WBI Working Papers: Empowering The Marginalized: Case Studies of Social Accountability Initiatives in Asia

WBI Working
Papers
Empowering the Marginalized:
Case Studies of
Social Accountability
Initiatives in Asia
Developed by
Public Affairs Foundation
Bangalore, India
and Karen Sirker and Sladjana Cosic
Empowering the Marginalized:
Case Studies of Social Accountability Initiatives in Asia
Developed by
Public Affairs Foundation
Bangalore, India
and
Karen Sirker and Sladjana Cosic
World Bank Institute, Washington, DC
World Bank Institute
Washington, D.C.
Copyright © 2007
The International Bank for Reconstruction
and Development/The World Bank
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Empowering the Marginalized: Case Studies of Social Accountability Initiatives in Asia
Public Affairs Foundation (Bangalore, India)/Karen Sirker and Sladjana Cosic (World Bank Institute)
2007. 86 pages. Stock No.37266
Contents
Contents.............................................................................................................................................................. iii
Acknowledgments................................................................................................................................................v
Executive Summary.......................................................................................................................................... vii
Abbreviations and Acronyms .............................................................................................................................ix
Introduction .........................................................................................................................................................1
Organizing the Case Studies ..............................................................................................................................2
Placing Social Accountability in Context ..........................................................................................................3
Defining Social Accountability.........................................................................................................................3
Mapping Social Accountability in Practice........................................................................................................4
The Case Studies..................................................................................................................................................7
Informed Budget Advocacy ...............................................................................................................................7
Budget Transparency Movement: Indonesia Forum for Budget Transparency.............................................7
Independent Budget Analysis, Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, India ..........................12
Budget Analysis, ActionAid International Nepal .........................................................................................17
Participatory Gender Budget Formulation and Gender Budget Analysis, Indonesian Women’s Coalition
for Justice and Democracy ..........................................................................................................................22
Engaging and Empowering Communities for Public Service Improvements ..................................................25
Sirajganj Local Governance Development Fund Project, Bangladesh .......................................................26
Citizens’ Charters for Public Service Accountability, People’s Power, India.............................................34
Monitoring by Public Watchdogs ....................................................................................................................38
Social Audits, Community Information and Epidemiological Technologies, Pakistan................................38
Citizen Monitoring of Infrastructure Projects, Abra, the Philippines .........................................................44
Textbook Count Program, the Philippines...................................................................................................49
National Citizen Ombudsmen Liaison Council, Japan................................................................................54
Children’s Report Card Surveys, Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness, Bangalore, India ...............60
Other Initiatives...............................................................................................................................................65
Electoral Interventions, Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore, India ...............................................................65
Public Procurement Service, Republic of Korea .........................................................................................71
Lessons Learned ................................................................................................................................................77
Key Enablers...................................................................................................................................................77
Areas of Concern ............................................................................................................................................77
Contact Details of Organizations ......................................................................................................................79
Matrix of Social Accountability Initiatives in South Asia...............................................................................81
References ..........................................................................................................................................................83
iii
Acknowledgments
The World Bank Institute would like to thank the team from the Public Affairs Foundation in
Bangalore, India, which produced the first version of this compilation of case studies. Suresh
Balakrishnan provided valuable inputs for development of the conceptual framework and Anuradha
Roa drafted the first version of this compilation. Special thanks are due to Samuel Paul, who helped
steer the compilation in the right direction, and to Gopakumar Thampi, who coordinated the team at
the Public Affairs Foundation.
We would also like to thank Suresh Balakrishnan and T. S. Prasad for their coordination of, and
substantive input into, the three-day workshop on “Social Accountability Initiatives in Asia,” held in
Bangalore March 21–23, 2005. The workshop, organized jointly by the Public Affairs Foundation, the
World Bank Institute, and the South Asia Region Agriculture and Rural Development Department of
the World Bank, was a peer review meeting for representatives of the organizations responsible for
the initiatives discussed in this volume. The discussions helped to focus the case studies on key
indicators and tools and to establish useful contacts. The 23 participants from Bangladesh, China,
India, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam who attended the workshop
provided fresh perspectives and insights that contributed significantly to the design and production of
this compilation. In addition to highlighting and discussing their own initiatives, the participants also
underscored the need to document and disseminate information about enabling initiatives in social
accountability in Asia and elsewhere. We would like to thank all the participants, as well as the
invited guests from Ethiopia and Ukraine, who shared their experiences and found remarkable
similarities between the issues and challenges raised and those they have encountered in their own
contexts. We hope that this tentative first step will find larger applications and promote South-South
sharing of knowledge among all actors involved in promoting social accountability.
Special gratitude goes to representatives of the case study organizations who reviewed the final draft
of the text and updated information, namely Sunit Bagree, Rajesh Hamal, Dondon Parafina, Lawrence
Repeta, Mohammed Azizur Rahman Siddique, and Pura Sumangil.
The draft manuscript was reviewed extensively by peer reviewers both from within and outside the
World Bank. We would like express our sincere thanks to the following peer reviewers for their
comments and suggestions: Reiner Forster and Kristoffer Welsien of the World Bank’s Social
Development Department, Participation, and Civic Engagement Group, and Warren Krafchik and
Vivek Ramkumar of the International Budget Project at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,
Washington, DC.
We would like to gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Canadian International
Development Agency and of the governments of Finland and Norway through the Trust Fund for
Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development, which is managed by Parmesh Shah of the
World Bank’s South Asia Region Agriculture and Rural Development Department.
Special thanks are also due to Alice S. Faintich of The Word Doctor for editing this volume and
providing constructive advice.
v
Executive Summary
Recent years have witnessed growing concerns about issues of governance and accountability in
developing countries. An emergent need exists for identifying and promoting approaches toward
building accountability that rely on civic engagement. This volume demonstrates that compared with
other regions, social accountability initiatives across South and Southeast Asia have a much greater
element of community participation and involvement. Often, the collaboration between civil society
groups and governments in many of these initiatives is striking and stands out in contrast to that in
other regions.
Empowering the Marginalized reveals the power of demand-side approaches in enhancing
governance through the concepts of citizens’ voice, accountability, and responsiveness. It seeks to
provide lessons on the establishment of social accountability mechanisms, thereby empowering the
marginalized, who represent a majority of society not only in Asian countries, but in most developing
countries worldwide. Since most of the projects documented in the case studies are fairly recent, the
studies offer valuable practical lessons on program design and operation, establishment of
partnerships and networks, and project management.
This volume is a continuation of an earlier stocktaking of social accountability initiatives in Asia and
the Pacific, from which 13 of the 54 initiatives were studied in an attempt to analyze different social
accountability tools and mechanisms as applied in different contexts. A number of these case studies
cover countries (such as Nepal, Pakistan, Korea, and Japan) where very little literature exists on
social accountability initiatives. Readers of this regional volume, particularly those new to social
accountability, will be able to assess the patterns of projects undertaken in the region – including the
types of social accountability projects which have been undertaken, the types of partnerships and
networks which are typically established as part of such initiatives in this region, the areas of poverty
and social delivery which the initiatives have focused on, and the types of problems these initiatives
have typically encountered.
Social accountability encompasses an ever-widening spectrum of concepts and practices. These
practices are initiated by a wide range of actors including communities, CSOs, government agencies,
political leaders, the media, and donor and aid agencies; they use diverse strategies; employ different
forms of both formal and informal sanctions; and vary according to the extent to which they are
institutionalized versus independent or collaborative versus conflictive. Examples in this volume
include citizen participation in public policy making, participatory budgeting, participatory gender
budget formulation and analysis, independent budget analysis, public expenditure tracking, citizen
monitoring of the performance of public service delivery and projects, social audits, electoral
interventions, e-procurement and public advocacy campaigns.
The profiles of leadership and innovation from these case studies highlight how ordinary people can
make a difference by asking the right questions at the right time in the right manner, or in other
words, by making their voices heard, often backed by the evidence, information and communication
strategies. Although far from being comprehensive, these cases reveal some cross-cutting concepts
and applications that act as key enablers for social accountability, such as: responsiveness and voice;
power of information; local ownership; political buy-in; and local capacity building. However, certain
areas of concern need to be kept in perspective when exploring possibilities for replicating, adapting,
and scaling up these tools, namely: fragility of civil society space; urban focus; challenges of
adaptation and contextualization; and weak regional networking.
vii
Abbreviations and Acronyms

AAIN ActionAid International Nepal
CBGA Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability [India]
CCAGG Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good Government [Philippines]
CCB Citizen community board [Pakistan]
CGG Center for Good Governance [India]
CIET Community Information and Epidemiological Technologies [Pakistan]
CMCA Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness [India]
COA Commission on Audit [Philippines]
CSO Civil society organization
FITRA Forum Indonesia Untuk Transparansi Anggaran (Indonesia Forum for Budget
Transparency)
GePS Government e-Procurement System [Republic of Korea]
IBP International Budget Project
KPI Koalisi Perempuan Indonesia (Indonesian Women’s Coalition for Justice and
Democracy)
MPLADS Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme [India]
NAMFREL National Movement for Free Elections [Philippines]
NCOLC National Citizen Ombudsmen Liaison Council [Japan]
NEDA National Economic and Development Authority [Philippines]
NGO Nongovernmental organization
PAC Public Affairs Centre [India]
PPS Public Procurement Service [Republic of Korea]
SLGDFP Sirajganj Local Governance Development Fund Project [Bangladesh]
UNCDF United Nations Capital Development Fund
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
ix
Introduction
In the past 10 years, civil society’s capacity to undertake social accountability initiatives has been
strengthened dramatically, particularly in Africa and Latin America. In Asia, documentation of social
accountability initiatives has been extensive in India and somewhat less extensive in Indonesia and
the Philippines, but this volume demonstrates that compared with other regions, social accountability
initiatives across South and Southeast Asia have a much greater element of community participation
and involvement. Often, the collaboration between civil society groups and governments in many of
these initiatives is striking and stands out in contrast to that in other regions. The objective of this
volume of case studies is to describe social accountability work not only in India, Indonesia, and the
Philippines, but also in other parts of Asia where it has not been well documented.
