REPORT
INDEX
CURRENT SYSTEM
REFORM OF SPANISH PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION (CORA)
NEW STRATEGY
2
CURRENT SYSTEM: FLOW OF REGULATION
1.






Framework for approval of general legislation.
The regulatory governance cycle begins with the drafting of the rule.
One-off measures
41.8bn€ have been injected in the economy, paying over 8,000,000 invoices to 230,000
There is no
general
legal
consult on
proposals (primary laws).
suppliers,
through
theexplicit
Fund for
therequirement
Financing oftoPayments
to legislative
Suppliers (FFPP).
The Lawinjection
mandates
secondary
legislation
“once thethrough
draft is the
produced”.
Liquidity
of public
almost hearings
40bn€ forfor
regional
and local
administrations,
Regional
Liquidity Mechanism (FLA).
Regulatory impact assessment (RIA):
Structural measures
Plan to eradicate Late Payments in the public sector: A new legislation has been passed to

Guidelines
RIA
were approved
in 2009
promoting
integrated approach.
ensure
monitoringon
and
compliance
with legal
payment
period atomore
suppliers.
•



Public Sector Commercial Debt Control Act: Inclusion of the commercial debt in the
The General
Directorate
of Administrative
Modernization
of State of
Public
principle
of financial
sustainability
and guarantee
of compliance(Secretary
with the maximum
payment
period.
Administration, SEAP) coordinates and verifies the content of the RIA (“ticking-box control”).
•
E-Invoicing and New Accounts Register Act: Guarantee of expenses control and
of suppliers
theirregulation
commercial
with the
public administrations.
Theprotection
ministry elevates
the indraft
to relations
the General
Commission
of State Secretariats

The
payment period
current
operations
forinitiatives.
Central Administration
and average
Deputy Secretariats,
whichofcarries
out expenditure
a strict scrutiny
of legislative
goods and services has been reduced, in the fourth quarter of 2013, to 30 days.
The Council of Ministers approves the draft Law and requires the mandatory reports (i.a. Council
of State), before passing the Draft Law and sending the proposed regulation to the Parliament.
3
CURRENT SYSTEM: STOCK OF REGULATION
2.
Administrative simplification and burden reduction:

In May measures
2007 the Government committed to reduce administrative burdens on businesses by
One-off
30% by 2012
savings
of €15bn).
41.8bn€
have (estimated
been injected
in the
economy, paying over 8,000,000 invoices to 230,000
suppliers, through the Fund for the Financing of Payments to Suppliers (FFPP).

Liquidity
Establishment
injection
of of
a Simplified
almost 40bn€
Method
for regional
for Measuring
and localAdministrative
administrations,Burdens,
through the
based
Regional
on the
Liquidity Mechanism (FLA).
European Standard Cost Model.
Structural measures
Plan
eradicate
Late Payments
in the public
sector: A(SEAP)
new legislation
has been
passedthis
to
The to
General
Directorate
of Administrative
Modernization
is in charge
of leading
ensure monitoring and compliance with legal payment period to suppliers.
policy, encouraging departments to reduce administrative costs. It offers technical and
•
Public Sector Commercial Debt Control Act: Inclusion of the commercial debt in the
technological
the departments.
principle of support
financial to
sustainability
and guarantee of compliance with the maximum payment
period.
• Since
E-Invoicing
and Council
New Accounts
Register
Act: Guarantee
of expenses
control
and
2008 seven
of Ministers
Agreements
on Administrative
burdens
reduction
protection of suppliers in their commercial relations with the public administrations.
containing 346 concrete measures have been approved. The goal of 30% reduction in 2012
The average payment period of current expenditure operations for Central Administration
have and
been
achieved,
estimated
savings
€18bn
have
been to
accounted
goods
services
has been
reduced,
in the of
fourth
quarter
of 2013,
30 days. for citizens and




businesses.
4
CURRENT SYSTEM: SHORTCOMINGS AND IMPROVEMENTS

Public hearings take place too late and there is less scope to influence policy
outcome (and consider alternatives to regulatory instruments).

Lack of monitoring of compliance of the measures and the results obtained.

