Presentation by Cesar Cordova, Jacobs,Cordova&Associates, at the OECD Conference on Enforcement and Inspections which took place at the OECD Headquarter in Paris on 9 November 2017. Further information is available at http://oe.cd/regpol
2. www.regulatoryreform.com
Assessing Inspection Reforms
Fascinating but fast moving field of regref
JC&A experience
– World Bank inspection checklist (2006)
– World Bank Survey of 25 country inspection reforms
(2010)
– Practice e.g. Jordan (2005-2007), Albania (2008), Ecuador
(2014), Bosnia (2014-2015) Moldova (2016), Tajikistan
(2016), etc.
– Reviewer for World Bank Report (2018)
3. www.regulatoryreform.com
Motives for inspection reform
• Enforcement & control
• Fight against excessive discretion & corruption
• Dealing with “informal,” grey, or illegal sector
• Appeal and dispute resolution systems
Improving the rule
of law
• Administrative compliance costs of multiple and
contradictory inspection visits
• Regressive nature of inspection on SMEs
Improving the
business
environment
• Regulatory failures, scandals & crisis
• Better and smarter compliance and enforcements
• Leaner and effective bureaucracies
• Cost efficient public services
• Potential use of ITC
Making inspection
more cost effective
6. www.regulatoryreform.com
Type of Systematic Reform Models
Common legal
framework for
inspections
Processes &
Procedures
(Management)
Institutional
Architecture
(Governance)
Third Party
Certification
7. www.regulatoryreform.com
Issues concerning the reform of inspection of
processes and procedures
Before the visit
– Selecting visits based on risk-based inputs
– Controlling the number, frequency and duration of an inspection visit
During the visit
– Reducing discretion of inspectors through checklists & Inspection
Registration Books (IRB)
– From ”inspectors” to “verifiers”
– Potential conflict of interest concerning advisory
After the visits
– Set clear standards, rights and obligations of inspectors and inspected
entities
– Appeal mechanisms
Other process and accompanying reforms
– Training, ICT, labs, etc.
– Performance and accountability of inspectors
8. www.regulatoryreform.com
Reform of Inspection Architecture
Cooperation
agreement
Coordinating and
overview body at
central level
Centralized
supervision &
control body
Mergers
and
consolidations
9. www.regulatoryreform.com
Some lessons (1)
Model/
approaches
Who has effective
control
Institutional costs to
implement the reform
Increased benefits due to
efficiency and effectiveness of
control
1. Cooperation
Agreement
• Ministries and
agencies
• Peer pressure and
goodwill
collaborations
• Negligible
• Sustainability
challenges
• Savings if properly enforced
across inspection bodies:
e.g., joint inspections, better
communication about risks
2.Coordinating &
overview body at
central level
• Ministries and
agencies
supervised by a
new body
• Depends
• Sustainability
challenges
• Significant savings if
properly enforced, e.g.,
good practices sharing,
mutual recognitions of
visits, benchmarking and
peer pressure, sharing
laboratories, etc.
• ITC opportunities
10. www.regulatoryreform.com
Some lessons (2)
Model/ approaches Who has
effective
control
Institutional costs to
implement the reform
Increased benefits due to
efficiency and effectiveness of
control
3.Merging and
consolidating
related risks or
policy area
• New
inspection
agencies
organized
according to
sectors and
policies
• Significant but depends
on the area
• Takes time
• More sustainable
• Economies of scale and
scope on enforcement costs
• Speeder adoption of
improved practices, e.g.,
Risk based Inspection,
performance of inspectors
• But constraints for large
public administrations
4.Centralised
supervision/control
model
• General
Inspectorate
or Inspector
General’s
office, and
Government
• Large
• Takes time
• Strong political and
bureaucratic opposition
• International constraints
and irritation
• Important efficiency gains
for small administrations
(including better
immunization against
capture)
• But possible diseconomies
of scale and scope for large
inspectorates
11. www.regulatoryreform.com
Prerequisites for the reform
Political economy and readiness of policy-makers to
implement reform and sustain support
– Organizational/Operational change
– The use and limits of donors and “Champions”
Reform of existing laws & regulations to be inspected
– Worst case: good enforcement of bad regulations
External capacity building
– Training of inspectors and drafting implementation by-laws to
complement organizational and operational changes
– IT management system for supervision, planning, control, and
risk-management of inspections and inspectors