The saying goes that success has many parents, but failure is an orphan. This can be applied to what is happening with the teaching of social sciences in our schools. History was relegated to a body of knowledge organized under the generic name of “social Sciences”.
Something can be done from media such as newspapers, to remind many people the importance of some key facts in the evolution of the country.
It is the case of the call ‘Kemmerer Mission‘, who led several Latin American countries from the United States. It was in March 1923, during the government of the conservative president, Pedro Nel Ospina, under the protection of that mission, in Colombia institutions such as the Banco de la República, the Comptroller General of the Republic and the Banking Superintendencyamong others, thanks to which the country has enjoyed serious economic institutions and world-renowned macroeconomic stability for decades.
This year, 2023, the country will celebrate one hundred years of the Kemmerer Mission in Colombiasince there were several between 1919 y 1931, led by the North American Edwim Walter Kemmerer, with a group of technicians from the World Bank who helped Colombia to organize its public finances, its national accounts and its banking system. Nothing more and nothing less. The country owes a lot, a lot to that discreet US technocrat, Mr. Kemmerer, with whose last name the Mission was named. They were liberal ideas, with the mission technocracy began in our country and this helped several decades of progress.
A MODEL ISSUING BANK
Let’s start with the Bank of the Republicour issuing bank, which has known how to manage our currency on the bicentennial “weight” Colombia, with historically moderate inflation rates, a good liquidity assistance system for banks, and then, with the Constitution of 1991, and the creation of the Board of Directors of the Banco de la República, this fight against inflation was strengthened. With good reason, the current general manager of the Bank, Leonardo Villar, has announced the respective celebration for the first hundred years of an institution to which the country owes a lot: Banrepública and – in particular – its board of directors.
The cultural work of the bank, with the profits from thes International Reserves of the country (the famous RIN), would be the subject of another column.
FISCAL CONTROL
The same thing happens with the Comptroller General of the Republic, an institution that is also celebrating its hundredth anniversary, it was also created at the suggestion of ‘The Kemmerer Mission’ and today it leads our fiscal management control system. She is the mother of the departmental and municipal comptrollersand despite some mistakes and criticisms that have been committed in past administrations, the comptroller’s office has served the country to monitor and supervise its public finances and seek greater efficiency, economy, transparency and equity in them.
The celebration of the first century of our highest fiscal control entity will correspond to the constitutional lawyer from Cali, a close friend of Valledupar, Carlos Hernan Rodriguez. We are sure, it will be a celebration with all the academic height.
And finally there is the Banking Superintendence, Also created at the suggestion of ‘The Kemmerer Mission’, this institution has rendered a great service to the country in terms of banking supervision, that is, achieving great stability of our banking system and credibility in it. In 2005, this institution was converted into Financial Supervisionto honor its institutional mission, which also involves supervision of the insurance and stock market system.
BIPARTISAN CONTINUITY
At present, the world admires and praises the quality of banking supervision in Colombia, the responsibility of the President of the Republic on duty, according to our Political Constitution; which has allowed to safeguard the savings of Colombians, channel investment towards the real and productive sector, and also consolidate a pension system, which since the nineties of the last century has worked well and has served the country to channel resources to productive investment and pension millions of Colombians.
The mission was renewed during the government of the Liberal Enrique Olaya Mena, in 1930, and the so-called Liberal Republic began, a period of much progress for the country. Welcome the commemoration of the “First Hundred Years” of ‘The Kemmerer Mission’ and in particular of the task that these institutions have carried out. Happy one hundred years and in good time.
BY: CARLOS MAESTRE MAYA/SPECIAL FOR EL PILÓN