La determinación del presupuesto referencial de los procedimientos dinámicos de contratación pública y su afectación en el gasto del Estado ecuatoriano

El presupuesto referencial dentro de la contratación pública en el Ecuador, ha sido un elemento que sirve para seleccionar el proceso de contratación a seguir, un requisito que se exige al momento de elaborar el Plan Anual de Contratación y una exigencia al momento de solicitar la certificación presupuestaria, que contenga los fondos necesarios para llevar a cabo una contratación. En la Subasta Inversa Electrónica, el presupuesto referencial se lo fija sin un criterio homologado entre entidades contratantes, mientras que en los convenios marco que se desarrollan para la provisión de bienes en el Catálogo Electrónico, el SERCOP lleva un proceso que no permite garantizar que los valores de los bienes ofertados que deben ser adquiridos con el carácter de obligatorios por las entidades contratantes, sean los mejores del mercado. La efectiva o errónea determinación del presupuesto referencial en los procesos de contratación y la inteligencia en las compras públicas, provoca una afectación en el gasto público, evidenciándose que las políticas que contiene el Plan Nacional de Desarrollo y los lineamientos que la cartera de Estado encargada de las Finanzas expide para efectuar los gastos, son fastuosos postulados muy bien fundamentados, pero que difícilmente son entendidos y puestos en práctica. El presupuesto referencial es un factor trascendental para el cumplimiento de los objetivos de todo Gobierno, ya que permite pasar de lo planificado a lo realizado, por esto es necesario analizar sus componentes, su naturaleza y su importancia para la Administración, a fin de poder determinar su posicionamiento real dentro las compras públicas y su estrecha relación con el gasto público.

Principio democrático y facultad reglamentaria del Ejecutivo

El presente trabajo de investigación supone un análisis detallado de las características, delimitación y funcionamiento del principio democrático como base de un estado que reconozca la participación social como una forma de dirigir y administrar el poder constituido. En consecuencia, hacia el reconocimiento de la participación social y la devolución del poder a la población para así, fijar la vigencia de una teoría democrática. En tal virtud, se presenta un problema con la facultad reglamentaria del ejecutivo, pues, conforme la praxis existente en el Ecuador, el Presidente de la República rebasa su atribución constitucional con este acto normativo, llegando a establecer regulaciones y condiciones nuevas que no han sido previstas por la ley superior; luego, se generaría una afección trascendental y directa al principio democrático, división de funciones, normatividad de la Constitución, principio de reserva legal y jerarquía normativa. Este fenómeno jurídico político de consecuencias relevantes para el constitucionalismo será el centro de análisis en tanto se llegue a determinar las características y configuración que este acto normativo desarrollado por el Presidente de la República debe cumplir para su correcta validez material y formal en respeto a la Constitución ecuatoriana. Así, se mostrará características establecidas a los reglamentos, la configuración de los mismos y casos concretos provenientes de la praxis ecuatoriana que demuestre la realidad vigente. Además, no se desatenderá el papel que ha venido desempeñado la Corte Constitucional del Ecuador respecto de este conflicto de tipo constitucional, órgano que por cierto, mantiene un rol de guardián de la Constitución y garante de los derechos de las minorías que no detentan poder.

El catastro multifinalitario y su impacto en la recaudación de los impuestos prediales de los Gobiernos Municipales de Latacunga y Pujilí por los bienios 2010-2011 y 2012-2013

Los gobiernos autónomos descentralizados municipales y metropolitanos tienen la competencia exclusiva para la formación y administración de los catastros prediales en sus respectivas circunscripciones territoriales, siendo el manejo de esta herramienta de vital importancia para el fortalecimiento de la gestión municipal general, que al mismo tiempo expone su carácter multifinalitario; en ese sentido, uno de los propósitos más visibles es el de contribuir a la debida gestión de los tributos municipales, en este caso particular de los impuestos prediales urbano y rural para proveer de mayores recursos a las arcas municipales e ir concretando objetivos de redistribución a través de la imposición directa. Vista así la figura del catastro, resulta fundamental indagar sobre su operación, tomando como referente la realidad de dos gobiernos municipales, considerando para el presente trabajo los Gobiernos Municipales de Latacunga y de Pujilí y por un período de tiempo determinado (bienios 2010-2011 y 2012-2013), principalmente por la accesibilidad de información en la esfera administrativa, trascendental para el cumplimiento de los objetivos investigativos trazados. En esa tarea se evidencia las dificultades para llevar apropiadamente el catastro y la repercusión directa en los niveles de recaudación por impuestos prediales urbano y rural, pero también permite ir planteando algunas alternativas que procuren mejorar la gestión catastral predial municipal y coadyuven, a su vez, a potenciar la gestión de los tributos locales.

