When Will Competence Define Who Works in Chile’s Cities?

By Andres Kogan Valderrama

HAVANA TIMES – The year 2024 marks 20 years since the Civil Service Directorate and the Senior Public Management System began operating in Chile. They sought to provide a concrete response to the corruption scandal of the MOP-GATE case and what happened with Chiledeportes and State Railways, during the government of President Ricardo Lagos.

Since then, there have been significant advances in the professionalization and transparency in the selection of senior public positions at the central level, within important services throughout the country, in the fields of education, health, labor, security, economy, culture, sports, among others.

Thus, more than 150,000 positions for national and regional directors in various central-level services over the past 20 years have been designated based on education, experience, and merit to obtain the job (strategic, managerial, technical, and personal competencies), and not by political trust, as was the case before.

That said, there have undoubtedly been advances and things have moved in the right direction, despite some criticisms of the system, such as the excessive change of directors when a new government comes to power at the central level and the president’s power to request their resignation, as well as the lack of greater evidence on th