La evaluación de lo público: prácticas y comunicación en las instituciones públicas costarricenses / Evaluation of public matters: practices and communication in Costa Rican public institutions

Abstract

La práctica de la evaluación en el sistema estatal costarricense está regida por un entramado normativo y procedimental exhaustivo. Sin embargo, esta plataforma no ha regido necesariamente la ejecución de la comunicación en las instituciones. De acuerdo con un estudio realizado en instituciones costarricenses entre 2019-2020,  primero con encuesta entre las unidades de comunicación (43) y luego con entrevistas a jefaturas de planificación de las instituciones e instituciones rectoras (22), se identificaron prácticas poco rigurosas de evaluación en las unidades de comunicación estatales, donde no existe obligación de realizar planificación operativa de sus actividades anuales, de aplicar evaluaciones sistemáticas, ni tampoco están obligadas a elaborar informes sobre las labores ejecutadas. Esta praxis de las unidades está permeada por el ejercicio macro institucional que utiliza matrices y formatos cuantitativos que registran cumplimiento más no evalúan efectos, cambios o impacto de sus actividades, lo que resta visibilidad al valor público que aporta el sector estatal, a lo que se suma igualmente el trabajo que se realiza desde las unidades de comunicación. La verdadera evaluación en el Estado queda circunscrita a pocos proyectos gubernamentales inscritos dentro del Plan Nacional de Desarrollo y no a una acción cotidiana en todo el sistema estatal. Este conjunto de prácticas produce poco o ninguna influencia de las unidades de comunicación en el proceso de toma de decisiones institucional, lo que les resta protagonismo estratégico y coloca sus actividades en un nivel netamente operativo.

Palabras claves: relaciones públicas, medición, resultados, gobierno costarricense, planificación

Abstract

The evaluation was not until a little more than two decades ago a relevant matter for public activity, concentrated in execution and guided by intuition, public approval or some data to record success in government work. This story has changed due to an increasingly demanding national and international context requiering  transparency of public actions, efficiency in activities that each government in turn prioritizes, and of course, the effectiveness of what is proposed. The practice of evaluation in the Costa Rican state system is governed by an exhaustive normative and procedural framework. However, this platform has not necessarily ruled the execution of communication in the institutions. According to a study performed out in Costa Rican institutions between 2019-2020, first with a mapping of the communication units carried out with a survey (43) examining their operation, projects they execute and some evaluation practices they carry out; lack of rigorous evaluation practices were identified. Furthermore, these units there has no obligation to carry out operational planning of their annual activities, to apply systematic evaluations, nor are they obliged to prepare reports on the work carried out. Subsequently, an inquiry was conducted through interviews (22) with planning heads of the institutions and governing bodies to learn about the evaluation regulations, the formats and platforms used, inter-institutional link for evaluation and the scope of the mandatory nature of this function. The results suggest that the praxis of the units is dominated by the macro-institutional planning exercise that uses matrices and quantitative formats that record compliance but do not evaluate effects, changes, or impact of their activities, which reduces visibility of the public value provided by state sector, and to which is also added the work accomplish by the communication units. The true evaluation in the State is limited to a few government projects registered within the National Development Plan and not to a daily action in the entire state system. Some of the planning offices even indicate that neither planning, and even less evaluation, constitute a resource that is considered as strategic, conversely, they are seen more as an operational, compliance and organization resource, and for the different areas the filling of matrices and formats to record the execution of their tasks is an additional burden. In fact, one of the difficulties raised by these offices is the planning of their annual programs with objectives that can be evaluated, a position that is also recognized by the Contraloria General de la Republica (Comptroller General of the Republic), which indicates the absence, in a relevant percentage, of objectives in public institution programs. For the communication units, this set of practices produces inertia in the communicative action, little or no influence of the communication units in the institutional decision-making process, and an operational focus on execution, which reduces their strategic role. It is also clear that there is a predominance in the use of techniques and tools for reporting results in communication that does not correspond to evaluation, measurement is used with greater emphasis, and even in some cases the use of reportings which not apply to neither of the two processes.

Keywords: public relations, measurement, results, Costa Rican government, planning