, so that the starting point of this discussion is the agreement on these four requirements, since what is being discussed is the University of Antioquia of the future).
Precisely these four aspects are present on a daily basis in the perception that university servers have from their time in the Institution. Some parts of the analysis matrices produced in the Strategic Communication Design workshops, carried out in 2003 for 21 public entities9 give us an idea of this situation:
"TEMPORALITY
(…) The way in which public servants are located in front of administrations, depending on the horizon that emerges from their relationship with them over time, is important as a cohesion or disarticulation factor in the search for common elements that make possible the construction of shared sense:
The managers:
Its time horizon is characterized by a short-term memory. They are particularly focused on the present, the now (what is being done and what needs to be done) and the immediate future.
They usually take into account previous administrations to distinguish themselves from them or to give them continuity in very specific aspects.
His time is finite and is characterized by immediacy.
The servers of the administrative career:
Its memory horizon is long-term, it is anchored in the past. "All past time was better" or "worse."
They feel that for having stayed longer in the entity, they are "residents"; and they see managers as "visitors" whose tenure will always be temporary.
They think that during their “visit” each manager “invents” or imposes criteria and processes that it is smart to comply with and abide by, but let go: “Others will come with new rules that, in turn, will be replaced”.
The advisers (contractors, administrative and operational):
They exclusively carry out the tasks for which they were hired, within established periods, generally in a short term.
In some cases, its activities are carried out in a disjointed manner and without keeping proper records of its management, which affects the continuity of the projects.
In general, they are better paid and recognized than administrative career personnel, which makes their communication with them not the best (…) »
The proposal
We are witnessing, as was said at the beginning, a “conflict of rationalities”; an Academic and an Administrative one, which can also manifest themselves in two parallel structures. However, one should not fall into the trap of separating the Academy from the Administration; they must be considered as two substructures that are part of a large structure that actually exists, even though its borders are increasingly difficult to identify.
These two substructures have their own elements that differentiate them but at the same time they have common points that assimilate them, to the point of not knowing at certain times if the processes are administrative or academic. The one is intimately affected by the other. This is the reason why we should speak of an academic-administrative structure made up of two substructures and not separately.
The possibility of separating the functions and responsibilities of Legal Representation and Stewardship at the University has been raised long ago. The figure of the Rector is worn out before the demands of the legal representation that could well be assumed by a Management that would replace the current General Vice-rectory.
It could be thought that the Rector will deal primarily with academic issues, with his relationship with peers, organizations and international governments, with his relationship with the political class and the regional and central government, and in general, take care of projecting the University in the medium and long terms. Its direct relationship would be with the Faculties and with the three Vice-Rectories in charge of guiding the missionary processes, namely, Research, teaching and Extension. The possibility that the deans (as is done with the directors of Schools and Institutes) should be directly appointed by the Rector, since they are their representatives before the academic units according to the General Statute (Article 51). Deans today reject, sometimes openly, the Rector's directives,not to say that they do not know their line of command, arguing that they are not named by him.
Management, for its part, would be a dynamic body that would deal more with properly Administrative matters (Labor, Welfare, Sustainability, Surveillance), Financial, Legal, Commercial, Computer, Planning and Internal Control. It would carry out the Legal Representation and replace the current instance of the General Vice-Rectory.
The two substructures must move away from the pyramidal concept and adopt a circular model, in which any of the elements that make them up can reach the center (Rectory and Management), and vice versa, through the use of technological mechanisms that do not conflict with the hierarchical structure, that is, reaching a level of information that updates the intermediate levels in real time without creating a conflict of powers. This would require integrated, dynamic information systems with real-time processing and reporting.
The center of the Academic sub-structure would be the Rectory and around it would be the Vice-rectories, the academic dependencies (Faculties and Schools as proposed by the document of Dr. Alviar Ramírez) and the Directorate of International Relations. In the latter, it is necessary to strengthen it in light of the Development Plan and the immersion of the University in the international context.
The center of the Administrative substructure would be the Management and around it would be the Directions and Offices. It is convenient to differentiate between these two instances, since the Directorates participate in administrative processes due to their management nature and the Offices are instances of an eminently Advisory nature as defined by law and the General Statute.
Among the Directorates would be: the Directorate of University Welfare, the Financial Directorate and the Administrative Directorate, the last two resulting from the division of the current Administrative Vice-rectory.