Empowering the Marginalized reveals the power of demand-side approaches in enhancing
governance through the concepts of citizens’ voice, accountability, and responsiveness. It seeks to
provide lessons on the establishment of social accountability mechanisms, thereby empowering the
marginalized, who represent a majority of society not only in Asian countries, but in most developing
countries worldwide.
This initiative built on the World Bank’s continuing emphasis on supporting a number of initiatives
aimed at involving citizens and citizen groups as a way to strengthen the accountability of
governments to poor people. Examples of such initiatives include citizen participation in public
policy making, participatory budgeting,1 independent budget analysis, public expenditure tracking,2
citizen monitoring of the performance of public service delivery and projects or subprojects,3 social
audits, citizen advisory boards, and lobbying and advocacy campaigns.
In 2004, the World Bank Institute commissioned the Philippine Center for Policy Studies at the
University of the Philippines to conduct a stocktaking exercise on social accountability initiatives in
Asia. The process included requesting contact information for individuals, organizations, advocacy
groups, training institutes, and government agencies undertaking projects and initiatives pertaining to
social accountability in Asia and the Pacific and documenting the initiatives. Of the 75 initiatives
identified, detailed information was collected on 54 initiatives. A summary paper (Arroyo and Sirker
2005) of the 54 initiatives highlights the mix of forces, conditions, and motivating factors that led
some social accountability initiatives to develop specific tools and mechanisms that were used to
improve social accountability and points to the lessons learned from these initiatives.
In the next phase, information about 13 of the 54 initiatives was verified by World Bank Institute and
case studies were developed in an attempt to analyze different social accountability tools and
mechanisms as applied in different contexts. Given such an analysis, the generic elements of different
1 Participatory budgeting is broadly defined as a mechanism or process whereby citizens participate directly in
the different phases of budget formulation, decision making, and monitoring of budget execution. Participatory
budgeting can be instrumental in increasing the transparency of public expenditure and in improving budget
targeting.
2 Participatory public expenditure tracking involves citizen groups tracking how the government or other service
providers actually spend funds with the aim of identifying leakages or bottlenecks in the flow of financial
resources or inputs. Typically, such groups, assisted by civil society organizations, use the actual users or
beneficiaries of the services to collect and publicly disseminate data on inputs and expenditures.
3 Participatory performance monitoring entails citizen groups or communities monitoring and evaluating the
implementation and performance of public services or projects according to indicators they themselves have
selected. Performance monitoring also involves elements of public advocacy.
1
2 Public Affairs Foundation/Sirker and Cosic
methodologies can be better understood along with the modifications that may be needed, the risks
that may arise, and the critical success factors that apply when adopting these initiatives in different
sectoral and cultural contexts, or when scaling them up from the local level to the national level.
This publication looks at the 13 selected social accountability initiatives in Asia and the Pacific,
which were chosen based on the following broad criteria:
• They represent a wide spectrum of motivating factors.
• They were initiated by governments, the World Bank, nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs), or civil society organizations (CSOs).
• They represent wide geographic coverage within the region.
• They represent innovative concepts and tools aimed at holding governments accountable.
• They were all to a large extent successful in achieving their objectives.
Organizing the Case Studies
The initiatives were also selected keeping in perspective the five functional domains of social
accountability: (a) budgets, (b) public policy making and planning, (c) public goods and services, (d)
expenditures, and (e) public oversight and monitoring. Given the cross-cutting impact of the
initiatives, the cases are organized under the four broad thematic heads described below, but note that
these are not rigid categories and that many initiatives cut across the thematic boundaries:
• Undertaking informed budget advocacy. Budgets are the blueprint for resource mobilization,
allocation, and utilization. In countries grappling with poverty and social vulnerabilities,
budgets are the most critical instrument for ensuring equity and inclusion in the design and
implementation of development programs. Increasing evidence indicates that community
participation and involvement go a long way toward making budget formulation processes
more responsive and targeted to citizens’ needs. In addition, civil society activists believe that
budget documents need to be demystified for local citizens, that is, technical data need to be
converted into useful indicators, through focused advocacy interventions. The four cases
presented on this theme here are (a) the Budget Transparency Movement of the Indonesia
Forum for Budget Transparency, (b) independent budget analysis by the Centre for Budget
and Governance Accountability in India, (c) budget analysis by ActionAid International
Nepal, and (d) participatory gender budget formulation and gender budget analysis by the
Indonesian Women’s Coalition for Justice and Democracy.4
• Engaging and empowering communities for service improvements. Examples of social
accountability in Asia are nuanced by gradual but growing examples of increasing
community participation in the domain of governance and service delivery. Some of these
initiatives have come from proactive governments, reinforcing the fact that dialectics by the
state and civil society can complement and open up new opportunities for introducing
innovative partnerships. This compilation discusses two initiatives that demonstrate how
communities can be engaged in and empowered to demand accountability and responsiveness
from government agencies: (a) the Sirajganj Local Governance Development Fund Project in
Bangladesh, and (b) the citizen charters of People’s Power in India.
4 Participatorygender budgeting uses gender analysis to evaluate the impact of government budgets on females
and on males and to assess whether budgets respond to the needs of both women and men adequately.
Participatory gender budget initiatives highlight citizens’ right to participate in decisions that affect their lives
and their equal right to access public resources.
Empowering the Marginalized: Case Studies of Social Accountability Initiatives in Asia 3
• Monitoring by public watchdogs. Far from being passive observers of development and
governance discourse, an increasingly vigilant civil society is critiquing, monitoring, and
contesting the role of the state and its institutions in shaping and controlling the contours of
governance. Working against heavy odds, many civil society groups have authored inspiring
documents demonstrating the power of ordinary people in bringing about extraordinary
changes. This volume explores five such initiatives: (a) social audits by Community
Information and Epidemiological Technologies in Pakistan; (b) citizen monitoring of
infrastructure projects in Abra, the Philippines; (c) the Textbook Count Program in the
Philippines, (d) the National Citizen Ombudsmen Liaison Council in Japan; and (e) children’s
report card surveys by the Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness in Bangalore, India.
• Other initiatives. Some innovative and “out of box” approaches to social accountability are
also becoming apparent. One example is the electoral interventions by the Public Affairs
Centre in Bangalore, India, which is an initiative to bring elements of accountability and
probity to the political processes. Another is the e-procurement initiative of the Republic of
Korea, which has introduced innovations in the use of information and communication
technology.
Placing Social Accountability in Context
Recent years have witnessed growing concerns about issues of governance and accountability in
developing countries. Several reasons explain this trend (Paul 2005). First is the mounting
dissatisfaction with the manner in which states have performed their functions in these countries.
Ample evidence shows that in many cases, public investments have resulted in meager returns and
low productivity. Some of the key contributing factors underlying this phenomenon are lack of
transparency, inadequate rule of law, and corruption. Second is the failure of many developing
countries to achieve significant poverty reduction, and the consequent inequity and injustice millions
of marginalized people face. The weak bargaining power and organizational capabilities of the poor
have no doubt contributed to this outcome. Third is a growing realization that existing mechanisms
for ensuring public accountability have not been able to resolve governance and accountability
problems.
In democratic states, the perceived solution to glaring aberrations in governance and accountability is
elections. Periodic elections are seen as the most potent option that citizens can exercise to hold the
state accountable for its performance. However, the dilemma is that although much occurs between
elections in terms of transactions between the state and its citizens, individual citizens can do little in
the short run if things go wrong during the discharge of functions or provision of services by the
state’s agencies. Waiting for the next election is of little help to a citizen who needs immediate
corrective action. The problem is further compounded by the fact that citizens have no option for exit
as in the marketplace, where they can exit from one supplier of a good or service to another. Thus an
emergent need clearly exists for identifying and promoting approaches toward building accountability
that rely on civic engagement, that is, in which ordinary citizens or CSOs participate directly or
indirectly in exacting accountability.
Defining Social Accountability
Social accountability affirms direct accountability relationships between citizens and the state and
puts them into operation. In particular, social accountability refers to the broad range of actions and
mechanisms (beyond voting) that citizens can use to hold the state to account, as well as the actions
on the part of government, civil society, media, and other societal actors that promote or facilitate
these efforts (World Bank 2006).
Social accountability mechanisms include a wide range of tools, methods, and strategies that involve
ordinary citizens and civil society in the process of allocating, tracking, and monitoring the use of
public resources. Social accountability mechanisms both complement and enhance conventional
“internal” mechanisms of accountability, underscore citizens’ rights to expect the government to act
in the best interests of the people and to ensure that it does so, and use a range of both formal and
informal rewards and sanctions.
Social accountability mechanisms come into play in the following three critical areas:
• Improved governance. Given the proven limitations of formal accountability mechanisms,
including elections, to promote good governance and strengthen democratic processes, social
accountability tools and approaches have emerged as potent strategies in monitoring
government performance, demanding and enhancing accountability, and exposing
government failures and misdeeds.
• Improved public policies and services. Whereas social accountability is often seen as a simple
and direct process that takes place along the interface between the state and citizens, in
actuality it is a complex process mediated by the character of the state’s institutions and
processes, as well as the social structure of the polity, including that of civil society. The
World Bank (2003) has added significant depth and clarity to the debate on social
accountability. It has redefined the arena by distinguishing accountability by political leaders
and policy makers from that of the state as provider of services. Emergent profiles of social
accountability mechanisms offer insights whereby each of these accountability relationships
can be made operational. By enhancing citizen information and voice, introducing incentives
for “downward” accountability and creating mechanisms for participatory monitoring and
citizen-state dialogue and negotiation, social accountability mechanisms can make important
contributions to more informed policy design and improved public service delivery.
