S/25,000 million of the budget were not executed

The Peruvian authorities, despite the greater injection of resources into the public budget, do not spend it and, if they do, it is not efficiently, they warn from ComexPeru.

At the end of 2023, the Modified Institutional Budget (PIM)—that is, the total items for a fiscal year—amounted to more than S/249.7 billion, but S/25,557 million were not executed at the three levels of government, approximately 10% of the PIM. Of this last amount, S/15,473 million correspond to public investment.

Julia Torreblanca, president of ComexPerú, affirms that the latent social discontent is explained, in large part, by the terrible management of the regional and local authorities “who do not know how to use the money assigned to them and do not solve the problems that afflict them.” population”.

X-ray of inefficiency

By sectors, municipalities have the worst execution ratios in public investment in sanitation (55.1%), health (59.4%) and education (60.6%). The municipal authorities of Madre de Dios and Arequipa have the worst performance: they barely performed 18% and 28% in health, respectively.

In education, the local governments that executed their budget the least are Madre de Dios (38%), Ucayali (43%), Ica (46%) and Áncash (48%).

And at the regional level, in order and citizen security, the Government of La Libertad did not execute even 1 sol despite only having one project, while Callao barely spent 4% on sanitation and 17% on education (although in order and security it reached the 100%).

“Having a large budget does not ensure greater execution,” summarized Paulo Quequezana, senior analyst of economic studies at ComexPerú.

Another example: Cusco received S/1,056 million—the largest allocation in the budget—but, if we count what was not executed in the other nine regions with the most allocations, we obtain S/1,433 million. “It is as if we had an additional regional government with everything not executed. The greatest of all and that has not executed anything,” they pointed out.

What could be done

Of the more than S/25.5 billion not executed, Comex assures that 5,111 medical posts or 21 highly complex hospitals could have been installed.

It would also have been more than enough to cover the cost of paving the national roads that are currently trodden or reached 62% of the cost to meet the water and sanitation coverage goals by 2026.

Rafael Zacnich, manager of Economic Studies at ComexPerú, maintains that there is, in most cases, autarky in Peru, because the authorities They do whatever they want and that’s where their inefficiency comes from.

In their opinion, subnational governments take advantage of their autonomy to make or trap projects, even subjecting them to particular interests, and even then they are not intervened. Furthermore, during the first year after the regional elections it has become normal for execution results to be minimal. “There must be punishments or smaller budgets, or even, for those officials who commit crimes or misuse these budgets, a civil death must be established so that they do not participate in public functions, because they do not work for the benefit of the people,” he concluded.

Data

36% was spent of the S/678 million that was given to the Municipality of San Marcos (Áncash)—the most favored—.

The Regional Government of La Libertad invested 0% in public order and security