The offices, advisers would be: the Office of Legal Advice, the Planning Office and the Office of Internal Control. The three advisory offices must become true communication channels between the Academic and Administrative substructures, promoting greater fluidity in solving the needs of the former and becoming real instances of support for it. To achieve this, it requires broad support from the Rectory
Taking some elements considered in the document by Professor Alviar Ramirez, the Regionalization processes could be assumed by the Vice-Rectory for Teaching, but not the Postgraduate processes, which could be immersed in the Vice-Rectory for Research (as they were before), due to its strong relationship to this missionary task.
On the other hand, the Institution must seek adequate mechanisms to enforce Superior Agreement 124 of September 29, 1997, which establishes the Basic Statute of Extension, since currently this standard is not being observed or is not being complied with in its entirety, the different university instances, which favors the evasion and avoidance of contributions to the Central Administration. The current Academic Council commission in charge of evaluating this topic must specify the proposal clearly and precisely, containing the way to pay for and offer extension services, as well as progress in the study and creation of the Recruitment Center, attached to the Vicerrectory of Extension,to endorse the presentation of all extension projects to the Society and channel the efforts that are often dispersed by the presentation of various proposals, from different academic units to the same contractor.
Technological Management and Innovation will be fundamental pillars of university development, which must be reoriented through the creation of marketing and sales structures that facilitate the offer of products and services through the Recruitment Center. Such processes would depend on the Vicerrectory of Extension.
It has been repeatedly pointed out in different university instances that, in our Institution, we do not sell but rather they buy from us. Market changes will inevitably lead us to think about this type of structure and adopt this terminology, hitherto banned from the Public University.
The current Administrative Vice-rectory suffers from a high concentration of processes, bringing together the “administrative” aspects themselves and the financial aspects. The purchasing and maintenance processes are highly inefficient and the financial ones continue to be anchored in models conceived centuries ago that do not adequately and timely respond to the information needs of the University, the environment, and internal and external control agencies. The adoption of tools such as the Balanced Scorecard, the Risk Management Matrix and the Activity-Based Costing (ABC Cost System) is urgent.
Said Vice-rectory could be replaced by two Directorates that report to Management: an Administrative Directorate that brings together the processes of Labor Relations, Maintenance, Surveillance and Social Security; and a Financial Directorate that is in charge of the Financial (Accounting, Portfolio, Bank Reconciliation and Treasury), Commercial (Procurement and Contracting, Inventory and Insurance) and Computer and Technology (Systems and Computing) processes, separating them from the Planning Office.
A wrong and inadmissible location is the one that the budget section has, since currently the same department (Financial Headquarters) prepares and executes the budget, violating the most elementary of the Control rules: The budget section must belong to the Planning department..
Another fundamental reason for decoupling the budget process from the financial area is the need to separate the planning and execution functions of this tool, seeking greater efficiency in budget management so that its execution takes priority to medium and long-range plans..
On the other hand, the idea of creating the figure of the Student Ombudsman is currently being worked on as an implementation of the administration proposal of the current Rector when he presented his government program. In the majority of the most important universities in the world, the figure of the OMBUDSMAN or University Defender is conceived, which would give a greater representation with respect to the original idea, by extending its actions to the entire university community. Progress in this matter should consult as a priority the profile and suitability of the person who will occupy that position.
The SUGI project has a group that will visit universities in different countries, made up mainly of ex-deans from the different faculties. This vision will be very important to define the academic substructure of our Alma Mater.
The idea of reducing the number of members of the Academic Council seems important to me because it would give this Corporation greater agility in decisions, especially if the directors of the academic units have previously met by divisions or areas of knowledge. The above, without taking into account the important effects that a thinning has on the administrative payroll.
INTERNAL CONTROL
Administrators and academics alike have viewed the Internal Control function with suspicion and dislike. To begin, we must say that this activity has not been understood in the way it was projected by those who were part of the National Constituent Assembly of 1991, since the considerations made around the figure of Internal Control have not been taken as the basis for a relationship. of trust and credibility.
The relationship between public managers and heads of internal control continues to be one of distrust on the part of those who view this server as their prosecutor, as their investigator. (It is evident that honesty does not come from office). On several occasions, attempts have been made to clarify that the functions assigned to the head of internal control, both in law and in internal regulations, are to accompany and advise the Manager and, by his delegation, other administrators of the Entity. But this has never been understood like this. For the Managers, this server has been “one more comptroller”, and they lament the actions derived from the exercise of Internal Control, choosing to keep it away from decisions and aspects related to administration.