• Empowerment. Social accountability initiatives can contribute to empowerment, particularly
that of marginalized people. The World Bank (2001, 2002) recognizes accountability as an
integral component of empowerment, and hence of poverty reduction and sustainable
development. By providing critical information on rights and entitlements and introducing
mechanisms that enhance citizens’ voice and influence in relation to the government, social
accountability initiatives serve to enhance both these key determinants of empowerment. Of
particular importance is the potential of social accountability initiatives to empower those
social groups that are systematically underrepresented in formal political institutions, such as
women, youth, and poor people.
Mapping Social Accountability in Practice
Social accountability encompasses an ever-widening spectrum of concepts and practices. These
practices are initiated by a wide range of actors, for instance, communities, CSOs, government
agencies, political leaders, the media, and donor and aid agencies; use diverse strategies, such as
research, monitoring, participatory planning, civic education, media advocacy, coalition building, and
partnerships; employ different forms of both formal and informal sanctions; and vary according to the
extent to which they are institutionalized versus independent or collaborative versus conflictive. In a
broad sense, social accountability initiatives straddle the following five functional areas, though in
practice, seeing a single social accountability initiative affecting a combination of areas or all five is
commonplace:
• Budgets. Citizen involvement in preparing and analyzing budgets is another rapidly
expanding domain of social accountability. Participatory budget formulation is most common
at the local level, but can also be found at higher levels. At the national level, more common
examples of budget-related social accountability practices include efforts by civil society to
analyze the impact and implications of budget allocations, demystify the technical content of
the budget, raise awareness about budget-related issues, point out discrepancies between
government policy priorities and resource allocations, and undertake public education
campaigns to improve budget literacy.
• Policy making and planning. Increasing evidence points to the institutionalization of
proactive public engagement and participation in the formulation of public policies and plans.
Examples include participatory policy making (for example, the participatory formulation of
poverty reduction strategies) at the national level and participatory processes in development
planning at the local level. In many countries, civil society actors also play a key role in
reviewing, critiquing, and building public awareness about policies and plans in such key
areas as gender equity, environmental protection, youth empowerment, employment, and
social services.
• Public goods and services. Another category of social accountability practices seeks
accountability with regard to the relevance, accessibility, and quality of public goods and
services. Typically this involves citizen participation in the monitoring and evaluation of
priority services, often according to indicators that citizens themselves have selected.
Emergent examples include public opinion polls, citizen report cards, community scorecards,
public hearings, and social audits.
• Expenditures. An important aspect of social accountability is citizens’ ability to hold
government accountable for how it handles public monies. Public expenditure tracking
surveys are an example of an expenditure-related social accountability practice that can be
applied at the national level, with the aim of monitoring the flow of financial or physical
resources and identifying leakages or bottlenecks in the system. This approach often involves
comparing information received from the disbursement records of finance ministries,
accounts submitted by line agencies, and information obtained from independent inquiry
(using tools such as social audits). It is also applied at the local level in monitoring budgets
for village infrastructure, credit and savings organizations, or local government expenditures.
• Public oversight and monitoring. A final category of social accountability practices includes
those that aim to improve public oversight and monitoring. Examples include the creation of
independent citizen oversight committees or watchdog groups at the local or national level or
forms of civic engagement that aim to enhance the effectiveness of existing oversight
mechanisms. They might include CSOs playing an intermediary or facilitating role between
citizens and agencies, such as ombudsmen or anticorruption commissions, citizen or
community representative membership on school or hospital boards, or public participation in
or scrutiny of the work of parliamentary or other internal oversight committees.
The Case Studies

The following case studies describe different social accountability tools and mechanisms as applied in
different contexts in an attempt to illustrate the generic elements of different methodologies, along
with the critical success factors that apply when adopting these initiatives in different sectoral and
cultural contexts, or when scaling them up from the local level to the national level. Whereas many of
the case studies cover the public expenditure management cycle, such as budget analysis, budget
formulation, budget expenditure tracking, and performance monitoring, other social accountability
case studies pertain to social audits and the right to information.
Informed Budget Advocacy
Budgets are often seen as highly technical documents that are far removed from public scrutiny and
analysis. However, recent efforts have focused on demystifying budgets and subjecting them to
focused observation and advocacy. Citizens’ groups increasingly see budget analyses as potent
accountability tools for stimulating public participation and demanding more responsiveness and
accountability from governments. Social accountability mechanisms usually span four stages in
relation to the public expenditure management cycle or the budget cycle: (a) budget formulation, (b)
budget analysis and demystification, (c) expenditure tracking, and (d) performance monitoring.
BUDGET TRANSPARENCY MOVEMENT: INDONESIA FORUM FOR BUDGET TRANSPARENCY
Throughout President’s Suharto’s 30-year term, Indonesia’s system of government became
increasingly centralized and autocratic. Indeed, these two features of government reinforced each
other. When President Suharto stepped down in May 1998, Indonesia experienced a dramatic push
toward democracy. Characterized by free elections, freedom of the press, and nationwide calls for
reform, this democratization process also gave rise to regional demands for the central government to
decentralize its power and responsibilities. Other characteristics of the post-Suharto era were an
increasing demand for good and transparent governance and the involvement of CSOs in influencing
people’s participation in development and public policy.
The transition was not easy, however, as the newly democratized country had to overcome the
challenges of its authoritarian past. The main challenges in the post-Suharto milieu included the
following:
• Tackling the deep-rooted mindsets of existing political and bureaucratic players
• Preventing the tendency of local governments to replicate the practices of the former
centralized government, especially as the decentralization process, which granted local
governments greater political and financial powers, was accompanied by the same corruption,
collusion, and nepotism that had characterized the previous authoritarian regime
• Reforming the budget management policy, which the authorities still considered to be
confidential and off-limits to citizens
Some of the changes that needed to transform a centralized autocracy to a decentralized democracy
were implemented relatively quickly, for example, by holding free elections and by passing laws that
transferred central government functions to the regions. Other essential changes have taken much
longer, such as changing the mind-set of public servants and building the capacity of regions to cope
with their new functions.
7
Scope and Description of the Initiative
An important feature of Indonesia’s decentralization policy was that budget management fell into the
domain of local government institutions. After more than 30 years with a highly centralized national
government, Indonesia decided to implement a decentralization policy that became effective on
January 1, 2001. The main objectives of decentralization included promoting improved delivery of
government services and raising the level of local government accountability. The new
decentralization policy was outlined in the Local Government Law (number 22/1999), the Fiscal
Relations Law (number 25/1999), and the Clean and Good Governance Practice Law (number
28/1999). These laws were based on five principles, namely: democracy, community participation
and empowerment, equity and justice, recognition of the potential of diversity within regions, and
need to strengthen local legislatures. These five principles support Indonesia’s push for reform, which
aims to eradicate corruption, collusion, and nepotism within the government bureaucracy.
The decentralization laws are quite unusual, because almost all powers and responsibilities were
ceded to local governments without any conditions and limitations. Consequently, the onus was on
local governments to reform their internal structures to accommodate the huge increase in
responsibilities that was passed on to them from the central government. Under the new policy, both
national-level departments and local governments were granted the authority to plan and design their
own budgets. Even though this was a welcome policy change, serious flaws were apparent in relation
to the lack of transparency of budget preparations and citizen participation in them. Citizens were
upset that even final budget documents were not open to public scrutiny. Many groups began to
express their concerns that if too much unchecked authority were placed in the hands of regional
governments, they would begin to act arbitrarily. With large levels of funds at their disposal, many
feared that this would lead to the creation of “little kingdoms” in the regions ruled by “little
dictators.”
In response, a diverse group of concerned citizens that included academics, development
practitioners, NGO activists, journalists, and government officials joined forces to promote the
development of a participatory budgeting process, to promote participatory development in general,
and to fight corruption. Group members traveled around the country for eight months disseminating
information and initiating discussions on the issue. They concluded that an organization was needed
to anticipate the misuse of budgets, to stem rampant corruption, and to curtail the arbitrary use of
power by local government officials and their allies. The result was the founding of the Indonesia
Forum for Budget Transparency (Forum Indonesia Untuk Transparansi Anggaran or FITRA), at the
end of 1999 as a civil society alliance with seven local networks in seven provinces. Since that time
FITRA has emerged as a robust civil society forum that promotes budget transparency.
Objectives
FITRA undertakes budget analysis and advocacy work to increase people’s awareness of their rights
regarding the budget process. Its main objectives are to achieve the following:
• Build capacity for conducting regular expenditure analyses
• Provide a better understanding of budget allocations and expenditures across administrative
levels and sectors, including extrabudgetary activities
• Encourage practices that enhance transparency to support more accountable and serviceoriented
provision of public services
FITRA also focuses on public service delivery and advocates the inclusion of women in its processes.
Tools and Approaches
To help Indonesian citizens understand the process of budget planning and budget management in
government agencies, to provide tools for transparency, and to monitor budget spending and
allocations, FITRA has undertaken the following activities:
• Research. FITRA undertakes studies on public service provision, gender budgeting, and
development policies. One project on gender is a comparative study of municipalities run by
women versus those run by men that seeks to determine whether the former have introduced
more pro-women policies and budgets.
• Budget analysis. Budget analysis, which includes analysis of laws and budget regulations,
covers one entire province and several districts in a different province. Once FITRA has
procured budget documents, it examines budget allocations in relation to their rationality,
efficacy, and efficiency. After obtaining comparative, budget-related data, FITRA prepares a
draft analysis that it discusses first on a limited basis with other stakeholders, and then at a
series of public discussions. Finally, FITRA publishes and disseminates the results of the
analysis.
• Budget advocacy. FITRA organizes debates on provincial budgets, conducts workshops and
training sessions on budget advocacy and analysis, holds public hearings, and canvasses
public opinion on certain budget issues. The network lobbies the government on the budget,
pressing for greater public participation in formulating policy and preparing the budget. Its
budget advocacy activities also include building alliances and undertaking litigation.
