Guatemala—National Institutions Strengthening

Irregular migration from Guatemala has surged this year, and the U.S. Government has renewed its commitment to partner with the Government of Guatemala to address the main drivers of migration. These include a general lack of attractive employment opportunities, insufficient public services, food insecurity, and violence. These challenges are compounded by natural disasters, drought, and the COVID-19 pandemic, motivating more Guatemalans to make the perilous journey north.

Modest increases in social spending in recent years have not translated into improved access to basic public services for all Guatemalans, regardless of their place of residence, gender, ethnic group, or ability to pay. Thus, social development indicators have not improved.

Poor budget execution rates across the board highlight the necessity for the government to more fundamentally overhaul core governance systems and processes to better plan and deliver resources where those are most effective and necessary.

In this environment, the government must restore trust in its ability to manage public resources and more equitably deliver priority public services by reforming key areas of its public financial management (PFM) targeting far-reaching impact across priority sectors.

The Guatemala National Institutions Strengthening Project supports the Government’s reform efforts, focused on creating a more effective and transparent public financial management (PFM) system, which will, in turn, improve governance, reduce opportunities for corruption, enhance public service delivery, and deter illegal migration.

Building on the U.S. Agency for International Development’s achievements through the predecessor Fiscal Procurement and Reform Project—also implemented by DAI—the Guatemala National Institutions Strengthening Project supports the national Planning Secretariat, the Tax Administration, the Ministry of Finance, and the Presidential Commission for Open and Electronic Government to bolster their institutional capacities to increase tax revenue, improve budget planning and public procurement, and enhance transparency and oversight in the use of public resources.

Sample Activities

• Provide training for staff of the Tax Administration to improve tax collection.
• Engages civil society to catalyze improvements in Guatemala’s domestic resource mobilization, PFM systems, and fiscal transparency and accountability.
• Apply process optimization and IT transformation methodology to help government ministry IT departments to design, develop, test, and deploy the integrated planning management tool.

Select Results

• Provided a total of 27 hours of training to staff of the Superintendency of Tax Administration where they learned data management, among other skills.
• Enhanced fiscal transparency, public accountability, and open data mechanisms.
• Increased compliance with access to public information regulations.
• Redesigned and automated tax administration key processes.
• Improved tax compliance risk management.
• Developed a digital government transformation pilot program.