Office to monitor public institutions was created in 2010

In order to assess his leadership, Venezuela re-elected President Hugo Chávez has relied on self-criticism. This was done throughout his presidential campaign. He called for further efficiency and announced the incorporation of a ministry responsible for supervising different official plans and administrations. 

On Tuesday, during a press conference attended by the national and international media, the Venezuelan leader said that he would transform the Ministry of the Secretariat into a "powerful ministry able to monitor plans and programs," a statement which is pretty much similar to what the leader had said in previous days.

Nonetheless, it seems that the president forgot the creation, by presidential decree No. 7,503, of the Strategic Office for Supervising, Monitoring and Evaluating the Public Administration in 2010.

The office, a branch of the presidency, has financial and administrative management capacity. Each of the members of the office is fiduciary staff and freely appointed and removed by the executive director, who, in turn, is handpicked by the president. 

The office aims at "assessing, supervising, surveiling, following up and monitoring the execution of plans, projects and works carried out by the ministries, institutions, offices, missions, and the activities of the Communal Councils and other sort of community organizations in connection with the execution of public resources and the work of public institutions for the purpose of fully informing the President of the Republic about such activities (...)," as provided for in Article 2 of the Official Gazette issued on June 22, 2010.

Some sources have informed that the objectives of this office have not been accomplished yet for lack of due monitoring, especially in the case of the president's most trusted public servants.

Translated by Jhean Cabrera