Electoral Service and Municipal Management: discover the latest measures to be put in place as part of the Probity Agenda

The President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, signed a constitutional reform bill yesterday morning to give autonomy to the Electoral Service and a bill to strengthen municipal management. The purpose of these bills, which are part of the Agenda for Transparency and Probity in Business and Politics, is to strengthen institutions and democracy by establishing clear boundaries between money and politics.

Autonomy for the Electoral Service

A constitutional reform bill to give full autonomy to the Electoral Service was signed and sent to Congress this morning by President Bachelet. This is one of the key recommendations made by the Advisory Council chaired by Eduardo Engel.

The bill will make the Electoral Service a stronger and more independent institution with the capacity to freely exercise its role of organizing elections. It will also allow the Electoral Service’s to monitor the electoral process more effectively.

Once the reform is approved by Congress, the Electoral Service will:

• Become an autonomous entity, independent from the Executive Power.
• Have its own budget and the necessary human and technical capacities.
• Have the necessary attributes to effectively carry out its work and enforce the regulations on transparency and electoral spending.

Strengthening municipal management and the professionalization of municipal staff

The second bill signed by President Bachelet was the bill to strengthen municipal management and the professionalization of municipal staff. The purpose of this bill is to ensure the State responds accordingly to the differing needs of each of Chile’s 346 municipalities, as opposed to providing standardized solutions that are seldom effective.

Key features of the bill include:

•  Modifications to the current municipal staffing levels which have remained unchanged since 1994.
• A graded pay scale for 8,700 professional municipal employees that rewards academic and professional development qualifications.
• Improved remuneration for technical, administrative and professional staff.
• Improved job stability.

The bill also sets out a spending plan to cover the costs of these improvements by increasing State payments to the Municipal Common Fund to 12 billion pesos in 2015; 24 billion in 2016 and 36 billion in 2017. By 2018 the State’s contribution to the Municipal Common Fund will increase almost fivefold.

In line with the recommendations made by the Advisory Council chaired by Eduardo Engel, municipalities will be required to exercise fiscal responsibility and probity when setting staffing levels. For example one of the requirements is that 75% of all new positions will have to be professional roles.

Website

You can check the current status of the measures pledged by President Bachelet by visiting the Probity Agenda website.
The Probity Agenda consists of 14 administrative measures which have now been implemented and 18 legislative bills.

Click here to visit the Probity Agenda website (in Spanish).