• Sector advocacy. FITRA organizes meetings between stakeholders. Its advocacy work
focuses on weaker segments of society, such as the poor, women, farmers, and fishermen; on
sectors such as social forestry and health; and on such activities such as strengthening village
institutions. For example, FITRA facilitated meetings between women and public transport
providers to explore the impact on schoolchildren of a decreased subsidy for public transport
fares.
• Media advocacy and dissemination strategies. FITRA disseminates information through the
mass media, public discussions, campaigns, and books that it publishes. The network
effectively harnesses local media for its news releases and advertisements. As a result, for
example, a national newspaper used FITRA’s findings to criticize the government for failing
to begin several key projects. FITRA organizes public discussions with the government,
parliament, NGOs, and academia. It has also publicized its campaigns through posters,
stickers, leaflets, and flyers targeted at legislative council members and the public at large.
• Civic engagement in the budget process. Since the 1999 passage of the Law on Local
Government, the Law on Fiscal Relations, and the Law on Clean and Good Governance
Practice, each district and city has set its own regulatory framework that covers
implementation of the laws in its jurisdiction. The most influential regulations that determine
local budget practices are the decrees on financial management and control procedures and
accounting. These regulations explicitly note that people have the right to participate in the
budgeting process as long as they comply with the rules and procedures in effect.
• Public campaigns. FITRA’s public campaign that followed its analysis of the budget was an
attempt to increase the transparency and accountability of, and participation in, the budgetary
process. This campaign pointed out apparent misuses of public funds and involved litigation
in relation to abuses of power in budget implementation. This effort incrementally built the
public’s confidence in FITRA’s activities. FITRA also joined forces with other NGOs to
advocate on issues such as gender budgeting, pro-poor budgeting, budgeting for better public
services, and rational budget allocation. Through its multipronged approach of media
dissemination, public information campaigns, and sector advocacy, FITRA was able to
develop common understanding among CSOs and government agencies about the need to
work together in relation to budget making.
• Community discussions. Community groups began to build coalitions to push for greater
transparency in local budgets. FITRA’s hearings on provincial budgets are widely attended
by the general public. Its community discussions provide one means for community-based
monitoring of budgets. The process includes documenting activities at the grassroots level;
analyzing problems and needs; and providing knowledge about the public’s rights concerning
budget allocations, corruption issues, and public service delivery conditions. At these
discussions, community members also interact directly with local government representatives
to give voice to their demands.
Partners and Stakeholders
FITRA’s target audience includes NGO activists, journalists, student activists, government officials,
politicians (members of parliament, mostly at the local level), communities, marginalized populations
(the poor, women, villagers), and NGOs that focus on budget transparency. FITRA has more than 30
NGOs in its network.
Resources
FITRA receives its financial support from donor agencies and alternative sources, such as its
publications, training, and consultancy services. To carry out its activities, FITRA hires staff with
capacities in budget analysis, budget investigation, advocacy, and facilitation. To further enhance its
capacity, FITRA builds networks with international NGOs.
Constraints and Problems
FITRA has faced many problems and challenges in implementing its multifaceted program, including
the following:
• Difficulties in accessing budget documents. Government officials and members of parliament
are still unwilling to share budget-related information with the public. They continue to view
budgets as secret documents outside the realm of understanding of ordinary people. This
means that FITRA’s attempts to obtain budget documents from government officials through
official channels often meet with failure, and FITRA must resort to acquiring budget
documents from informal contacts within the government. Often such contacts are
government officers and legislators sympathetic to the need for transparency and openness in
the budgetary process.
• Collusion among members of the state apparatus. Despite evidence of budget misuse and
corruption, officials at both the national and local levels have been quick to dismiss such
findings.
• Low levels of participation. As the budgeting process has been closed, public knowledge
about budget allocations is limited. The budgeting process is still far from transparent and the
government apparatus does not willingly part with information. The business community is
concerned only with the money that goes to its own projects, and until the advent of FITRA,
CSOs never involved themselves in the budgeting process.
• Threats to members. Members have been threatened by indicted government officials and
politicians.
Outputs
Despite the constraints and challenges that FITRA faces, many successful outputs have been
attributed to its interventions, namely:
• Affecting policy. FITRA’s research and analysis have drawn the attention of local
governments, which have stipulated regulations that promote budget transparency. The
government has also attempted to usher in accountability through the implementation of
performance budgeting.
• Promoting participation. Whereas budget analysis is still a highly technical domain and
therefore restricted to a few, other aspects of FITRA’s program involve a high level of
participation by all stakeholders. Initially, citizen groups viewed FITRA as an elitist
movement, but it slowly began to involve local activists and university faculty who have
direct links to the grassroots. Thereafter the movement spread from the national to the local
level, and once local communities were convinced of the movement’s results, they began to
play an active role.
• Stimulating public awareness. FITRA has launched budget debates before and after the
legislative process, making the public aware of the significance of budget transparency and of
their rights with regard to local budgets. FITRA’s reports on politicians’ use of funds stirred
up public anger and forced officials to use public funds responsibly and transparently.
• Changing bureaucratic attitudes. The dissemination of FITRA’s research results has made
the state apparatus more transparent. Local budgets are also reportedly becoming more propoor.
• Deterring corruption. The media have used FITRA’s analyses to scrutinize corruption cases,
a number of which have been brought to trial as a result of FITRA’s public campaigns. The
movement’s disclosure of corruption at the local level has acted as a deterrent, with fewer
cases of corruption being reported at the local level. Some outputs of FITRA’s efforts to deter
corruption include the following:
− More than 20 local councilors in Kendari (Southeast Sulawesi Province) were accused of
misuse of the local budget. The case was sent to trial.
− FITRA reports of misuse of the National Election Commission’s budget (2002–04) were
submitted to the independent national state auditor and the matter was investigated by the
National Commission for Fighting Corruption.
− The governor of Southeast Sulawesi Province was suspected of being involved in a
fraudulent electricity project. The case was investigated and submitted to the National
Commission for Fighting Corruption and the attorney general.
• Networking. FITRA has developed clout in relation to advocacy networking at the local and
national levels. Its activists undertake budget advocacy at the local level by disseminating
budget analysis results to grassroots communities and local media and lobbying pertinent
government officials and members of the judiciary. The connections forged with national
media ensure nationwide coverage of local cases of budget misuse and corruption unearthed
by the network. FITRA has also developed strong links with national forums to expose
corruption at the local level, especially if power is concentrated among local elites. Working
with other institutions, FITRA has sought to promote the links between budgets and people’s
interests, especially the delivery of public services to the poor. FITRA works with local
NGOs to encourage participation at the grassroots level.
• Promoting government buy-in. An important aspect of the push for budget transparency is
that local governments have promulgated regulations that promote budget transparency.
FITRA works with local governments to train new members on the budgetary process. Its
activities have won the trust of government officials, some of whom even support the
movement openly in the media. Nevertheless, wholesale buy-in by the government is still
largely absent: legislators are invited to public discussions organized by FITRA but rarely
attend, and parliament is still not responsive to proposed budget changes.
Institutionalization
Although FITRA is a movement, its work is likely to be sustainable, because other NGOs have begun
to show interest in the campaign for budget transparency. FITRA is therefore confident that the
involvement of these other actors will ensure continuation of its nationwide campaign. In 2004, with
support from the Ford Foundation–Jakarta, Indonesian NGOs embarked on a multiyear exercise to
promote public involvement in the budget process at both the national and local levels. This program
established seven focal points for the FITRA network around the country, and encouraged more local
research institutions and NGOs to participate in FITRA’s budget transparency movement.
FITRA also plans to establish a local learning center on budget analysis and advocacy in the city of
Kendari in Southeast Sulawesi. There it can pass on the crucial knowledge it has gained to a larger
number and more diverse group of stakeholders, thereby contributing to the movement’s
sustainability.
Replication and Scaling Up
FITRA’s movement for budget transparency has been scaled up to other regions, where results of
budget analyses have become a reference for local legislative and other institutions. For example,
General Election Cost Monitoring has been working in four regions since 2003 to encourage budget
transparency and accountability, the Pro-Poor Budget Program has been working in four regions since
2005 to represent the needs of poor people, and the Local Budget Program has been working in four
regions since 2005.
FITRA seeks to involve increasingly more citizens in various stages of the budget process, that is,
planning, legislation, implementation, and accountability. One way to achieve greater citizen
participation is through a planned awareness campaign, especially for grassroots communities, on
their rights with regard to the budget. FITRA has also developed a strategy for greater government
buy-in: building networks with elected representatives to influence government policy. The hope is
that critical partnerships with members of the executive, legislature, and political parties will promote
pro-poor budgets, especially with regard to education, health, housing, and water and sanitation.
Sources: Fernandez 2004; Ida 2005; Saad 2001; Usman 2001; Web site of the International Budget
Project (http://www.internationalbudget.org/groups/indonesia.htm).
INDEPENDENT BUDGET ANALYSIS, CENTRE FOR BUDGET AND GOVERNANCE
ACCOUNTABILITY, INDIA
The Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), located in New Delhi, is a project of
the National Centre for Advocacy Studies in Pune, which is a membership-based resource center that
advocates social change by strengthening rights-based and people-centered advocacy. The National
Centre for Advocacy Studies works with social action groups and professionals, as well as with
public-spirited citizens. In 2002, the National Centre for Advocacy Studies and other groups
interested in budget-related issues came together to form the People’s Budget Information and
Analysis Service, an umbrella group of Indian civil society groups working on budget issues. The
People’s Budget Information and Analysis Service acted as the preparatory platform for the CBGA,
which was established with funding from the Ford Foundation.
