Coordination and coherence problems of the public policy for modernization at the executive branch of Peru

Since the 1990s, the structure of the Executive Branch in Peru tended to organize through the creation of specialized agencies in different sectors. This produced an organizational and functional fragmentation in the way public interventions are managed, substantially increasing the challenges ofintra and intersectoral coordination and coherence in the management of public policies that political authorities must perform. This division of labor produces a management style that is unlikely to focus in an articulated way on the causes and solutions of public problems, particularly those that have a multi-causal dimension and require an intersectoral approach such as the policy of modernizing public management. This policy aims to introduce changes in the general rules that organize the management of public policies and organizations and has multiple actors involved in its design and execution. Some of them are ministerial divisions and agencies dependent on the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Finance, which are part of the center of government. To analyze the case of the modernization policy, semi-structured interviews were conducted to 13 managers and advisors in charge of directing, designing and implementing the respective policy, in addition to a review of the regulations and the different consultancy management reports. Most of the senior officials involved agreed that this policy has weak levels of coordination and limited coherence in the programs developed by the stakeholders of both sectors. This is reflected in the lack of a shared vision, the lack of mechanisms for exchanging information and rules of interaction between the stakeholders, and the diffuse awareness that the general objective of this public policy cannot be achieved if the institutional objectives of each actor are not aligned. The paradox is that these actors, as part of the center of government, have the coordination of priority public policies among their main functions. In this context, the agency model that promotes organizations mainly focused on an institutional objective, with greater administrative autonomy, seems to have contributed to a centrifugal logic in the development of this policy. The operation of these stakeholders is not aligned to the theoretical assumptions that support their prevalence in the current State structure.