Implementing a subnational results-oriented management and budgeting system

"After a century of political centralization in Colombia, the first public election of city mayors in 1986 began a decentralization trend, which was later reinforced by a constitutional reform in 1991. Subnational governments (departments and municipalities) were made responsible for the planning and management of social and economic development in their jurisdictions. Administrative and political reforms were accompanied by fiscal decentralization, including the transfer of central government revenues. Since 1991 the growth of fiscal transfers has accelerated. Departments and municipalities are now responsible for public health, education, water supply, and sanitation expenditures through earmarked transfers. Out of the total amount of central government expenditures (21.8 percent of GDP in 2008) almost one-quarter represent regional transfers (5 percent of GDP), which finance half of all regional expenditures (10.2 percent of GDP). In terms of spending, regional government is almost half the size of the central government."