El rol de los ingresos tributarios en el manejo de la deuda pública y su incidencia en la estabilidad presupuestaria en Ecuador

El presente trabajo de investigación tiene como eje trascendental de su contenido los ingresos tributarios y su rol en las fases de la deuda pública, como componentes vinculados de la actividad financiera del Estado; la realidad financiera del Estado ecuatoriano introduce al estudio del presupuesto y la planificación nacional para vislumbrar el manejo de la deuda pública atendiendo muy especialmente a los principios de equilibrio, estabilidad presupuestaria y sostenibilidad financiera. El contenido de esta investigación convergen el análisis de la relación de los ingresos tributarios y la deuda pública en la estabilidad presupuestaria, por lo que el determinar la organización constitucional, legal de la planificación y su orientación ha sido de vital importancia, sobre todo si se intenta realizar un diagnóstico de la situación de los ingresos tributarios y el manejo de la deuda pública en Ecuador desde el año 2007 a la luz del equilibrio presupuestario y sostenibilidad financiera. Entre los métodos empleados está el dogmático que posibilitó el estudio de la actividad financiera desde la perspectiva del Derecho Financiero; el método sistemático me permitió proceder a realizar una reunión racional de los componentes de la actividad financiera del Estado y sus más importantes instrumentos. El método sincrético posibilitó el desarrollo armonioso del contenido con enfoques desarrollados desde las teorías de las finanzas públicas y la doctrina del Derecho financiero. La investigación me llevó a concluir que los recursos públicos son los medios a través de los cuales el Estado puede proveerse de ingresos, entre los cuales se reconocieron los recursos del crédito público y los recursos tributarios, es así que los ingresos tributarios son los componentes de mayor importancia en la actividad financiera pública, pues determinan la elasticidad del gasto y del endeudamiento. El ciclo de la deuda pública está conformado de tres fases: la del crédito, empréstito y de deuda pública propiamente dicha; en estas fases los ingresos tributarios tienen un rol que varía al tratarse de un crédito contraído con un acreedor nacional o un extranjero y que genera una deuda interna o externa respectivamente. Los componentes de las finanzas públicas están reflejados en el presupuesto general del Estado que a su vez está sujeto en Ecuador a la planificación nacional, conocida como Plan Nacional del Buen Vivir que encierra un conjunto ordenado de directrices y objetivos.

The Court of Justice of the European Union as a fundamental rights tribunal: challenges for the effective delivery of fundamental rights in the area of freedom, security and justice. CEPS Paper in Liberty and Security in Europe No. 49, 29 August 2012

This paper reflects on the challenges facing the effective implementation of the new EU fundamental rights architecture that emerged from the Lisbon Treaty. Particular attention is paid to the role of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and its ability to function as a ‘fundamental rights tribunal’. The paper first analyses the praxis of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and its long-standing experience in overseeing the practical implementation of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Against this analysis, it then examines the readiness of the CJEU to live up to its consolidated and strengthened mandate on fundamental rights as one of the prime guarantors of the effective implementation of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. We specifically review the role of ‘third-party interventions’ by non-governmental organisations, international and regional human rights actors as well as ‘interim relief measures’ when ensuring effective judicial protection of vulnerable individuals in cases of alleged violations of fundamental human rights. To flesh out our arguments, we rely on examples within the scope of the relatively new and complex domain of EU legislation, the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ), and its immigration, external border and asylum policies. In view of the fundamental rights-sensitive nature of these domains, which often encounter shifts of accountability and responsibility in their practical application, and the Lisbon Treaty’s expansion of the jurisdiction of the CJEU to interpret and review EU AFSJ legislation, this area can be seen as an excellent test case for the analyses at hand. The final section puts forth a set of policy suggestions that can assist the CJEU in the process of adjusting itself to the new fundamental rights context in a post-Lisbon Treaty setting.

