Luis Miguel Castilla: “The president wants a redistributive agenda and the requirement is that there be growth in the country”

There is an immense accumulation of paralyzed public works. They total more than S / 20 billion and it is one of the curses of the Odebrecht effect, the Construction Club, among others. What to do to unlock them?

It is a very complicated issue, and it is not only due to acts of corruption but there was a paralysis in the decision-making of political actors who do not sign addenda or who do not grant good pros for fear of sanctions from the Comptroller’s Office, etc. To which is added the political instability that the country suffers and what triggers is that there is a great rotation of public positions, there is no continuity, and the lack of suitability in transcendental positions is added. There are millionaire budgets that are managed by untrained personnel. The advance of these implies encapsulating the projects that have corruption problems, seeing the entry of new actors, trying to improve the quality of the civil service, and something fundamental, having a framework of stability. If we are with actors who last a few months in office, it will be very difficult for the projects to take place. Finally, there must be an agreement between the State, on the one hand, the contractors and concessionaires, on the other. If there is so much turnover, so much political instability as we have seen in recent years, it will be difficult to move forward. That is the most important task of the government.

There is a complaint against President Castillo for an alleged meeting prior to the delivery of a tender to buy biodiesel. You saw him in the Palace and you met him along with former ministers Waldo Mendoza, Alonso Segura and Claudia Cooper. Do you think the president fell into corruption?

It is not up to me to determine that. There are the instances, there is the Prosecutor’s Office, the Judicial Power. Our conversation was on economic and not political issues. What was clear is that the president wants to have a redistributive agenda and an agenda of greater social justice.

And what is required for it?

A fundamental requirement is that there is economic growth. Without this, if the generation of employment and productive activity begins to cool down, there will be little that he will be able to redistribute. This requires a clear north and minimum stability in the rules of the game. That was what the four former ministers summoned conveyed to him.

Was Minister Francke at the meeting?

I don’t want to be an infident. It was a private meeting that the president summoned us to. The minister did not participate.

What was the receptivity of the president?

I wanted to know, and listen to, critical and respectful and constructive views. Not only is saying this wrong with this and another, but what could be done to improve the economy. The president was very receptive to the comments that were quite crude, they were not sweetened, and the president was open and even left open the invitation to continue talking in the future.

Former minister Waldo Mendoza insisted that President Castillo has good luck due to the good moment of mineral prices. Was there talk of applying some kind of tax to the surpluses of the mining companies?

We do not talk about that issue, because it had been discussed in the Congress. What we did say clearly is that what is required is to fight against the high levels of non-compliance that exist in the country, which is a structural problem due to high evasion and avoidance. And in order to have more resources, more investments must be encouraged, particularly in the mining sector where there is a very large portfolio that has been put on standby due to social conflict and changes in the regulatory framework, including the tax one. The task is to generate more growth. There is no use tax reform on paper if there is no economic activity to tax. The focus should be on promoting investment and that the economy does not fall into a mediocrity or a plateau or that it begins to lose the attraction that we have seen this year, the statistical recovery after the quarantine that we live in the country.

What are the main recommendations that you would give the president to generate investment, employment and reduce poverty in the country?

One of them is to unblock the different projects that are paralyzed because not only do we have a problem of execution and efficiency in spending, but we also have a stock of projects that are in arbitration or with deficient technical files, and that makes us have 50% of public investment paralyzed. The second is to try to have a more proactive intervention to avoid social conflicts Regarding mining, they get out of hand, and this happens because the authority must not allow blockades and that there is an active presence of the State in the conflict processes between the mine and the community. The third, and extremely important thing, is to try to clarify the rules of the game. If there are going to be disruptive changes or if there is stability and sources of anxiety in economic agents are eliminated, which, according to a Central Bank survey, foresee a more pessimistic outlook for the coming months. The fourth, and when we are entering the year 2022, when important cadres such as presidents of regulatory bodies and other positions that are appointed by the Executive are going to be renewed, they are fulfilled by public contest and meritocracy is ensured for the suitability of the economy . There are more recommendations, but if it can be synthesized, it is necessary to be clear in the north and that without a growing economy, little income will be generated for a redistributive policy, and most importantly, quality employment will not be generated. The population does not ask for handouts, or welfare, or subsidies, what it asks for is employment and that is what the government’s action should be dedicated to.

What do you recommend to avoid political polarization?

I have been more critical of Congress than of the Executive because many of the rules of Congress ended in actions of unconstitutionality. Congress has to act prudently, with measure. Being in an environment of political instability, trying to reduce presidential terms or dissolutions of Parliament do not contribute to the stability that is so demanded. A country cannot develop in a context of chronic instability as is the case in Peru. That Congress legislate, that it exercise internal political control, which is what the law allows, but that in turn make the Government carry out its government plans without any type of obstruction.