Public Works Secretariat of Zacapican
Amatlacuiloyan Altepetequipanome | |
| Type | Government Ministry |
|---|---|
| Location | |
Official language | Nahuatl |
Parent organization | Government of Zacapican |
The Secretariat of Public Works is an organ of the federal government of Zacapican responsible for overseeing the construction of public infrastructure projects such as roads, railways, bridges, dams, and power plants as well as any other building or structure in which the local, Republic level or federal governments have a stake. In terms of the budget and rescources afforded to the Public Works Secretariat, it is the single largest Secretariat of the Zacapine government, outstripping the second and third place War and Education Secretariats. The size and importance of the Public Works Secretariat is a result of the Calpollist economy of Zacapican which relies heavily on direct investment through the state to pursue large scale development and economic expansion. The Secretariat was established during the early days of the industrialization process of Zacapican in the first decades of the 20th century with the mission of overseeing the ambitious megaprojects demanded by the plans of Tepachoani Xolotecatl Acuixoc. However, its function would expand over time to encompass the creation and maintenance of most physical infrastructure across the nation, transforming the Secretariat into the central organ of the Zacapine economy. In its modern form, the Public Works Secretariat serves as the conduit through which state revenues extracted from the economy are reinvested at a national level to affect economic growth and correct market failures.
In practice, the Public Works Secretariat primarily exists in service to the urban and industrial facets of Zacapine society. This is thanks in part to the far lower demands for new infrastructure and construction to support agricultural calpolli, which are characteristically rural, self reliant communities which are generally able to meet their own needs for new housing and other structures. However, this is also a side effect of the Xolotecate Era industrialization drive, which left in its wake a Zacapine government and economy focused on its manufacturing industries. Consequently, the bulk of state-directed investment which the Public Works Secretariat exists to oversee is directed towards these industries which are typically situated in and around the major urban centers of the country.
Structure
Administration
The bureaucratic component is the least capital intensive but most fundamental organ of the Secretariat. Local branch offices of the Secretariat are established in all 147 altepetl-level subdivisions across Zacapican. The function of these local offices is to receive and review all requests from within that altepetl for new construction and maintenance works, as well as to retain copies of all blueprints and plans for buildings and infrastructure projects existing within that subdivision. These offices also serve as local headquarters for the Buildings Inspectorates, which are unique to each of the nine republics of Zacapican due to the variations in building standards and codes across the constituent republics. The administrative side of the Public Works Secretariat serves not only to oversee the public works and construction projects undertaken by the organization but also to assure the safety of all structures both before and after they are built. As an organ of the federal government, the Public Works Secretariat holds the power to order maintenance works, condemn structures and carry out the evacuation of buildings which its inspectors deem to be unsafe or at risk of collapse.
Calpolli Projects
The most common type of project task undertaken by the Public Works Secretariat is that which emerges organically from within the Calpollist economy. As calpolli enterprises meet commercial success, the corresponding need for new buildings and structures to accommodate more workspaces, residences and community areas arises. The calpolli communicates these needs directly to the Public Works office of the local altepetl, where arrangements are made to contract an engineering firm to draw up proposals for the new structure. These proposals are reviewed by the calpolli officials to ensure that they are consistent with their requests, and by the officials of the Public Works office to verify that the design is safe, stable, and in keeping with the building codes of the constituent Republic in question. From there, arrangements are made to pool financial resources between the calpolli and the Secretariat which are expended to contract construction industry calpolli to realize the approved plans for the structure.
The funding of these projects relies heavily on the profitability of the calpolli for which the project is being undertaken. While large and successful calpolli can sometimes pay the costs of construction up-front, the most common practice is for the government to pay for construction with the calpolli then repaying the sum into state coffers as an additional yearly sum added to their tax payments. This effectively serves as a development loan from the government to the calpolli which facilitates productive expansion and economic growth. The repayment schemes involved require the gradual repayment of the principal sum and only incur additional debt when payments are not made on schedule, making them effectively interest-free when payments are submitted in a timely manner. Depending on the locality, Republic laws may or may not empower the state to designate physical assets of the calpolli as collateral to ensure repayment of the owed amount.
State Projects
Infrastructural construction projects are those which deal with the interstitial tissue of the economy, the structures and physical infrastructure which serve to connect and support the various calpolli enterprises. Infrastructure can, generally speaking, be divided into transportation, power, and water projects. Transportation infrastructure includes the national highway and railway system together with the bridges and tunnels that facilitate them, but also extends to port facilities and urban transportation infrastructure like metropolitan rapid transit tunnels and raised railways. Nationwide electrification was an early task of the Public Works Secretariat, for which the organization was tasked with building power plants, transmission lines and all of the other infrastructure involved in bringing electricity into every home and factory across Zacapican. This also involves the construction of Zacapican's many nuclear power plants and hydroelectric dams. Dams are also relevant to the water management aspect of the Public Works Secretariat, which surrounds the construction of all water-related infrastructure from dams and reservoirs to municipal sewage and rainwater drainage systems. There are also additional projects assigned to the Public Works Secretariat, such as the construction of telecommunications infrastructure, but these represent a comparatively minor component of the major infrastructural projects of the Secretariat.
Unlike the calpolli-oriented construction projects, these state-led projects are paid for directly out of state coffers. The state also bears the full cost of inspections and maintenance on these structures once complete, unlike calpolli projects for which such costs are absorbed by the private enterprise. However, the maintenance and operations of these structures falls to a variety of other government organs. Transportation and energy infrastructure, once built, is managed by their own respective Secretariats of the federal government. Water and sanitation works come under the purview of various organs of the constituent Republican governments, while telecommunications infrastructure is operated primarily by CNMHA and Nahuanet, two state owned companies, as well as a gamut of private broadcasters. It is these entities which typically commission the infrastructure they require from the Public Works Secretariat in a similar fashion to the local calpolli projects but on a larger scale.