The counter-propagating Rossby-wave perspective on baroclinic instability. I: Mathematical basis

It is shown that Bretherton's view of baroclinic instability as the interaction of two counter-propagating Rossby waves (CRWs) can be extended to a general zonal flow and to a general dynamical system based on material conservation of potential vorticity (PV). The two CRWs have zero tilt with both altitude and latitude and are constructed from a pair of growing and decaying normal modes. One CRW has generally large amplitude in regions of positive meridional PV gradient and propagates westwards relative to the flow in such regions. Conversely, the other CRW has large amplitude in regions of negative PV gradient and propagates eastward relative to the zonal flow there. Two methods of construction are described. In the first, more heuristic, method a ‘home-base’ is chosen for each CRW and the other CRW is defined to have zero PV there. Consideration of the PV equation at the two home-bases gives ‘CRW equations’ quantifying the evolution of the amplitudes and phases of both CRWs. They involve only three coefficients describing the mutual interaction of the waves and their self-propagation speeds. These coefficients relate to PV anomalies formed by meridional fluid displacements and the wind induced by these anomalies at the home-bases. In the second method, the CRWs are defined by orthogonality constraints with respect to wave activity and energy growth, avoiding the subjective choice of home-bases. Using these constraints, the same form of CRW equations are obtained from global integrals of the PV equation, but the three coefficients are global integrals that are not so readily described by ‘PV-thinking’ arguments. Each CRW could not continue to exist alone, but together they can describe the time development of any flow whose initial conditions can be described by the pair of growing and decaying normal modes, including the possibility of a super-modal growth rate for a short period. A phase-locking configuration (and normal-mode growth) is possible only if the PV gradient takes opposite signs and the mean zonal wind and the PV gradient are positively correlated in the two distinct regions where the wave activity of each CRW is concentrated. These are easily interpreted local versions of the integral conditions for instability given by Charney and Stern and by Fjørtoft.

Ice supersaturation in the ECMWF integrated forecast system

A parametrization for ice supersaturation is introduced into the ECMWF Integrated Forecast System (IFS), compatible with the cloud scheme that allows partial cloud coverage. It is based on the simple, but often justifiable, diagnostic assumption that the ice nucleation and subsequent depositional growth time-scales are short compared to the model time step, thus supersaturation is only permitted in the clear-sky portion of the grid cell. Results from model integrations using the new scheme are presented, which is demonstrated to increase upper-tropospheric humidity, decrease high-level cloud cover and, to a much lesser extent, cloud ice amounts, all as expected from simple arguments. Evaluation of the relative distribution of supersaturated humidity amounts shows good agreement with the observed climatology derived from in situ aircraft observations. With the new scheme, the global distribution of frequency of occurrence of supersaturated regions compares well with remotely sensed microwave limb sounder (MLS) data, with the most marked errors of underprediction occurring in regions where the model is known to underpredict deep convection. Finally, it is also demonstrated that the new scheme leads to improved predictions of permanent contrail cloud over southern England, which indirectly implies upper-tropospheric humidity fields are better represented for this region.

An integral equation method for a boundary value problem arising in unsteady water wave problems

In this paper we consider the 2D Dirichlet boundary value problem for Laplace’s equation in a non-locally perturbed half-plane, with data in the space of bounded and continuous functions. We show uniqueness of solution, using standard Phragmen-Lindelof arguments. The main result is to propose a boundary integral equation formulation, to prove equivalence with the boundary value problem, and to show that the integral equation is well posed by applying a recent partial generalisation of the Fredholm alternative in Arens et al [J. Int. Equ. Appl. 15 (2003) pp. 1-35]. This then leads to an existence proof for the boundary value problem. Keywords. Boundary integral equation method, Water waves, Laplace’s

A stochastic parameterization for deep convection based on equilibrium statistics

A stochastic parameterization scheme for deep convection is described, suitable for use in both climate and NWP models. Theoretical arguments and the results of cloud-resolving models, are discussed in order to motivate the form of the scheme. In the deterministic limit, it tends to a spectrum of entraining/detraining plumes and is similar to other current parameterizations. The stochastic variability describes the local fluctuations about a large-scale equilibrium state. Plumes are drawn at random from a probability distribution function (pdf) that defines the chance of finding a plume of given cloud-base mass flux within each model grid box. The normalization of the pdf is given by the ensemble-mean mass flux, and this is computed with a CAPE closure method. The characteristics of each plume produced are determined using an adaptation of the plume model from the Kain-Fritsch parameterization. Initial tests in the single column version of the Unified Model verify that the scheme is effective in producing the desired distributions of convective variability without adversely affecting the mean state.

