Much has been written on the subject of Planning, since the National Planning Law, No. 5525 of May 2, 1974, was enacted in our midst.
In our developing countries, from the time of ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America) with much greater emphasis towards the end of the sixties and seventies, ideologists such as Raúl Prebish stood out, not only conceptually strengthening the Planning approach, but from that instance, whose influence on Latin American thought, is undeniable, and it became the most relevant forum in which the role that this tool should play in growth and economic development of this region.
Before the decade of the 60s and 70s, already in Europe, this tool constituted the instrument on which it was based, the potential of the countries today known as those of Eastern Europe. We must remember the role that the Five Year Plans played in the old Soviet Bloc.
Planning in our country
After the implementation of the National Planning Law, this country learned about the main contributions in this field, when practically all public institutions submitted to the preparation of the so-called Operational Plans (PAOs), with which the Comptroller General of The Republic, institutionalized this practice in public management, as an instrument for controlling spending and defining investment. Between the 70s and 80s, of the previous century, the MIDEPLAN was strengthened, and important regional diagnoses were generated, from its headquarters in the main areas where it was established, according to the regionalization determined by said ministry.
Between the seventies and eighties, Costa Rica and its institutions, had in Planning a tool par excellence. Today our country still collects the fruit of the seeds that were sown in important historical periods, such as the forties, sixties, and the seventies, they follow us without a doubt, differentiating us from the rest of the countries of the Central American region, where Even the Health and Social and Human Development indices are still different from ours and where it is possible to identify important gaps.
Public Administration and Planning
Like any instrument, which had a long period of success, particularly after the economic crisis of the early 1980s, it began to weaken and the planning issue began a downward curve, then, in the period of In the mid-eighties and early nineties, it regained strength, and largely explained the redistribution of income, and the role played by institutions such as FODESAF, among others.
There was even a period, in which MIDEPLAN not only fell into oblivion, but was identified as Siberia, where the “problem” officials from other entities arrived.
The current Administration
In a document issued by MIDEPLAN (August 2006) it establishes that “The local, regional and global competitive environment, product of a globalized world, demands every day that the State provide greater efficiency and quality in public services, responsibly assuming the functions that cannot nor should he delegate (Page 2).
In the same document, the second paragraph states “Aware of the above, the Arias Sánchez administration, in the face of the disorderly growth and fragmentation of our Public Administration, which undermines the efficiency and effectiveness of the institutionality in the performance of its functions, it has been proposed to promote the modernization of the Costa Rican State, focused, among others, on the improvement of public services, in an agile, timely and effective way to meet the needs of Costa Rican society and with a better distribution of public resources ".
MIDEPLAN plans to conclude the 2006-2010 PND (National Development Plan) and announce it in December of the current year. In the Ministry of Finance, a work team has already been set up, as well as the inter-institutional Commission, to coordinate the necessary actions, where the role of the Rector Ministry of the Financial System would be reflected, according to the sectorization already defined in the decree of start of this Administration.
In this context, the current Administration and its Minister of National Planning, launch an excellent signal, of the role that said ministry should resume, and of the new role, assumed by the Ministry of Finance, as the entity that defines the priorities of the Financial Sector, but at the same time, in the scope of the determination of Public Expenditure, in quantitative and qualitative terms, in a framework for defining national priorities, which will be established in the PND.
Planning as a Management Tool
The experience of the last twenty years shows not only the role of operational Planning, with its achievements and weaknesses, but above all, the link between these and a new instrument called the Ministerial Strategic Plan and the Strategic Plans, and how they should be aligned these, from the Revenue Directorates of the Ministry of Finance, to the first.
The measures and guidelines issued by this Administration are a necessary condition, but not sufficient. The operationalization of such instruments is required within the different Revenue Areas of the Ministry of Finance. The provision of the necessary human resources is required to consolidate the Planning Areas of these, a task that has already begun, and that promotes the uniformity of criteria and as a formative process the UPI of this ministry.
Although the ministerial experience is very recent, in terms of the implementation of Strategic Planning, the achievements and the path traveled are the main indicators that fill us with hope and optimism, that this will be a period for the relaunch of Planning as a Managerial tool, that is, as an instrument for decision-making, where operational Planning and Strategic Planning are achieved, in the foundations on which we can build the Organizational Transformation that we require.
This is a fundamental challenge, that the only way to assume it is with commitment, mystique, shared values and, above all, with positive leadership, in a framework where we recognize that Management approaches have evolved and, therefore, managerial management demands, praxis of new paradigms.