There is no unit in charge of challenging the RIA, which faces just a “ticking-box
control”.

Guidelines on RIA do not provide any orientation on data collection or
assessment methodologies.

Administrative simplification effort varies between different ministries. Initiative
comes from each single department as there is no compulsory systematic routine.
NEW MEASURES
5
NEW STRATEGY
THE CORA REPORT: REFORM OF SPANISH PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION



Participants:

CORA Commission: Representatives of every ministry organised in plenary sessions and 4
Working Groups.

CORA Council: Ombudsman, trade unions, employers’ association,
representatives, Chamber of Commerce, Consulting Firms’ association.

Citizen’s participation box: 2,239 suggestions.
consumers
International Advice:

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Public Governance.

Contacts with several Member States and analysis of EC best practices.

Multinational companies’ best practices.

2 international Workshops on Public management and Administration reform.
Sub-Commission on Administrative simplification:

Proposals were collected in a standard format (purpose, legislation to be amended,
implementation calendar, estimated savings,…).

903 public proposals were analysed by the Working Group, 400 proposals were accepted and
42 projects selected to be implemented in the short and medium term.
6
THE CORA REPORT: AREAS OF ACTION
Budgetary discipline,
restructuration of
public sector
Public transparency
at all levels of
government
Public sector
rationalisation
Effectiveness and
efficiency of
government
Administration at the
service of citizens and
businesses
7
THE CORA REPORT: HORIZONTAL MEASURES
1.
Fight against late payment in the public sector.
One-off measures

Fund for the Financing of Payments to Suppliers (FFPP): 41.8bn€, paying over 8,000,000
invoices to 230,000 suppliers.

Regional Liquidity Mechanism (FLA): 40bn€ for regional and local administrations.
Structural measures

Plan to eradicate Late Payments in the public sector: A new legislation has been passed to
ensure monitoring and compliance with legal payment period to suppliers.


Public Sector Commercial Debt Control Act.

E-Invoicing and New Accounts Register Act.
The average payment period of current expenditure operations for Central Administration
goods and services has been reduced, in the fourth quarter of 2013, to 25 days.
8
THE CORA REPORT: HORIZONTAL MEASURES (II)
2.

Market Unity Principle and Regulatory Simplification
Market Unity Guarantee Act: Tackles the fragmentation of the domestic market emerging from
differences and overlapping of central, regional and local regulation.

Objective: Ensure that any product or service produced under a regional legislation can be
traded throughout the country, based on the single license and home country principles.

Measures: Rationalizing the regulatory framework on economic activities, eliminating
duplicities and simplifying. It also reinforces coordination among competent authorities and
introduces a mechanism to rapidly solve operator’s problems.

Market Unity Legislative Rationalisation Plan: Identification phase of Central and Regional
legislation has been completed with 2,700 regulations.

Estimated Impact: A 35% reduction in the administrative burden associated with company
creation. An increase of 1.52% of GDP in the long run (over the next 10 years).
9
THE CORA REPORT: HORIZONTAL MEASURES (III)
3.

Better Regulation programme.
Codification of the scattered regulations: A Bill to enable the Government to draft eight
consolidated texts is currently under consideration by Parliament.

Common-commencement-dates: A restricted number of dates will be established on which
domestic laws affecting businesses will come into force.

One in-one out rule: Each administrative burden introduced would at least be offset with the
elimination of another burden of equivalent cost.

Guide to detecting and avoiding duplications: Identify the main types of inefficiencies and
duplications and the mechanisms to avoid them.

Burden reduction manual: Advance in the implementation of a system of measuring fileprocessing time to estimate the "reasonable" time –different from the “legal” time- to completion of
a procedure.
10
THE CORA REPORT: SPECIFIC MEASURES
1.
Major simplification projects.

Environmental procedures: Profound modification of the environmental legislation to simplify
and reduce the administrative burdens.

Customs procedures: «One stop» virtual office for foreign trade.

Import procedures can involve 6 different agencies: Customs, Health, Agriculture, Port
Authority…

Reducing the processing and turnaround times, consolidating formats, decreasing paper
documents required and accelerating the clearance of merchandise.
2.
Enhance e-Government.

