SLOVAK UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE IN NITRA

FACULTY OF EUROPEAN STUDIES AND REGIONAL

DEVELOPMENT

Public Administration in Colombia

Theory, Management and Organization of Public Administration
Seminar Paper

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Paula Alejandra Ramos Bermudez
CONTENT
1. Administration 3
2. Public administration 3
3. Management 3
4. Public management 4
5. Territorial entities 4
A. Department 5
B. Municipalities 9
C. Districts 9
D. Reservations 9
E. Departmental corregimientos 10

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1. Administration
According to Kerns 1969, the administration has its origins at the time of the third human, in parallel
in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, agriculture is applied as a complement to houses and thus
establishes its territory and plans its modus vivendi, later inventions such as writing, the wheel of
light. the same general industrial evolution significant advances for the understanding of the scientific
discipline whose object of study is the organization (Aguero, 2007). This is how Taylor 1914
understands administration under a scientific concept that seeks the rationality of people's work and
the efficiency of productive systems from the perspective of the management operator Fayol 1928, on
the other hand, conceptualized management to the operator where A managerial exercise oriented to
the processes of planning, development, control and evaluation of the work of the organization was
developed. Drucker 1966 complements the previous one by indicating that each organization has a
specific administrative theory that depends on its internal and external environment, which for
Mintzberg 1991 translates into the organized division of labor and the processes necessary for its
coordination. In the country, administration is considered as a structured social practice that
coordinates a series of organizational resources to meet previously planned objectives.

2. Public administration
Thompson (2008) defines public administration as the discipline in charge of studying the
State organizations that are created, managed and evaluated so that they generate social value.
Espinosa (2005) understands it as the maximization of Social Well-being in a given territory.
for Weber (1979) this type of administration is directly related to the bureaucracy understood
as the activities of the public that are organized in the best possible way for the efficiency of
the State. Among the most relevant models of public administration are: 1) the continuity
model that refers to the relationship between the State and the market resolved by practices of
outsourcing services (pollit, 1990; prats, 1993); 2) the transition model that seeks to optimize
the communication channels between citizens and the government apparatus and for this uses
technological advances and the use of social networks (Cobo, 2012; Oszlak, 2013); 3) the
neo-institutional model that contemplates the implementation and empowerment of good
practices in the private sector in the planning and execution of state action.

3. Management
Villa mayor and Lamas (1998) define management as the comprehensive action of
operationalizing the planned work that materializes the objectives in each environment. Sierra
(2007) for his part understands management as the factor that generates results and integrates
human talent that is coordinated by a specific organizational culture, there are two

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 perspectives to approach management, the first part is from a rational point of view and
Simón (1969) He understands it as the non-divisible goods of generational consumption on
which it is based on the certainty of the information to develop the logical processes of greater
social utility. The second from a traditional approach is conceived by Actor (2003) as an
integral action of organizational effort. For planning planning under these perspectives, it is
possible to identify some management models (Ochoa Zabaleta 2013), for example,
knowledge management, competency-based management, and strategic management.

4. Public management
Cunill (1997) establishes public management as the intelligent process of developing the
activities of a State organization with respect to the administration model used for Moore
(1995) there are three perspectives of this type of management within an organization, the
first is the reason understood as the use of public resources and goods to satisfy the interests
of a community, the second is decision-making that is represented as a political process that
seeks to satisfy the needs and problems of a society based on the best scenarios proposed by
the Administration. The third is the instrumental perspective that is oriented towards
efficiency, effectiveness and effectiveness in all State processes. In summary, Lorino (1995)
defines public management as the search of public servants to serve the community with
knowledge, leadership and pride. González Medina (2012) for his part maintains that the
quality and development of Electronic Administration together with the search for optimizing
public management based on good practices and lessons learned from the private sector in
Anglo-American and European countries generate efforts to build the new public management

5. Territorial entities
The first article of the Political Constitution of Colombia states that the country is a
decentralized Social State of Law and with autonomy from its territorial entities, which are
conceived as legal persons under public law with autonomy for the administration and
management of resources that satisfy the The interests of their communities in terms of Social
Welfare (Public Ministry 2011) for Maldonado (2001) are political and administrative
structures of the Colombian public administration that are represented in metropolitan
regions, departments, districts, provinces and municipalities.

