• This was proposed by the Chamber of Commerce of La Libertad, an organization that also promotes EITI implementation in the regions to encourage economic information disclosure.

At Rumbo a PERUMIN – Northern Macroregion Edition, Juan Carlos Zaplana, vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce of La Libertad, proposed that the mining sector aid in the creation and funding of citizen observatories. These observatories would be responsible for monitoring the progress, in terms of quantity and quality, of the public investment projects being carried out by subnational governments.

“The projects that have been under the spotlight are the ones that we have managed to unlock and in which we have made progress. As for the projects that have not been brough to the public’s attention, nothing has happened and corruption has prevailed; only the first stone has been laid. On top of what we can do with the public-private alliances and Work for Taxes—mechanisms that also entail a risk—the citizen observatories are key to put under the spotlight those emblematic projects meant to protect us from the ravages of nature,” he said.

In this sense, he also stated that the business community he leads is promoting the implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) at a regional level with the aim of disclosing the information concerning the economic resources coming from mining to the population “because if people do not know this information, then nobody knows on what the money is spent, nobody pays attention to it, the information is known by very few people, and the elected authorities cannot be subject to scrutiny by civil society.”

He also warned about the fact that, if the information is not disclosed and no investment is made towards enhancing public administration capacities, infrastructure will continue being underutilized. As an example, he said that there are cases where the money coming from canon minero (fiscal redistribution) was invested in educational centers with buildings for both primary and secondary school levels in areas where there were no adolescents. “And when you ask the local authorities why they did it, they tell you that it is to be prepared for when they do have adolescents,” he affirmed.

“That is the kind of inefficient use of resources that is taking place. Therefore, if there is no transparency, no information, no civil society or citizen observatories, it will be very difficult for the Comptroller General’s Office to carry out concurrent control tasks, so it will keep carrying out ex-post controls only, once the projects have already been assigned, the infrastructure has already been poorly built, or a project has already been put on-hold,” he criticized.

Key Public Investment Positions Should Be Held by Professionals

Furthermore, Juan Carlos Zaplana proposed that the positions that are key to facilitating public investment in each subnational government be held by professionals from the National Civil Service Authority (Servir), and that the rest of positions be held, perhaps, by people close to the ruling party now managing a public entity.

“Without those key positions in the hands of Servir professionals, it is clear that the chances of moving forward will be limited in terms of public investment, which is necessary not only to close gaps or implement the modified institutional budget, but also to create better infrastructure that can attract better private investment,” argued the vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce of Libertad.

Additionally, the executive recommended being transparent about the current incentives for professionals considering working in the public sector, a sector that offers salaries that are around 33% of what similar positions would pay in the private sector and does not offer proper training. “Why would a talented professional opt for a job as a civil servant under those conditions?” he asked, in a reflective tone.

Harnessing Our Full Potential Is the Way to Close Gaps

Finally, he remarked that the way to boost competitiveness and close social gaps is to leverage all the existing potential of both the agricultural export sector and the mining sector so that they complement each other and neither of them is neglected. Following this premise, he recognized that both sectors have great potential in the northern regions, and that the objective is to build bridges of understanding so that their potential can be harnessed at the same time.

“At present, the third stage of the Chavimochic project is stalled. And, without the Palo Redondo dam, there is no water security for the first or second stage, so today the region of La Libertad has a limited agricultural frontier due to water issues. On the other hand, we have a mining sector with gold mining potential—one of the greatest in the country— and yet that sector is not making any progress or exploring that potential,” regretted the director.