The mission of the new center was to promote transparent, accountable, and participatory governance,
focusing on a people-centered perspective in budget preparation and execution. The center began
functioning in New Delhi in 2002, with the primary task of building on and extending the initiatives
of various budget groups at national and state levels, paying particular attention to the perspective of
marginalized segments of society. In November 2003, the center was renamed as the Centre for
Budget and Governance Accountability to reflect its broader scope. In its first year, the CBGA
attempted to establish its institutional and organizational network with social action groups and other
actors, such as the media, planners, policy makers, and academics.
The CBGA operates on the principle that the first step toward an accountable and transparent system
of governance is gathering budgetary information. The domain of governance is, in many ways,
related to budgetary trends and priorities, in that budgets indicate the government’s policies and
programs. Arguments advocating particular policy directions that are substantiated by budgetary
information will be far more credible and effective than those made without such information. Such
information enables citizens and social action groups to compel the government to be more alert to
the needs and aspirations of people in general and of vulnerable groups in particular.
Objectives
With the aim of strengthening the transparency and accountability of governance and protecting the
rights of marginalized segments of society in India and elsewhere, the CBGA’s objectives are as
follows:
• Make governance accountable to the people
• Influence policy formulation from the perspective of poor, ordinary, and marginalized
citizens and groups
• Initiate public argument and debate macroeconomic issues from peoples’ perspective
• Demystify the budget and the budgetary process to make it more transparent and citizenfriendly
• Network with groups working on budget analysis
• Build the capacities of NGOs, social action groups, and budget analysis movements
The key accountability issues that the CBGA seeks to address are the openness of the Union (federal)
government’s budget process, expenditure monitoring, and public policies through analysis and
information gathering, and citizens’ awareness of and participation in these activities.
In an effort to reach a variety of stakeholders, such as policy makers, parliamentarians, civil society,
local communities, the media, and the general public, the CBGA undertakes the following activities:
• Budget analysis. This involves analysis of the Union government’s budget every year. The
CBGA conducts a trend analysis of major economic indicators, including allocations to
sectors such as education, health, and agriculture. For example, in its analysis of the 2005
budget, the CBGA attempted to find out whether state intervention in favor of the poor, as
envisaged in the budget, actually had the intended impact. Its report, Response to the Union
Budget 2005, concluded that even though the budget does reflect a change in policy priorities
in favor of the rural population and the social sectors, the budgetary allocations for these
sectors did not show a major increase.
• Expenditure monitoring. This is a new initiative and explores specific government policies
relating to such fields as education, health, agriculture, rural development, and poverty
alleviation. According to budget documents, funds are allocated to all ministries and
departments. However, the government treasury does not release the funds as soon as the
budget is enacted but after some time has passed, and the allocations of funds can deviate
from destinations shown in the budget. Therefore one of the primary tasks of the CBGA is to
ascertain whether the funds allocated in the budget have actually been passed on, as indicated
in the budget and the extent of the time lag. The CBGA’s expenditure monitoring activities
also revolve around discerning whether government funds are financing pro-poor programs
and identifying the institutional loopholes or bottlenecks that impede the implementation of
pro-poor policies. Therefore the CBGA’s primary mandate has been to track the policy
priorities driving Union budgets and other important public policies of the Union
government. The CBGA undertakes trend analysis of Union budgets and of specific
socioeconomic indicators, and publishes its results in the form of responses to Union budgets
and in its Budget Track newsletter.
• Research. Through its research on public expenditure processes, the CBGA’s Manual Series
attempts to find answers to crucial issues and draw the public’s attention to relevant
governance issues. The CBGA has conducted the following two studies pertaining to the use
of public funds:
− One study concerned the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme
(MPLADS). Since December 1993, members of parliament have been allotted funds for
development work in their constituencies. Today, each member of parliament receives Rs
20 million per year under the MPLADS. The MPLADS study looked into various aspects
of the scheme, including budgetary provisions; resulting benefits accrued to people, with
a focus on benefits accruing to marginalized segments of society; mechanisms and
patterns of expenditure; and effectiveness in eradicating poverty and creating durable
assets. The most crucial feedback from the study was the need to provide a clear set of
operational guidelines for the scheme.
− The other study concerned the Calamity Relief Fund. A 2004 CBGA report entitled
Natural Disasters and Relief Provisions in India: Commitments and Ground Realities
focuses on state financing of responses to disasters. After examining the reasons for
setting up the Calamity Relief Fund, the report compares the fund with similar schemes
that existed in the past. It then delves into whether the current structure of the fund is
acceptable and goes on to provide suggestions for modifying its structure so that it can
play an effective role in disaster management in the future.
• Demystification. Budgets are far removed from people’s daily lives. In a country like India,
where almost 50 percent of the population is illiterate and many have never had more than a
few hundred rupees at a time, the budget and the millions of rupees involved grouped under
various headings or line items make little sense. Even the middle class, who constitute around
20 percent of the population, understands the budget only through simplified messages
disseminated by the mass media. Such media images are often what determine public
perceptions of the budget rather than perceptive analysis and understanding of the actual
document. Demystification of the budget is therefore an important step toward the creation of
an environment conducive to public advocacy. The CBGA tries to simplify the budget by
developing reference guides and training manuals. The primary objective is to ascertain how
budget funds are being used to meet people’s needs and aspirations. For example, to
demystify the Union budget for 2003–04, the CBGA published a report that was presented at
a colloquium on the budget held in New Delhi in March 2003 and covered by major
newspapers.
• Information dissemination. Since September 2003, the CBGA has been publishing Budget
Track, a quarterly update on the budget and policy issues. The idea is to make governments
accountable by informing citizens about budget-related information in a way that they can
understand and empowering them to seek information on the performance of the government
in relation to the budget. The CBGA is trying to put together a cost-effective dissemination
strategy covering a mix of media, from hard copy publications to e-tools. It is also attempting
to translate its work into regional languages.
• Capacity building in budget analysis and advocacy. The CBGA has developed in-house
expertise to build the capacity of civil society groups for budget analysis and advocacy, and
in 2004–05 conducted a series of five workshops at the national and regional levels in
collaboration with various civil society groups. During these workshops, people involved in
budget work shared their experiences on how analysis can be transformed into positive
budget outcomes. All the workshops were planned and conducted as initiatives for laying the
necessary foundations with regard to budget work: that is, helping participants recognize that
information about budgets is a vital tool for seeking a change in policies and governance in
favor of the poor. The CBGA intends to follow up on these workshops with more advanced
workshops aimed at strengthening participants’ capacities (ideally participants who had
attended the first round of workshops) to undertake budget work and make strategic use of
budget information for advocacy.
• Media partnerships. The media pay a great deal of attention to the budget during its
presentation in parliament from the last week of February through mid-March every year, but
the debates die down even before parliament has passed the budget. In addition, during this
short-lived public scrutiny, the media focus primarily on issues that affect the urban, middleclass
population, as they are the largest customers of electronic and print media. Given these
circumstances, the CBGA has found it somewhat difficult to build a dependable alliance with
the media in pursuit of its objectives. Also, during its initial years, the CBGA’s interactions
with the media resulted mostly from specific events. Thus the CBGA is currently modifying
its approach by means of a comprehensive strategy for media advocacy. Nevertheless,
prominent national and regional newspapers devoted detailed coverage to the CBGA’s report
on the MPLADS; Down to Earth, a magazine published by the Centre for Science and
Environment, covered the CBGA’s report on the Calamity Relief Fund; and prominent
national newspapers covered the CBGA’s response to the 2005–06 Union budget.
The budget is prepared by specialists, and reading and understanding the budget requires a certain
level of expertise in finance. Thus budget analysis is technical and cannot be undertaken by
nonspecialists. However, the CBGA’s activities involve transferring expertise so that the most
disadvantaged segments of society can understand budgetary implications and be inspired to question
the manner in which they are governed.
Aside from the National Centre for Advocacy Studies, the main stakeholders are social action groups
and other actors, such as the media, planners, policy makers, and academics.
Resources
In addition to the financial support from the Ford Foundation, the CBGA has received funding for
research and documentation activities from which it draws some resources. The CBGA also draws
from its human resources in terms of the organization’s advocacy skills; from its in-house and
network technical skills; and from the ideas, commitment, perseverance, and leadership skills of its
staff.
As the scale and depth of the CBGA’s work expanded, it faced several challenges, including the
following:
• Accomplishing certain tasks because of limited organizational strength
• Making budgetary issues comprehensible to lay people and encouraging them to work on
budgets or use budgetary information for advocacy purposes
• Building alliances with sociopolitical movements
• Canvassing media support
• Linking up with social action groups actively engaged in making governance accountable
• Translating research into effective advocacy
The CBGA’s work does not seem to have influenced the local level of governance: the panchayat or
village level. However, it may be too early to measure the CBGA’s impact at the grassroots level for
two reasons. First, most of the CBGA’s crucial initiatives in this area are still in progress. Second, the
percolation of budget work to the grassroots level requires a broadly based and sustained alliance
among all major civil society budget groups in the country. This calls for consolidated efforts by all
stakeholders, and the CBGA has already embarked on work in this regard.
Outputs
Over the last decade, various groups have been undertaking budget analysis in relation to the social
sectors, primarily at the state level. At the national level, the CBGA has initiated the process. The
CBGA has created awareness about budgets and the economy through Budget Track and various
reports. It has disseminated information relatively successfully among civil society groups, the media,
legislators, policy makers, and academics. Many of its important activities are, however, still under
way; however, even in the short span of three years, the CBGA’s activities have produced several
worthwhile results. Some of the major outputs of the CBGA’s activities are as follows:
• The 2004 report on the MPLADS and a subsequent workshop in New Delhi generated
sustained debate on the desirability and effectiveness of this scheme. In particular, the
CBGA’s report was a blistering attack against the scheme on the grounds that it weakened the
process of decentralization.
• The 2004 report on the Calamity Relief Fund has been instrumental in drawing the attention
of experts and commentators to the financing of state responses to natural disasters.