According to the National Planning Department (DNP 2018) Colombia, at the territorial
entity level, is made up of 32 departments, 1,122 municipalities, 5 districts, 718 reservations
and 12 departmental corregimientos that represent indigenous territories, which in relation to
the Colombian Constitution of 1991 make part of the Executive Branch of the country (article
115). the President of the Republic symbolizes national unity and is responsible for being the

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Paula Alejandra Ramos Bermudez
 head of state and head of government and supreme administrative authority of the country
(article 188 and 189) while the governor is the head of the sectional administration and legal
representative of the department ( Article 303) Finally, the mayor is the head of the local
administration and legal representative of the development municipality to strategically direct
and coordinate public policies, projects, programs and plans that will be developed in their
terms of office. Figure 1 represents this relationship, which is essential for the country's public
administrative management.

Figure 1 (reference: Universidad EAN)

A. Department
It should be noted that in Colombia, the legislative power is centralized, since the country is
a unitary (not federal) republic; that is, only the Congress of the Republic can legislate, while
the executive power does have representatives in the Departments, Municipalities and/or
Districts. It is mistakenly believed that the Departmental Assemblies and the Municipal
Councils are legislative bodies, but these two public corporations are organs of the executive
power and their acts, called administrative acts, although they constitute orders, are not laws.
Therefore, there is no legislative or judicial power emanating from a territorial entity: be it a
department, municipality or district. The legislative and judicial power emanates totally from
the Nation and only the executive power of the National order also emanates from the
Nation.

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 Thus, in the territorial entity at the departmental level it can be perfectly affirmed that the
executive power oversees a governor, elected by popular vote since 1992, and who exercises
for a period of 4 years from 2004. The governor appoints a Cabinet made up of its
secretaries.

The legislative branch is represented in a public corporation called the Departmental

Assembly, the entity in charge of exercising political control over the governor. It is a
collegiate that issues administrative acts called 'ordinances', the Constitution sets specific
powers for issues to regulate in the department. Its members are called deputies.
As for the judiciary, this is represented by the Courts of the Judicial District (of the ordinary
jurisdiction and contentious administrative) but this is not decentralization as it happens with
the territorial entities, but it is about decentralization of the Nation. Generally, a judicial
district falls within the territory of a department, but there are exceptions. As the legislative
power is unique, so is the judicial power, but it is decentralized in the country, so these courts
belong to the Nation and not to the department. The same confusion can occur with the
judicial circuits and municipalities that also belong to the nation and are not dependent on
any municipality.
The departmental Assemblies or their members are elected by popular vote for the same
period as the governor. The Assembly has between 11 and 31 deputies according to the
population of the department.

Two or more departments can be associated into planning administrative regions.

The departments are subdivided into municipalities, whose administration oversees a mayor
and a municipal council elected by popular vote for a term equal to that of the departmental
dignitaries. Some departments with a large number of municipalities have chosen to
recognize the existence of provinces or subregions, these being a group of municipalities
with cultural, geographical or historical affinities, where a major urban center is located as
the capital and from there local institutions operate with jurisdiction over the other
municipalities. These groups, however, lack legal recognition.

