What is the School of Public Administration of Catalonia? This is the new mission entrusted to it by the Government

BarcelonaThe Catalan School of Public Administration is a century-old institution: founded in 1912, it is one of the oldest in Europe. It was established by Enric Prat de la Riba and is now the leading training center for Catalan civil servants. Now, however, the government wants it to go a step further. within the framework of the public administration reform that is underway. To this end, and according to sources within the Catalan government who spoke to ARA, the executive council will officially launch the drafting of the new law for the School of Public Administration this Tuesday, with the aim of completing it by the summer of 2026 through "maximum dialogue" with the public sector, municipal entities, and parliamentary groups. This is not the first Catalan government to attempt this: Pere Aragonès's government worked on a proposal that was ultimately shelved after the break with Junts; previously, in 2017, in Article 155, it overruled the reform that the then-director of the School, Agustí Colomines, now a Junts deputy, had been working on. The law for the School of Public Administration of Catalonia is the third component of the other two reforms with which the Catalan government intends to shape the future of Catalan administration: the public employment law and the law on professional public managers. The goal is for the School to be aligned with the changes that these laws will introduce. For example, by offering a mandatory selective course after the competitive examinations, which the Government wants to make less focused on memorization and more on skills, or by increasing its role in the selection process for public managers. The new model envisioned by the executive branch aims to eliminate the appointment of high-ranking officials through patronage and establish access via public competition. The School of Public Administration would be responsible for accrediting candidates and even for their final selection—although the appointment would ultimately rest with the Government. It would also assume the mission of designing a system for the standardization and accreditation of professional skills for all public employees, research groups, and researchers.

Furthermore, the preliminary report that the Catalan government will approve this Tuesday anticipates that the school will serve all Catalan public administrations and provide civil servants with "cross-cutting training" throughout their careers. It also aims to strengthen the school's ties with academia and local governments, and offer the latter support on one of their biggest challenges: the lack of staff to fill positions for secretaries and auditors, which as explained by the ARAThis paralyzes local administrations due to high turnover and high rates of temporary employment – there is a shortage of around 900 positions, and 60% of municipalities have no permanent staff in this role. The fact that Catalonia lacks the authority to fill these positions, which are under the jurisdiction of the central government, is a hindrance, but the Catalan government wants the Escola to at least be able to "participate in the selection process" and guarantee "quality training."

Talent Hunt

Another challenge facing the Catalan administration is the retirement of nearly a quarter of the Generalitat's 260,000 public employees before 2030. In this context, the Catalan government is exploring ways to attract talent to fill these gaps, a line of work that the School also intends to promote, following the example of similar centers in Europe. Programs have already been launched to foster a passion for public service among young people, as well as scholarships to prepare for competitive examinations. These include, for example, scholarships for new tax managers who will be integrated into the Catalan Tax Agency as it moves towards becoming a truly independent Catalan tax authority – a significant milestone, moreover. pending the negotiation in Madrid–.

But for everything to succeed, the Catalan government needs the support of a parliamentary majority to approve these laws. The executive branch aims to forge a national "consensus" around the School, an idea emphasized by its director, Jaume Magre, a PhD in political science and specialist in local government. "Institutions must be enduring, and in the case of the School, even more so. It is central to the political and institutional system, and we must try to be generous enough to understand that this position must be respected," he argued in this newspaper. The School is destined to be the "flagship" of the reform of the Catalan public administration: "We need this law desperately," Magre concluded.

Previous attempts

The law incorporates some of the elements already put forward by Colomines, but also those that the last director of the School, Ismael Peña López, wanted to promote under the ERC government. This legislation underwent quite a journey during the last legislature: initially, it was intended to be a separate law, as proposed by the PSC, but it ended up within a chapter of the public employment law. Like the draft that the Socialist executive will now put out for public consultation, that law emphasized the need to strengthen training and provide more tools to local authorities, training specific profiles that they demand and assuming, at their request, the selection process for certain positions. It was approved by the Government's technical council in February 2023, but never by the executive council.

The objective of transforming the School into a hub for knowledge transfer, research, and innovation dates back to Colomines' time. However, what the current project doesn't include is the idea of the now-Junts deputy to transform it into a consortium between the public administration, local governments, and universities. In the parliamentary debate, it remains to be seen how Junts will position itself, given that the Catalan government has consistently extended an olive branch to them—so far, without success—to join the investiture bloc on major national issues. It has not succeeded. in the National Pact for the Language neither in the latest reforms he has promoted in housing matters.