Annual textural banding in Holocene estuarine silts, Severn Estuary Levels (SW Britain): patterns, cause and implications

A high-resolution textural study has been made of laminated and banded estuarine silts exposed intertidally at representative localities and horizons in the Holocene deposits of the Severn Estuary Levels. The laminae, on a submillimetre to millimetre scale, are sharp-based, graded couplets formed of a lower silty part overlain by a finer-textured clayey element. The centimetre- to decimetre-scale banding is formed of laminae in alternating, gradually intergrading sets of relatively coarse and relative fine-grained examples. At outcrop in the field, the banding is recognizable because the coarse sets prove to be recessive to varying degrees under the influence of weathering and current action. Independent evidence at two localities points toward an annual origin for the banding; at a third it arose during part of what appears to have been a relatively short period. Quantified physical arguments suggest that the textural banding is a response of suspended fine sediment to marked seasonal changes in sea temperature and windiness. The banded silts occur in four distinct stratigraphical contexts and record high deposition rates (order 0.01-0.1 m/yr). Because physical factors determine their textures, the silts potentially afford insights in all contexts into aspects of changing Holocene climatic conditions. In one context, the thickness of the bands points to high (order 0.01-0.1 m/yr) but comparatively short-lived (order 10s-100s yrs) rates of relative water-level rise. In the others, however, the banding has no implications for sea-level behaviour, and simply records gross environmental disequilibrium, for example, the recovery of mudflats/marshes after an erosional episode. Similarly, because on account of their rapid accumulation the banded silts preserve animal and human tracks and trackways especially well, they provide an archive of animal and human behaviour in the area during the Holocene.

"The past is still right here in the present": second-generation Bajan-Brit transnational migrants' views on issues relating to race and colour class

This paper deals with second-generation Barbadians or 'Bajan-Brits', who have decided to,return' to the birthplace of their parents, focusing on their reactions to matters relating to race relations and racialised identities. The importance of race and the operation of the 'colour-class' system in the Caribbean are established at the outset. Based on fifty-two qualitative in-depth interviews, the paper initially considers the positive things that the second-generation migrants report about living in a majority black country and the salience of such racial affirmation as part of their migration process. The paper then presents an analysis of the narratives provided by the Bajan-Brits concerning their reactions to issues relating to race relations in Barbadian society. The impressions of the young returnees provide clear commentaries on what are regarded as (i) the 'acceptance of white hegemony' within Barbadian society, (ii) the occurrence of de facto 'racial segregation, (iii) perceptions of the 'existence of apartheid, and (iv) 'the continuation of slavery'. The account then turns to the contemporary operation of the colour-class system. It is concluded that, despite academic arguments that the colour-class dimension has to be put to one side as the principal dimension of social stratification in the contemporary Caribbean, the second-generation migrants are acutely aware of the continued existence and salience of such gradations within society. Thus, the analysis not only serves to emphasise the continued importance of racial-based stratification in the contemporary Caribbean, but also speaks of the 'hybrid' and 'in-between' racialised identities of the second-generation migrants.

Local development companies and the regeneration of Britain's cities

Efforts to decentralise the pursuit of economic and social development have increased in recent years. The authors examine the rationale for establishing local development companies in areas of high unemployment and deprivation. The broad purpose is to establish a new style of organisation that combines attributes of the public and private sectors-to adapt and integrate economic and social services to meet local needs, to champion local interests in external arenas, and to act as enabling agents to promote local investment and development. These arguments are elaborated and illustrated with reference to one of Britain's most successful local development companies, Govan Initiative. The analysis reveals important strengths of the Initiative, including its action orientation, commitment to quality, and a local leadership role, but also certain weaknesses including its limited leverage over wider policies and resource flows. Local development companies need meaningful commitment from regional and national public organisations to fulfil their potential.

A contour-advective semi-lagrangian numerical algorithm for simulating fine-scale conservative dynamical fields

This paper describes a novel numerical algorithm for simulating the evolution of fine-scale conservative fields in layer-wise two-dimensional flows, the most important examples of which are the earth's atmosphere and oceans. the algorithm combines two radically different algorithms, one Lagrangian and the other Eulerian, to achieve an unexpected gain in computational efficiency. The algorithm is demonstrated for multi-layer quasi-geostrophic flow, and results are presented for a simulation of a tilted stratospheric polar vortex and of nearly-inviscid quasi-geostrophic turbulence. the turbulence results contradict previous arguments and simulation results that have suggested an ultimate two-dimensional, vertically-coherent character of the flow. Ongoing extensions of the algorithm to the generally ageostrophic flows characteristic of planetary fluid dynamics are outlined.