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 Figure 3 Departments Colombia
Figure 2 Colombia

Table 1 Lista de departamentos

DEPARTMENT CAPITAL
AMAZONAS LETICIA
ANTIOQUIA MEDELLIN
ARAUCA ARAUCA
ATLANTICO BARRANQUILLA
BOLIVAR CARTAGENA DE INDIAS
BOYACA TUNJA
CALDAS MANIZALES
CAQUETA FLORENCIA
CASANARE YOPAL
CAUCA POPAYAN
CESAR VALLEDUPAR
CHOCO QUIBDO
CORDOBA MONTERIA
CUNDINAMARCA BOGOTA
GUAINIA INIRIDA
GUAVIARE SAN JOSE DEL GUAVIARE
HUILA NEIVA
LA GUAJIRA RIOHACHA
MAGDALENA SANTA MARTA
META VILLAVICENCIO
NARIÑO SAN JUAN DE PASTO
NORTE DE SAN JOSE DE CUCUTA
SANTANDER
PUTUMAYO MOCOA
QUINDIO ARMENIA
RISARALDA PEREIRA
SAN ANDRES Y SAN ANDRES
PROVIDENCIA
SANTANDER BUCARAMANGA
SUCRE SINCELEJO

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 TOLIMA IBAGUE
VALLE DEL CAUCA CALI
VAUPES MITU
VICHADA PUERTO CARREÑO

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Paula Alejandra Ramos Bermudez
 B. Municipalities
Each municipality has a municipal seat, which is a population that
usually bears the same name as the municipality and functions as its
capital. On many occasions the term "municipality" is applied to the
municipal seat.

There are approximately 37 cases in which the name of the

municipality does not correspond to that of its head (see heteronominal
municipalities of Colombia).

In Colombia there are other types of populations that do not have

municipal status but depend on them. These types of populations are
corregimientos and police inspections.

The rural area of a municipality is divided into villages and its urban
areas (municipal capital and corregimientos) are divided into
neighborhoods. Some capitals of large cities may be divided into
communes or localities.

C. Districts
The districts are municipalities that have one or several characteristics
that stand out or differ from the surrounding municipalities, such as
their political, commercial, historical, tourist, cultural, industrial,
environmental, port or border importance. Colombia has eleven
recognized districts: Bogotá, Barrancabermeja, Barranquilla,
Buenaventura, Cali, Cartagena de Indias, Medellín, Mompox,
Riohacha, Santa Marta and Turbo.

The aforementioned districts are part of their respective departments,

while Bogotá has a special relationship with the department of
Cundinamarca since the latter does not exercise authority over the
Capital District, with which Bogotá is considered a first-order entity,
being autonomous and independent of the department. The courts of
Bogotá and Cundinamarca have jurisdiction over Bogotá, but not the
governor or the assembly.

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Paula Alejandra Ramos Bermudez
 D. Reservations
The Reservation is a legal institution of no great importance in the
Spanish colonial origin in America, made up of a recognized territory
of a community of Amerindian descent, with inalienable, collective or
community property title, governed by a special autonomous statute,
with guidelines and traditions. own cultural This institution was
maintained by some republics and is fully recognized in Colombia.

E. Departmental corregimientos
The Corregimiento in Colombia are a type of division of the rural area
of ​the different municipalities of the country; It is an intermediate
instance of the population centers (populated centers) remote or not
agglomerated from the municipal seat with the municipality. The
corregimiento includes a set of paths, hamlets and even police
inspections. In addition, its header may contain neighborhoods.
Historically, a corregimiento has been the jurisdiction of a Corregidor.

According to article 117 of Law 1551 of 2012,1 In order to improve

the provision of services and ensure citizen participation in the
management of public affairs of a local nature, the councils may
divide their municipalities into corregimientos in the case that certain
populated centers and contiguous villages have at least 1000
inhabitants. In the agreement by means of which the territory of the
municipality is divided into corregimientos, their denomination, limits
and attributions will be established, and the other regulations that may
be necessary for their organization and operation will be dictated.

The municipal mayors may delegate through an administrative act, in

the corregimientos, express functions in matters of provision of public
services, administration of real estate and collection of tax revenues
that are specific to the municipal administration.

Each corregimiento is governed by a Local Administrative Board (JAL),

made up of no less than five and no more than nine members, elected by
popular vote for a period of four years that must coincide with the term

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 of the Municipal Council. The Municipal or District Council may
constitute, to support social investment in the Corregimientos.

Its equivalent in the municipal seats of some municipalities are the

communes.

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Paula Alejandra Ramos Bermudez