Data intermediation platform, to allow citizens’ and businesses’ not to submit documents that
are already held by the Administration.

Electronic record of powers of attorney, valid for every procedure and administration.

Single electronic tender portal, in judicial and administrative areas.

Public Sector Contracts Platform: Allows companies to access aggregate information on public
contracts.
11
THE CORA REPORT: SPECIFIC MEASURES (II)
3.
Simplification of start-up procedures and support of entrepreneurship.

Eliminating municipal licenses for opening retail shops up to 750m2, subject to only a
“responsible declaration”.

Streamlining access by entrepreneurs to public procurement:

Facilitate contact between small entrepreneurs that wish to form joint ventures by registering
them in the Official Register of Bidders and State Classified Companies.

Increased thresholds for classification requirements in public contracts.

Adaptation of the system of collateral to increase entrepreneurs participation.

Responsible declarations substantiating compliance with conditions for submitting a bid.

Express prohibition on discrimination in favour of previous contractors.

Fight against late payment.

Eliminating the minimum capital requirement to establish a limited responsibility company.

“Entrepreneur in 3 steps”: The electronic platform enables the completion of necessary
paperwork with all three tiers of government simultaneously.
12
THE CORA REPORT: DEGREE OF IMPLEMENTATION
Just 11 months after publishing the CORA report, all measures are underway.

An office for the execution of the administrative reform (OPERA) has been established.

As of May 2014, out of the 222 measures included in CORA’s report:

77 are completed (35%)

145 are in process of execution (65%): 4 are in an initial stage, 61 in a medium stage;
and 80 in a final stage of execution
225
200
175
7
15
20
15
22
28
51
150
74
100
80
114
174
106
50
82
77
25
35
0
July 2013
8
Sep. 2013
Not started
13
77
50
90
125
75
63
42
12
Nov. 2013
Initial stage
Jan. 2014
Middle stage
7
Mar. 2014
Final stage
Completed
61
May 2014
NEW STRATEGY: FLOW OF REGULATION
1.

Framework for approval of general legislation.
Better Regulation Unit at the highest level of the Government (Ministry of Presidency):

Consultation: Public hearing starts the legislative process, before drafting the regulation.

Ex-ante evaluation: Before elevating the Draft Law for the first time to the Council of Ministers.


Analysis of draft regulation to ensure quality from the point of view of legislative
technique.

Guarantee compliance with horizontal measures to reduce administrative burdens (i.a.
SME test, one in-one out, market unity,…).

Ensure the correct completion of the RIA with common systematic measurements of
burdens and costs and challenge its quality.

Prevent gold-plating, when transposing EU legislation.

Ensure the consistency with amendments during the Parliamentary procedure.
Ex-post evaluation: The Unit will enforce the evaluation of results by the departments,
according to the calendar established in the RIA.
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NEW STRATEGY: STOCK OF REGULATION
2.
Administrative simplification and burden reduction.

The goal is to promote a more comprehensive, systematic and standardized simplification
process for the whole Administration.

The process will consist of the coordinated action of two units:

General Directorate of Administrative Modernization (SEAP): Maintains the initiative to
propose measures to reduce administrative and regulatory burdens, will elaborate the burden
reduction manual and work with the departments to make reform happen.

Better Regulation Unit (Ministry of Presidency):
15

Promote horizontal simplification projects and ensure compliance with existing ones.

As the unit in charge of reviewing the RIAs, will know, follow and systematically quantify
all specific simplification initiatives (coming from the SEAP and other departments).

Encourage compliance with simplification measures by the departments and verify that
the responsible departments monitor the outcomes of their policies.

Inform the Council of Ministers on the state of implementation and results.
MORE INFORMATION

Spanish Commission for Public Administration Reform:


http://www.seap.minhap.gob.es/es/areas/reforma_aapp.html
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development:

http://www.oecd.org/spain/spains-public-sector-reform-plans-on-the-right-track-saysoecd-report.htm

http://www.oecd.org/gov/eNGLISH%20SUMMARY%20WITH%20COVER.pdf
Thank you very much for your attention!
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