Mexican President Felipe Calderón has recently embarked upon an interesting initiative to make his government more efficient: he allocated nearly $40,000 in awards for the best stories in which ordinary citizens describe their struggles with bloated bureaucracy. The winner of that contest to identify “the most useless procedure” received $7,500 for her account of a frustrating bureaucratic run-around she went through while trying – and failing – to obtain something as simple as a proof of residence.
Since the contest was announced in the fall of 2008, over 21,000 Mexicans submitted their stories, demonstrating the extent of the cumbersome bureaucracy. As the Christian Science Monitor put it, “Welcome to the red tape that seems to wrap the whole of Mexico, turning the most mundane tasks – changing a sign outside a small business, obtaining a birth certificate, or reporting a stolen license plate – into megamissions.”
Excessive bureaucracy has its obvious drawbacks of sapping the time and energy of citizens that could be used toward more productive ends, and making government operations wasteful. But equally important, overly complicated and too numerous bureaucratic procedures are the hotbed of corruption. In the estimate, of a non-profit Transparencia Mexica, Mexicans pay over $2 billion a year in bribes, for everything from getting water tanks to trash pick-ups.
Salvador Vega Casillas, head of the federal comptroller’s office, commented on the initiative: “Much of the paperwork serves no purpose, or is complicated and expensive. With the contest, we wanted to see complaints from the citizen’s point of view.” But it is not enough get the stories out there. All these complaints will do no good unless concrete steps are taken to remove their sources. The government does plan to reduce the number of tramites or registered procedures from the current 4,200 to 3,000 by the end of Mr. Calderón’s term in 2012. Technology solutions meant to make the government more agile are also under consideration.
Yet many Mexicans remain skeptical. Irma Sandoval, director of the Laboratory of Documentation and Analysis of Corruption and Transparency at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, says the despite previous similar efforts the state remains burdened by paperwork while access to information, required by transparency laws, is still restricted. “We have been left with the worst of both worlds.” “We don’t need contests,” she adds. “This is all simulation; there is no serious commitment to combat corruption.”
It is up to the government now to prove that it can walk the walk and not just talk the talk.
Published Date: January 13, 2009