It is important to highlight that the responsibility of the Internal Control system, (although it is in the collective imagination, as a function only of the dependency that bears this name) is the Manager, it is his tenor and his leadership. It is conceived as a complementary activity to the administrative function, together with Planning and Management.
Dr. Carlos Gaviria Díaz said in the Camilo Torres theater of the University of Antioquia, in 2006, regarding his talk on the occasion of the fifteenth year of the 1991 Constitution, that "politicians do not like control ” This brief phrase includes all the opposition that politicians make from public office to control, both internal and fiscal or political.
The obstacles to the functions exercised by the internal control offices are widespread. The problem for the exercise of Internal Control is at the national level. Not only in public universities but in many state institutions, the activity of Internal Control has been relegated to its minimum expression. These positions are assigned as consolation prizes to political parties, since said agency does not manage resources, its concepts are not binding and its possibilities of acting are relegated to the decisions of the Managers or (what is worse) of the middle management.
The exercise of Internal Control has evidenced that the evaluation reports that these dependencies independently make are viewed with suspicion and in most cases the recommendations made are not put into practice. Its concepts are not received as a proposal focused on the improvement of the entity but as an investigation or prosecution against the middle managers or the Manager. The reports are a cause of "great disappointment" on the part of managers, as they feel that their management is being attacked or situations that are not advisable to make known are being exposed. Therefore, the heads of these offices, faced with suspicion of their management, see any possibility of achieving one of their main objectives disappear,which is to keep public resources safe and adopt an ethical stance before the public administration.
For the Administration of the University of Antioquia, the Office of Internal Control - OCI has become in recent years an uncomfortable instance. His actions were seen as police and his guidelines were demonized to the point of looking at them as reports comparable to those of the Comptroller.
The observations made by the OCI10 in academic aspects (work plans, gap year, public merit contests, study groups, research centers and groups, etc.), in financial reports (portfolio of financial investments, accounting, treasury, purchases, budget), in aspects of conciliation (Debts with the ICBF), in contracts as in the indicated cases of the headquarters of Caucasia, Building of the Faculty of Engineering and “food module” (Advisory Board in Contracts), in evaluations to Strategic projects, such as university IPS, generated countless discomforts for those responsible for the processes. The recommendations made by the OCI, with some exceptions, were not taken into account by the Central Administration of the University.
All of the above led the administration (November and December 2006) to make the decision to totally restructure the Office of Internal Control of the University of Antioquia, for which it began with a study on the labor and organizational climate of the Office of which its conclusions were not known with certainty and on which subsequent actions were based. (Strangely, drastic and particular measures were taken in the Alma Mater, based on this study and perhaps with an exemplary intention for those who dare to go against the directives of the current administration). But it is well known to managers and academic and administrative employees, what an arbitrary decision,it obeyed substantive aspects related to the OCI's observations regarding the management and actions of the Central Administration.
By declaring the Director and three (3) Analysts (80% of the OCI staff) without subsistence, without any reasonable motivation, without mediating a performance evaluation and without justified reason, the University is left without the knowledge and support of the actions on which important observations and recommendations were made. With this decision, the criticism related to violations and acts contrary to morality and university ethics is ended, the “scorched earth” policy is used to try to blur the management carried out during the last six years.
It would be convenient to generate a discussion on the figure of Internal Control in the country. Does it serve or does it not serve the purposes that were designed by the Constitution? What contributions have you made to the country? Is it just a bureaucratic instance for assigning seats, such as consolation prizes to losers in the elections? How have politicians used it? How has the country used it to fight corruption and give additional quality elements to public administration? Is it worth continuing with a figure that does not have support, nor is it looked upon favorably by those who should use it, in this case public managers? Is the head of Internal Control in the country, that is, the President of the Republic, for promoting its correct functioning and its effective participation in public management?
A great discussion in this sense should be led by the Administrative Department of the Public Function - DAFP, in order to have clarity on the relevance or not of this constitutional figure, because to contribute something to the debate, one might think that this activity depended of the highest collegiate body in each entity, that the chiefs be appointed by this body independently of the Managers, report to these collegiate bodies and not to the DAFP (who files them) and become Internal Control an additional figure of political control at the service of collegiate organizations. Define appointments by periods and demand professional profiles for those who aspire to these positions.
