According to an Institute of Economic Studies (IEE) study, Spain ranks at the bottom of OECD countries for efficiency of public spending. This has been worsening in recent years. Inigo Fernandez De Mesa, vice president of CEOE and president of IEE, requested that spending efficiency be assessed at a session organised by the General Council of Economists. Jordi Sevilla was the former Minister of Public Administrations. According to their calculations, the administrations could reduce expenses by 14% if they offer the same level of services (that is, approximately 60,000 million euros).
How could this be achieved? Valentin Pich, president of CGE, believes that the General State Budgets should be adjusted to current realities. He also recommends that efficient systems of evaluation, control, and monitoring expenditures be established to avoid spending divertissements towards unnecessary items. This will allow the CGE to tackle the problem in a realistic way. The revaluation and abolition of pensions.
Fernandez de Mesa, for his part, stated that increasing efficiency in public spending is the best way to maintain economic growth and increase competitiveness, particularly after the recovery from the covid-19 crisis, high inflation, and other crises.
It also calls for transparency and accountability, professionalized, independent management with continuous evaluation of actions. This promotes public-private collaboration, fiscal co-responsibility, and collaboration among administrations.
Seville, on the other hand, stated that structural reforms were needed to rescue Spain from its current situation in which the country’s debt and public deficit have soared as a consequence of the pandemic. He proposed that the Bank of Spain’s latest annual report be implemented and that there be a broad consensus to ensure that they are sustainable over time. He believes that it is not important to create many laws but that they are followed in the most efficient manner possible. He used the example of the Minimum Vital Income (IMV), which he said “is a good statute, but not being properly developed.”