• The CBGA’s responses to Union budgets, the postbudget panel discussions, and the Budget
Track newsletter have consistently highlighted gaps in the Union government’s policy
priorities, especially the conservative fiscal thinking adhered to by the government that has
constrained its policy space with respect to the social sectors.
• The CBGA has had some success in relation to legislative advocacy in the form of providing
research support to some parliamentarians on issues relating to budgets and economic
policies. It recently submitted recommendations on the 2005 Disaster Management Bill to the
Standing Committee on Home Affairs.
• The February 2005 CBGA “National Workshop on Macroeconomic Priorities and Peoples’
Perspectives,” which dealt with the Union budget for 2005–06, provided a platform for
grassroots organizations from different parts of the country to discuss their opinions on
budgetary policy priorities. The workshop culminated in the submission of a memorandum to
the chief economic adviser.
• The CBGA’s workshops on budget analysis and advocacy have resulted in heightened
awareness on the part of civil society groups in different parts of the country on budgets and
the importance of budget work as a tool for pro-poor advocacy.
The CBGA has institutional linkages with NGOs, communities, and academics through its
capacitybuilding
and awareness-raising workshops. The CBGA is now trying to interact with legislators. To
further institutionalize its work, the CBGA plans to build a strong advocacy program with a network
of organizations that have capacities to undertake budget analysis both globally and locally (in each
state and gradually in each district).
A prerequisite for expanding the CBGA’s budget work (as well as the strategic use of budget
information for advocacy) is a combined effort by civil society groups across the country. The CBGA
recognizes the need for concerted efforts in this direction and has accordingly planned activities to
bring together budget groups from different locations, and a program to launch civil society budget
work on a national scale.
Sources: Behar and Mohanty 2005; CBGA 2003, 2005; Das and Jha 2004; Mohanty 2004; Web site
of the National Centre for Advocacy Studies (http://www.ncasindia.org).
BUDGET ANALYSIS, ACTIONAID INTERNATIONAL NEPAL
Nepal’s history of polarized politics has played a significant role in shaping the nature and extent of
civil society activities in this Himalayan kingdom. The governance structure has historically been a
closed system with no avenues for civil society participation. The democratic reforms of the 1990s
and the transition to democracy have been slow and erratic. Complicating the transition has been
weak development of an active civil society, frequent cycles of political instability, and deeply
entrenched social divisions.
ActionAid International is an international development charity that was founded in London in 1972.
ActionAid International Nepal (AAIN), the country unit of the international charity, which was
founded a decade later, is a leading CSO committed to strengthening capacity among grassroots
organizations in Nepal. It focuses on poverty reduction and is currently active in 36 districts across
the country, where it supports a wide array of rights-based and advocacy-focused programs.
However, as a rights-based agency, the AAIN believes that it has an impact in all districts in Nepal
(in total, the AAIN engages with more than 200 NGOs, alliances, networks, and forums across the
country).
The AAIN has worked through local grassroots organizations, emphasizing microlevel interventions,
in addition to using advocacy at the policy level, which is just as important to effectively address
poverty-related issues. In this context, focusing on the national budget was a natural progression. This
emergent emphasis on addressing budgets was in line with growing interest in recent years among
Nepalese NGOs and journalists in analyzing the national annual budget from various perspectives and
recommending allocation patterns for the forthcoming year.
The AAIN’s work on budgets, initiated in 1998 on an exploratory, project-focused basis, was the first
program of its kind in the country. Since then it has become a collaborative initiative, tapping into
networks and partner groups across the country. Nevertheless, budget openness still has a long way to
go in Nepal. To begin with, the public does not know the exact timetable for budget preparation and
release ahead of time. The government normally makes this information public only a month before
the date the budget will be announced. In addition, the government has limited consultations with
experts and the general public during budget formulation, and the prebudget consultations held with
parliamentarians are not open to the media or to the public. Finally, the government does not publicly
release a prebudget document or statement or hold public hearings on the macroeconomic and fiscal
framework presented in the budget, which could encourage public debate on the budget and how it
affects the economy. However, distinct opportunities exist for change to occur in relation to the
government’s lack of accountability and transparency as part of the restructuring of the state tied to
the ongoing peace process and conflict resolution.
In 1998, the AAIN began its foray into budget analysis through a partnership with Developing
Initiatives for Social and Human Action, an Indian NGO with vast experience in budget analysis and
advocacy and a pro-poor focus. The focus of the AAIN’s initial budget-related work has been to
examine the national budget with emphasis on the shares of social expenditures. However, in 2001,
the AAIN sponsored another resource group, Backward Society Education, to conduct local or
community-level budget analysis in some villages in the Kailali district in west Nepal. This new
intervention resulted in a total rethinking of the AAIN’s work on budgets, as a result of which it
began supporting a variety of initiatives at different levels and scales.
The AAIN’s activities are aimed at various audiences. Its national budget analysis is targeted at
national-level policy makers, parliamentarians, NGOs, and journalists. Its local-level budget analysis
is aimed at local government officials, local NGOs, and community groups. Finally, the results of its
open budget study (discussed later) are targeted at national-level journalists, NGOs, policy makers,
and donors.
Objectives
Through its budget work, the AAIN aims to build in-country capacity, as well as interest in and
coalitions for future independent budget analysis work. From 2007, it aims to broaden and deepen
independent, applied budget analysis in Nepal. In particular, it plans to look into allocations for social
spending in the national budget, now under threat, because the deteriorating security situation has
resulted in larger sums of money being channeled to the military.
The AAIN draws on a wide repertoire of social accountability tools—community mobilization and
training, lobbying, and survey research—to conduct the following budget work:
• Community situation analysis and participatory baseline studies. The AAIN’s engagement at
the microlevel is continuous and draws heavily on participatory techniques and approaches. It
regularly organizes training on participatory approaches and methods in an attempt to
empower community members to assess their situation and to develop solutions to local
problems. Community baseline data are gathered through local grassroots organizations. The
AAIN also conducts regular social audits, participatory planning, and budgeting exercises
with its NGO partner affiliates in 36 districts across the country. Though not formal budget
analysis as such, these efforts have helped enhance public awareness of the budget and
analytical competencies in relation to it.
• Lobbying on policy. The AAIN has been actively involved in engaging the national
government in relation to reforms in policies and practices, especially those that affect
poverty. The scope of this engagement has enlarged over the years, and today the
organization looks not only at national policies, but also the impact on Nepal of policies
designed by the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, and the World Trade
Organization, with which the AAIN does not always agree.
• Open budget study. In 2004, the AAIN had an opportunity to collaborate with a global
partner, the International Budget Project (IBP), to conduct a country-specific study on open
budgets with the Strategic Group. The open budget questionnaire built on the efforts of
multilateral agencies, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development’s best practices for budget transparency, the International Monetary Fund’s
revised code of good practices on fiscal transparency, and the International Organization of
Supreme Auditing Institutions’ Lima Declaration on Guidelines on Auditing Precepts. The
questionnaire focuses on the openness of the budget process in national contexts.
The national budget analysis entailed the production of independent and people-centered analysis of
the national budget for three years running, looking at the distribution of public funds under different
budget headings (which is also what the village budget analyses did). The AAIN used its in-house
expertise and voluntary contributions of articles and analyses by others. It interacted with
parliamentarians to share its findings with them. It also held capacity-building programs that aimed to
generate understanding (at least in Kathmandu) of what the budget is, what a participatory budget
would be, and so on. The relationship between the Citizens’ Poverty Watch Forum and the AAIN was
deeper than the typical relationship between donor and recipient in that the AAIN was represented on
the forum’s board. However, it was not possible for the Citizens’ Poverty Watch Forum to engage in
year-round budget work. The forum ended up focusing only on budget analysis around the time of the
budget’s release midyear.
The AAIN’s partner, Backward Society Education, carried out the work on local budget analysis.
Work was undertaken in three villages during a roughly nine-month period in 2001–02. The work
involved (a) informing the community and local government officials of the nature of the work; (b)
forming the team for research at the village level; (c) procuring budget documents on local budgets;
(d) carrying out budget analysis by looking at allocations and budget distribution, analyzing
disbursement processes and problems faced, and assessing the overall impact of government spending
in various sectors; (e) preparing a report on the findings; (f) sharing the findings with the
communities and with local government officials and incorporating their comments; and (g) sharing
the findings at a South Asia-level civil society and budget analysis meeting held in Kathmandu in
June 2002. The resulting analysis was fairly rudimentary. It was restricted to a simple breakdown of
local budgets in each of the three villages with some analysis of implementation processes and some
conclusions about the impact of public expenditure programs on the lives of poor people.
The open budget survey involved analysis of the budget-making process in its entirety: from
formulation to execution to monitoring to auditing. The open budget questionnaire as completed by
the researchers included 122 multiple-choice questions. The questions were organized into two main
categories: one examined the contents of the executive’s budget proposal and the other covered the
documents and processes of the different phases of the budget (executive formulation, legislative
approval, execution and monitoring, and audit and evaluation). The questionnaire was based on the
recognition that civil society-led budget groups were entirely dependent on public information for
their ability to comment on the budget and its execution. Thus the focus was on the quality of
information provided by the government and the availability of reports that would enable civil society
to assess the extent to which goals embodied in the budget have been realized.
For the Kathmandu-based national budget analysis, the AAIN partnered with the Citizens’ Poverty
Watch Forum, a body that emerged out of an AAIN, World Bank, and National Planning Commission
workshop on poverty held in 1998. The forum began as an informal group of independent
professionals and journalists interested in working on poverty policy issues. Its foray into budget
analysis began in 1999, and in 2000, forum members attended the “IBP Asia Conference on Budget
Analysis” held in Mumbai.
Starting in 2000–01, the AAIN undertook the analysis of local budgets with a grassroots NGO,
Backward Society Education, which was working in the plains of far western Nepal. Backward
Society Education’s main area of work had been empowerment of the Tharu community, members of
which had been bonded laborers for centuries.
