Business outcry against excessive bureaucracy

More than 300 economic and social entities have joined forces to demand less bureaucracy and a more professionalized administration. Under the umbrella of the Forum of Entities for Administrative Reform (FERA), a large amalgamation of associations, colleges, foundations, and guilds has gathered, as well as some companies such as Amat Immobiliaris, Ficosa, and Girbau. It is a long list that criticizes the low quality of public administration and sees its modernization as urgent due to the cost it entails for all citizens, in a context where anti-politics is increasingly spreading and people are becoming aware of the dangers of discrediting institutions, as seen in Valencia in the face of the DANA catastrophe.

"We have been working for ten years, we are not a flash in the pan," defended its coordinator, Antoni Biarnés, at an event this Wednesday to present their main demands, with an alarmingly scarce female presence among the spokespersons. They have been asking for it for a long time and recognize the opportunity that has opened with the new Government, after it announced a reform of the Catalan administration, with initial measures such as eliminating mandatory appointments and simplifying the Generalitat's websites. "We want to thank them," began the president of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, Josep Santacreu, "what we will do is accompany and ensure that the objectives are met." "This act is not against anyone," Biarnés wanted to emphasize. In fact, they will be part of the expert commission appointed by the socialist executive to reform the public sector, which will be led by Professor Carles Ramió.

With that horizon, the members of the forum, among whom are the Barcelona Chamber, Cecot, the College of Economists of Catalonia, FemCat, Esade, and the Social Third Sector Table, specify their demands on issues such as moving towards a more agile administration and reducing the approval of laws in contrast to the current "normative cobweb," preventing the digitalization of services from replicating the same problems. "It takes two years to get a building permit or open a business. It's inadmissible," Santacreu warned. "We need an efficient administration, not one that hinders the competitiveness of the economy. We are in favor of rules, but good ones: simple, applicable, and verifiable," added the dean of the College of Industrial Engineers of Catalonia, Narcís Armengol.

For the dean of the College of Economists of Catalonia, Carlos Puig de Travy, all this must be achieved without a major disruptive process, but through concrete and scalable projects. To which the general director of FemCat, Muntsa Vilalta, asks to trust the citizen, with the extension of tools such as the responsible declaration, tested with covid sick leaves, with the aim of simplifying procedures, reducing costs, and maintaining control. Or avoiding asking for documents that the administration already has, as, in fact, the focus is being placed on resolving this in the processing of aid for DANA, taking into account that many applicants have lost all their accrediting documents when water flooded their homes or cars.

One of the main black spots they see in the administration is the need to professionalize it, in line with the position of the Government, which has proposed launching public tenders for certain management positions. "It is neither responsible nor tolerable that in Catalonia there are hundreds of positions and bodies occupied by people without the necessary professional and competency adequacy and who, too often, only have membership in the governing political party as a credential," they criticize. According to their calculations, half a thousand public positions change with each new executive, among which are public managers, a figure they ask to be linked to merits and experience.

One of the voices in the forum that broadens the focus beyond the usual business demands is the Social Third Sector Roundtable, which warns of the problems and emergency they face in different fields, with 25% of the Catalan population at risk of poverty. "We need an administration with management capacity, innovative and coordinated. The current system is not like that," said Xavier Trabado, citing as examples the poor management of the Guaranteed Citizenship Income (RGC), "it is not a technical issue, it is the only possible way for us to move towards shared prosperity."

Main demands of the Forum of Entities for the Reform of the Administration

• A radical reduction of bureaucracy
• The professionalization of public management
• Reduce the regulatory web
• The evaluation of public policies
• Public employment management adapted to the 21st century
• Good governance, transparency and public integrity
• Efficient digitalization
• Improve legal certainty to guarantee good practice by public employees