New arrivals – January 3, 2019
During the month of November 2014, the Millennium Challenge Agreement was ratified between the United States of America and the Republic of El Salvador, which aims to reduce poverty through the economic growth of El Salvador; One of its objectives is also to increase private investment, through a better regulatory environment and institutional capacity. Said Agreement contemplates an activity for regulatory improvement, which aims to create a system and an institution dedicated to the regulatory review and prioritization process, to support public entities in their task of improving the quality of current and future regulation. .
In compliance with the aforementioned agreement, in 2015, the Regulatory Improvement Organization (OMR) was created in El Salvador, whose main objective is to develop the Regulatory Improvement System in the Executive Body, in such a way that it would allow the execution of a strategy associated with the improvement of the investment climate in the country and the achievement of measurable, economically structured objectives, previously established and for specific periods.
On the other hand, on February 13, 2018, the Administrative Procedures Law was approved, the provisions of which are intended to regulate the validity and effectiveness requirements of administrative actions and the exercise of the regulatory power of the Public Administration, including the obligation for institutions to prepare an annual regulatory improvement plan, as well as to carry out regulatory impact assessments.
Finally, given that the common objective is the promotion of investment in the country, it became necessary to create a regulatory improvement system to implement a new administrative culture, which ensures that decisions on regulatory issues are made based on objective, impartial and coherent, without conflicts of interest, prejudices or undue influences and that also allows the elimination of demands and requirements that, without foundation, affect the business climate in the country.
Thus, on December 12, 2018, the Regulatory Improvement Law was approved by the Legislative Assembly, which aims to ensure the quality of the regulations issued by public entities or subjects obliged to comply with said law in such a way. , that Within its purposes, it seeks to eliminate demands and requirements that, without foundation, or deviating from technological platforms, affect the business climate, competitiveness, foreign trade and the attraction of investments..
On the other hand, The goal is to simplify procedures and procedures in order to make them more effective and generate lower costs..
The subjects obliged to comply with this Law are the 14 ministries of the Executive Branch and their dependencies, the autonomous ones - even when their law is of a special nature -, and the 262 municipal ones throughout the country.
Through this Law, the Regulatory Improvement System abbreviated as “the System” or “SMR”. The purpose of creating the system is to structure and coordinate the execution of actions aimed at regulatory improvement; in order to ensure the quality of the regulations and procedures subject to the law.
With the approval of the Law, the aim is to institutionalize the Regulatory Improvement Organization (hereinafter OMR), so that it is in charge of dictating and monitoring compliance with regulatory improvement policies. The OMR will be made up of representatives from the private sector.
The law establishes as tools for regulatory improvement: an agenda that obligated subjects must formulate, containing a list of regulations that they plan to approve, modify, suppress or present for approval each year; regulatory impact assessments that must be carried out prior to the approval of a new regulation; and a National Registry of Procedures that will belong to the OMR, being responsible for the registration and publication of procedures, so as to provide legal certainty and contribute to the transparency of information, thus improving the interaction between obligated subjects and users. , while allowing the user to know the requirements of each procedure, modalities, means of presentation, response time, cost.
It has been established in the aforementioned Law that its application will be carried out gradually, starting with the Executive Body, then autonomous, Legislative and Judicial Body (from the 2nd year) and the municipalities from the 3rd year. From the 4th year of entry into force, it will be generally applicable.