As for the open budget survey, the initiative is being undertaken by the Strategic Group, a
nongovernmental research group that has previously worked on a World Bank project on public
expenditure issues. The AAIN first partnered with the Strategic Group in 2003 to test the draft IBP
questionnaire, then in 2004 to carry out the IBP survey on open budgets, and once again in 2005 for a
slightly scaled-up version of the survey.
In relation to its governance strategy, the AAIN emphasizes the importance of building the capacities
of its partner NGOs and plans to strengthen its partnership with existing grassroots organizations.
Resources
The AAIN funded the national and local budget analyses, with logistical contributions provided by
partner organizations, a policy research group in Kathmandu, and a grassroots activist organization.
The IBP has financed the open budget questionnaire. As the work requires technical skills,
researchers are employed to conduct the analysis and their fees are borne by the IBP. The AAIN has
joined forces with the IBP and the Strategic Group to form a tripartite partnership that ensures
technical guidance (from the IBP), quality control (by the AAIN), and action (by the AAIN and the
Strategic Group).
The AAIN’s open budget study initiative and similar interventions at the national and local levels
faced the following critical constraints and problems:
• Inexperience with conducting surveys. The AAIN had no prior experience in designing a
budget questionnaire, and there were several rounds of consultations within the team, as well
as with the questionnaire formulators, on some of the answers. For example, if a budget
document was available on the Internet, the IBP may have felt that this would mean that the
document was readily accessible by the public, but given the low levels of Internet
penetration and extremely poor access in Nepal, the AAIN would have given such a
document a less favorable rating in relation to its availability in the public domain.
• Difficulties in accessing data. The AAIN had difficulty in obtaining the proper data,
especially at the local level. This was overcome to some extent by linking organizations
assigned to carry out budget work at the local level with those based in Kathmandu to
facilitate a smoother exchange of information. This, however, increased the time taken to
finalize the document.
• Need to enhance representation. The technical nature of the initiative did not allow for
greater public involvement, especially of vulnerable and marginalized populations. This was
reflected in the low level of citizen participation at meetings, presentations, and so on.
• Weak institutionalization. The effort to move from a one-off intervention to regular, sustained
budget work has been a problem. Even though local organizations have been sensitized to the
potency of budget analysis and have participated in many interventions, most of them are still
reluctant to carry out similar efforts on their own. However, the AAIN’s experience with the
Economic Literacy and Budget Analysis Group in other countries shows that transition to
regular budget work is feasible after all. In relation to its governance strategy, the AAIN has
now committed to sustained budget work.
A key issue that needs to be addressed is how to make the budget work more inclusive. While the
community baseline studies are inclusive, the analysis per se could not involve the general public. To
increase public participation, the AAIN has decided to expand the core group of researchers and to
include more NGOs with grassroots bases and access. It also intends to add public consultation to this
line of work. The AAIN is also contemplating other activities, such as social audits at the grassroots
level, participatory review and reflection exercises with local communities, and a nationwide
initiative to increase economic literacy among partner organizations. In this way, it would seek to
increase inclusion not just in its budget work, but also by supplementing this work with other
activities.
Outputs
Through its pioneering intervention on budget analysis, the AAIN has set in place the primary
building blocks to introduce social accountability concepts and tools in Nepal. Some of the emergent
outputs include the following:
• Promoting budget analysis. The AAIN’s pioneering work has helped promote the use of
budget analysis as an important mechanism for achieving a more democratic society. Civil
society is now recognized for its role in striving for open budgets. Trial and error has helped
the AAIN develop a deeper and more focused program for budget analysis work. In the initial
stages, there was no specific or focused agenda for budget analysis and activities were ad hoc,
but with the help of other organizations, such as the Centre for Budget and Policy Studies in
Bangalore, India, and of the IBP, the AAIN has become more focused. Strengthening its
partnerships with these and other organizations has enabled the AAIN to move on to its next
phase of work.
• Strengthening informal networks. By getting them involved, the AAIN’s activities
strengthened the informal network of budget analysts, policy makers, journalists, academics,
and NGOs. This technical core is now seen as an important conduit for reaching hitherto
neglected and voiceless groups and making advocacy informed and potent.
• Building local capacity. The capacity-building component of the budget analysis was new
and innovative. It involved building the capacity of the partner NGO, providing communitylevel
education on budget issues, and making local government officials sensitive to budget
issues.
• Initiating partnerships with the media. In the AAIN’s budget analysis work, journalists have
played an important role in disseminating its findings and in using them for advocacy
purposes. The organization has trained journalists on budget-related issues, given indications
that journalists’ lack of specialized knowledge had resulted in poor coverage and presentation
of its reports. It also invites media professionals to visit its chapters in rural areas and to
attend events. The core messages of the events are well covered in local newspapers (both in
the Nepalese and English language press).
• Forging partnerships and networks. The AAIN has realized the benefits of forging
partnerships with international organizations such as the Asian Development Bank. While the
AAIN enjoys close relationships with its communities in all districts where it operates, it can
also tap the Asian Development Bank’s vast knowledge bank. Avenues for more
collaborative work are being explored.
To institutionalize budget work and build local capacity, the AAIN has planned Economic Literacy
and Budget Analysis Group training during 2007 in three resource centers in cooperation with its
partner NGOs. The Economic Literacy and Budget Analysis Group project foresees a four-phase plan
that seeks to benefit AAIN staff, partner NGOs, and poor and excluded communities through training,
action research, media advocacy, and reflection. The Economic Literacy and Budget Analysis
Group’s focus on the need for economic literacy and right to information aims at empowering the
poor and excluded to control and influence government budget-making policy, make claims, and
work to prevent corruption. The AAIN pioneered the so-called reflect methodology, which is an
approach to learning and social transformation that won an award from the United Nations. The
AAIN will also use this methodology to raise awareness of corruption and plan and implement local
initiatives to combat corruption.
The AAIN’s national budget analysis work continued for three years and ended in 2002. The villagelevel
budget analysis faced difficulties, primarily because of difficulties in accessing budget
documents, and the work was discontinued after a year.
Many partner NGOs have planned to undertake community-level budget tracking in 2007. Nine
partner NGOs from three resource centers are expected to undertake budget analysis after the training
planned for January 2007. The network of these partner NGOs is also expected to work on national
budget analysis.
Sources: ActionAid Nepal 2005; International Budget Project 2004; Strategic Group and ActionAid
International Nepal 2005.
PARTICIPATORY GENDER BUDGET FORMULATION AND GENDER BUDGET ANALYSIS,
INDONESIAN WOMEN’S COALITION FOR JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY
After three decades of being suppressed under the previous regime, Indonesian women are once more
a force for change. When the Suharto regime came to power in 1965, it not only destroyed mass
women’s organizations like the Indonesian Women’s Movement, but transformed the basis of
women’s participation in the political process. The regime’s propaganda claimed that the Indonesian
Women’s Movement was an organization of prostitutes and legitimized a massacre of its members in
1965–66. In the last years of the Suharto regime, former Indonesian Women’s Movement members
released from prison became the inspiration for the new women’s movement that emerged in the
1980s. By the end of the regime, the women’s movement was a broadly based social movement with
growing influence over sociopolitical events.
The Indonesian Women’s Coalition for Justice and Democracy (Koalisi Perempuan Indonesia or KPI)
was established on May 18, 1998, in Jakarta, one day before Suharto resigned. It was founded by a
group of 75 women activists as part of a people’s reform movement against the Suharto regime. The
KPI held its first congress in Yogyakarta in December 1998 to gain wider recognition and to obtain a
mandate from women across Indonesia. More than 500 women from 25 provinces met to take stock
of the legacy of the Suharto regime and to chart future directions for women in the country.
In the post-Suharto period, enabling legislation like the Law on Local Government (22/1999) has
given local governments more power and autonomy. The key features of the Law on Local
Government are the devolution of a wide range of public service delivery functions to the regions and
the strengthening of the elected regional councils, which received wide-ranging powers to supervise
and control the regional administration. The law bases regional autonomy on five fundamental
principles: democracy, people’s participation and empowerment, equity and justice, recognition of the
potential and diversity of regions, and need to strengthen the regional legislatures. As a result, it
strengthened people’s ability to demand accountability from the executive branch of government.
However, in the face of structural and cultural obstacles, local governments have thwarted all
attempts to realize gender equity. As a result, Indonesia’s emergent decentralized structure has
ensured that power is concentrated in the hands of local elites. These are groups that have
traditionally maintained power in communities and have wielded that power to retain control over
community resources. Furthermore, their traditional, conservative nature prevents them from hearing
women’s voices in public forums or caring about women’s issues.
A motivating factor for the KPI’s involvement in budget work was the noninclusive process of budget
formulation, which can best be described as “gender blind,” in that it ignores the different socially
determined roles, responsibilities, and capabilities of men and women. Under a gender blind
budgeting system, fewer financial resources are generally allocated to women, creating inequality and
leaving them at a disadvantage in society. The lack of monitoring and evaluation of gender equality
programs contributes to the underachievement and lack of sustainability of gender equality policies,
institutions, and programs.
Therefore the KPI’s core programs aim to establish strong and independent women’s organizations
that have bargaining power in relation to policy formulation and implementation. Its programs also
aim to improve women’s capacities. These include various types of training to enable women to play
key roles in decision-making bodies. Thus the KPI’s programs tackle the root cause of the problem:
that women are neglected in the decision-making process and are viewed as second-class citizens.
Objectives
Given women’s lack of involvement in the budgetary process at any level—village, city, provincial,
or national—the key objective of the KPI’s Participatory Gender Budget Program is to empower
women to participate actively in budget-related activities, particularly at the decision-making level.
Women’s lack of participation in public life is perpetuated by the Constitution, which states that a
woman’s duty centers on her husband and children. These circumstances mean that women are
disadvantaged in the economic, social, political, and cultural spheres.