In this specific aspect, the ineffectiveness of the Administrative Department of Public Function, the governing body of Internal Control in Colombia, which has not implemented a communication policy with the different inter-institutional committees of Internal control (CICI) of the country, should be highlighted, despite of the efforts of the Internal Control Offices to consolidate the National System. In this effort, in addition to the national CICI, the following Internal Control Committees in the country have been founded, among others: CICIA (Antioquia), CIUP (Public Universities), CICIR (Rizaralda), CICIS (Santander), CICIC (Caldas), CICIV (Valle del Cauca), CICIT (Tolima).
The DAFP is also in charge of coordinating the National Government Advisory Council on Internal Control, an advisory body directly from the President of the Republic and in which the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic, the General Audit of the Nation, the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation, the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation, the Office for the Fight Against Corruption, the Office of the General Accountant of the Nation and 4 representatives of the Internal Control Offices of the country, appointed at the annual meeting of the National CICI. The DAFP has not met even once in the past two years the Advisory Council and the National CICI.
ETHICS
"Cynic is he who knows the price of all things, and the value of none."
Oscar Wilde
The issue of ethics is also rejected in a large majority of curriculum designs. The academic programs that have dealt with the subject can be counted on the fingers of the hand: Philosophy, Medicine, Law, Accounting. It is worth asking if this is not the origin of a lack of knowledge about the subject and a refusal to touch it when the same University does not deal with having it in its programs.
On university ethics, the Industrial University of Santander - UIS, has made an important contribution in proposing what should be the role of philosophy and the University in society regarding the issue (regarding the new Standard Model of Internal Control - MECI and of the university responsibility with the document11 prepared by the doctor Mónica Jaramillo of the School of Philosophy of this University).
Although the ethical positions within the University may be the subject of another document, its non-observance manifests itself in various and subtle ways.
Suffice it to start with the analysis of the teachers' work plans, continue with the ignorance of any norm by the researchers, some of whom affirm that "(…) our only regulation is not to have a regulation." intellectual property and the results of the research are managed, the time dedicated, within the work day to attend to particular professional aspects, academic work in other universities, special days in the areas of health, full-time teachers who they only work part-time or quarter-time, the relationship with the master's and doctorate students, in whom a large part of the obligations of the professor-researchers are discharged,the benefits obtained from the extension projects and the way in which financial resources are managed, both from general and special funds, without adequate and necessary accountability.
A great campaign of moralization should be launched at the University, by which all practices used for personal gain are banished once and for all. They have a place for people who, under different qualities, have become true mercenaries of the academy and of the public resources to which they access without major inconveniences to be used and administered according to their particular interest, their actions are buried and subtle, becoming the “Owners” of the University, as they even go so far as to adopt a language of private property over the public. In some cases, their ties to the political sector constitute another variant in the intricate network of influences and perks they use.It could be said with great despair that the improper practices of some spheres of the State have penetrated the University, reaffirming the theory that "salt is also corrupted".
These practices, known to most of those who make up the university community, are not questioned. Only when personal well-being is touched do voices of protest arise. The comfort and the benefit granted by them are introjected into the university culture in the form of daily pacts, but no less perverse for this.
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- The Future of our teaching establishments. F. NIETZCHE. Philosophies of the University Reform, Castro, Edgardo. COLIHUE Editions, 2001. "Philosophies of the University and Conflict of Rationalities" F. Naishat, AM García Raggio and S. Villavicencio, Ediciones Colihue, Buenos Aires, Argentina.Cf.P. Classen, Studium und Gesellschaft im Mittelalter, Stuttgart, A. Hiersemann, 1983, pp.172-173.Conceptual elements and methodological proposal for the elaboration of the UIS ethical protocol.Alicia RW de Camilloni. The Public University Today. Philosophies of the University and Conflict of Rationalities. Colihue Editions. Analysis of the special funds of the University of Antioquia 1999-2006. Office of Internal Control.http: //www2.um.edu.uy/sap/SAPPerspective.pdf # search =% 22sap% 20% 22montevideo% 22% 22Program for the “Strengthening of Transparency and Accountability in Colombia”, implemented by the Colombian Center for Corporate Responsibility (CCRE). Social Balance of the Office of Internal Control 2004, 2005 and 2006 University of Antioquia. OCI archives. Conceptual elements and methodological proposal for the elaboration of the UIS ethical protocol.
