Guatemala
Guatemalan Government Gets Help to Stamp Out Corruption
The following is reprinted from Frontlines,
February 2006 issue.
 GUATEMALA
CITY, Guatemala—This Central American nation ranked as one
of the world’s most corrupt countries in Transparency International’s
2004 survey gauging perceptions of graft around the world.
A USAID survey conducted during the same year found that 49 percent of the public in the Central American country viewed corruption there as rampant.
While recognizing that corruption cannot be stamped out immediately, a USAID project that began in 2003 has been assessing corruption in Guatemala and taking steps to reduce it.
The anticorruption project identifies and works on rectifying weaknesses in government institutions that make them vulnerable to corruption. Reducing corruption by a mere 1 percent could save the Guatemalan government as much as $16.5 million per year, USAID officials estimate.
“The overarching success of the program has been the rapid, steady, and visible growth in public sector commitment to improve efficiency and transparency in government operations in general, and, in particular, of each of the entities that the USAID program assessed,” said Richard W. Layton, director of finance and business management at the USAID/Guatemala and Central American Program.
Tackling the root causes of corruption is also expected to encourage foreign investment. Officials hope that it will also help convince Guatemalans to pay their taxes, which will significantly boost the government’s coffers, given that Guatemala has the lowest tax revenue collection rate in the region.
USAID began anticorruption work here when former foreign service national Edin Barrientos, who in 2003 was Guatemala’s minister of agriculture, asked for help to get a clear picture of the systems and management controls within his ministry. Based on the findings, the Ministry of Agriculture implemented several improvements, and is piloting fixed asset controls and internal audit procedures that will be adopted by other Guatemalan government ministries.
Impressed with the work, Guatemala’s then incoming administration, headed by President Oscar Berger, asked USAID/Guatemala to expand the project to nine other ministries: Education; Public Health and Welfare; Finance; Communications, Infrastructure, and Housing; Economy; Environment, and Natural Resources; Culture and Sports; Labor; and Energy and Mines. It also asked for help with four public sector entities: the National Tourism Institute, Public Ministry (attorney’s general office), Comptroller’s General Office, and Supreme Court.
Together with the agriculture ministry, these institutions manage approximately 70 percent of Guatemala’s operational budget.
“There were many challenges at the beginning because of the natural concern that leaders had of what would be discovered and how that would lead to public perception of government inefficiency,” Layton said. “We were all nervous about how to present results and the questions that the media and the public would ask.
“This fear dissipated when each institution that was evaluated began to understand the benefits the assessments would bring to their work and the value of each public servant in, first, the process of identifying areas for improvement as a public service responsibility and, then, how to improve the organizations’ image and reputation in Guatemalan society.”
Each assessment looked at the legal framework, organizational structure, administrative and financial management, and internal and external controls in place for ministries to carry out their stated objectives. Evaluators identified areas where strengthening of systems and procedures was needed to reduce inefficiency, graft, and “leakages.” USAID assistance included support to prepare time-phased plans that each institution could use to implement new or corrective measures.
The Ministry of Communications, Infrastructure, and Housing, for instance, adopted a more decentralized budgetary system, standardized its procedures and reforms for expenditure reporting, started training programs for personnel, and improved information technology.
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