The KPI employs the following strategies in its gender budget program:
• Enhancing women’s political involvement. A key approach adopted by the KPI is enhancing
women’s political literacy by means of focused motivational and educational campaigns to
encourage them to run for local public office.
• Encouraging women’s participation in drafting local budgets. The KPI firmly believes that a
key requirement for ensuring that gender is taken into account in the budget process is to
ensure women’s active involvement in drafting local budgets.
• Undertaking gender budget analysis. Demystifying technical documents such as budgets is
an essential step for highlighting issues of inequity and accountability. The KPI believes that
a scientific analysis of the budget through a gender lens is a tool for engaging in informed
advocacy with the aim of bringing about legislative and policy changes.
• Providing gender budget training. The KPI’s gender budget training targets women across
society, including indigenous, elderly, and professional women; informal workers, laborers,
and migrant workers; rural and urban poor women; prostitutes; students; widows and other
single women; marginalized girls; farmers and fisher people; housewives; lesbians, bisexual
women, and transgender women; and disabled women. The KPI’s program is thus extremely
inclusive.
The KPI provides training at every level of its organizational structure. It conducts political education
training for women in communities in 13 provinces. It includes basic budget literacy in its civic
education modules, and has even adapted a budget advocacy game, whereby groups determine the
best budget advocacy strategies for different scenarios. The KPI has also conducted gender budget
workshops for government officials in West Sumatra, East Java, and Jakarta.
The KPI has used its knowledge and skills pertaining to budget analysis to extend and strengthen its
ongoing policy advocacy. A key lesson has been that budgets are a critical ingredient for enforcing
legislation. For example, the KPI’s Domestic Violence Bill allocates funds for health, justice, and
other sectors concerned with fighting domestic violence.
To maximize the impact of its women’s budget advocates, the KPI collaborates and networks with
organizations that share the same goals and vision. For example, it has collaborated with FITRA to
publish a guide to budget advocacy and has also partnered with women’s organizations working in
the field of policy advocacy. As part of its larger objective of incorporating a gender perspective into
the budgetary process, the KPI has established a network for advocacy in relation to the government
budget.
Resources
The coalition is funded by two organizations: the Dutch Institute for Development Cooperation and
the Development and Peace Partnership of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Despite training and awareness programs, the representation of women in the legislative domain
continues to be insufficient. Moreover, the KPI has yet to develop an aggressive, feminist character to
appeal to women in general and highlight gender issues in an effective manner. The fact that the KPI
is largely a volunteer-based organization has slowed down the gender budget movement. Apart from
a few core members, women in local chapters contribute their spare time on a voluntary basis.
Outputs
The ongoing work of the KPI has resulted in a number of positive outputs that include the following:
• Influence on policy making. Through its budget-related policy and advocacy work, the KPI
has been able to exert influence on policy making at the national and local levels, for
example:
− The Ministry of the Empowerment of Women adopted a draft of the national plan of
action on women’s empowerment that the KPI had provided.
− A draft of the constitutional amendment regarding human, women’s, and children’s rights
was adopted by parliament in 2000.
− The suggestion to hold women’s caucuses in the national and some local parliaments was
adopted by female members of parliament.
− The members of one KPI community-level representative body were able to bring about a
local government policy responsive to gender issues.
− A training module concerning leadership in relation to gender perspectives is used
nationwide, particularly by KPI members.
• Empowerment of women. The KPI’s gender budget activities have resulted in greater
empowerment of its members, many of whom have successfully run for public office, while
others have begun to question the decisions of local bodies in relation to budget allocations.
KPI members at the regional and community levels have become members of government
budget planning teams and of the Electoral Commission. Increasing numbers of KPI
members have succeeded in gaining positions on village and city councils, while others have
run for positions in district, provincial, and national legislatures. At the community level,
women have acquired the courage to question the basis on which local governments have
formulated their budgets. At the regional level, women have been able to efficiently perform
their roles as budget advocates as a result of KPI training.
• Greater awareness among political elite. The KPI’s policy advocacy activities have increased
awareness among elected representatives and the bureaucracy about the necessity for a
gender perspective in planning and decision making.
The KPI’s gender budget activities have been recognized by the government, and KPI members are
active in various government programs. The KPI has established the Caucus of Parliamentarian
Women at the national level. The KPI has also been involved in policy making and programs of the
Ministry for the Empowerment of Women. In addition, the KPI is part of the international network
Women in Politics and is registered as an organization that supports the Women Building Peace
movement based in London.
The KPI’s activities have been scaled up and its current membership stands at 15,000 women from 17
groups across the country. The KPI’s 23 chapters are located at the national, regional, provincial,
district, and village levels.
Sources: Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy 2004; Sen 1999; Siahaan 2002.
Engaging and Empowering Communities for Public Service Improvements
Emergent narratives on social accountability in Asia are interestingly nuanced by gradual, but
growing, examples of increasing community participation in the domain of governance and service
delivery. Some of these initiatives have come from proactive governments, indicating that state-civil
society dialectics can complement and open up new windows for ushering in new and innovative
partnerships.
SIRAJGANJ LOCAL GOVERNANCE DEVELOPMENT FUND PROJECT, BANGLADESH
Bangladesh has one of the most centralized public sector governance and service delivery
arrangements in the world. After Bangladesh achieved independence in 1971, local government
institutions experienced a number of shifts in policy regarding their political, financial, and
administrative authority and various tiers of government were established. Currently rural local
government bodies are divided into three tiers, namely, local councils (union parishads), the lowest
tier; subdistrict administrations (upazila parishads), the middle tier; and district administrations (zila
parishads), the topmost tier. The subdistrict administrations and district administrations have no
direct political representation, but local councils have 12 elected representatives for an average
population of 28,800.
Local government is a highly viable mechanism through which democratic processes and practices
can be established and participatory development ensured. Historically, however, local government in
Bangladesh has remained weak and susceptible to pressures exerted by the central government.
Through the years, local government institutions have been struggling for sufficient fiscal and
administrative power. They are also constrained by lack of transparency, low capacity, excessive
bureaucracy, political interference, limited authority, lack of accountability of service providers, and
weak financial resources and have limited orientation toward local communities.
Moreover, the representative local governance structures, such as the local councils in particular,
were lacking in terms of their transparency and accountability. After being elected, local council
representatives mostly felt accountable to the subdistrict administrations or their district bureaucratic
bosses rather than to their communities. They did not practice transparent systems like open budget
meetings, rarely consulted communities on the planning and implementation of development projects,
and services provided to communities were of extremely poor quality. In addition, corruption was
rampant among local council representatives. This poor governance contributed directly to pervasive
poverty.
Sirajganj is a large district located on the west bank of the Jamuna River with a population of 2.5
million people. Sirajganj comprises nine subdistrict administrations and 81 local councils. Parts of the
district are prone to erosion, while others are low-lying and prone to flooding. The literacy rate is 27
percent and the district is one of the poorest in Bangladesh, according to the UNDP’s human
development index.
In an innovative effort to reduce poverty by encouraging local governance initiatives, the Sirajganj
Local Governance Development Fund Project (SLGDFP) was launched in 2000 and was completed in
December 2005. The project was cofunded by the United Nations Capital Development Fund
(UNCDF), the UNDP, and the government of Bangladesh. The trigger for this partnership, however,
came from recommendations made by the local government commission’s reports of 1991 and 1997.
The key recommendations included the following:
• The local councils should have greater fiscal and administrative authority.
• A certain number of local council seats should be reserved for women.
• The areas (unions) overseen by local councils should be divided into nine wards.
• The local councils should be the lowest administrative unit.
• The local councils should be provided with adequate staff.
• The people should participate in decision making.
• The resources for local councils should be mobilized locally.
• A fiscal commission should oversee local government institutions.
These recommendations gave rise to demand for stronger local councils and for fiscal and
administrative decentralization, including people’s participation in local-level decision making. This
enabling environment provided a window of opportunity for the UNDP and UNCDF to come up with
the idea of the SLGDFP, the first initiative of its kind in Bangladesh. The UNCDF and the UNPD
initiated the project in three phases. The first phase included 19 local councils, 9 were added in the
second phase, and 45 more were added in the third phase.
The project had three components, namely: (a) the investment of local development funds to improve
service delivery at the local level, (b) the enhancement of the capacity of local councils in Sirajganj to
improve their performance, and (c) the dissemination of the findings and the lessons learned. A key
feature of the project was the disbursement of funds directly to participating local councils on an annual
block grant basis. The local councils had the power to plan and decide on the allocation of this annual
flow of investment funds to sustainable development activities within project-defined guidelines. The
project monitored the performance of local councils in the use of the funds. To create incentives, the
SLGDFP introduced a performance grant component, whereby eligibility for grant funding during the
second and subsequent years of the project depended on the local council’s participatory performance
appraisal or scorecard (table 1), which is a rating of performance by communities.
Table 1 Sample Scorecard
Activity Performance indicator
Score to be
obtained
Actual
score
Involvement of women
in the local council’s
activities
All women local council representatives are
present during all regular meetings of the local
council and during meetings of standing
committees
Women members attend 50 to 80 percent of
meetings
Women participate in fewer than 50 percent of
meetings
Control of tax
defaulters
A list of tax defaulters is prepared and updated
every year
A list of tax defaulters is not prepared
Community
participation in the
budget process
The budget is prepared with the involvement of
community groups at open meetings and inputs
are obtained from the wards
The budget is prepared without any significant
contribution from the community
Project implementation Schemes have been implemented in line with
their timetables
Schemes have not been implemented in line with
their timetables
Budget transparency Information on the final budget is provided to
citizens through notice boards and other means
No information on the final budget is provided
Source: SLGDFP.
Objectives
The key objectives of the SLGDFP were as follows:
• To ensure transparent, accountable local councils that would contribute to poverty reduction
in rural Bangladesh
• To deliver sustainable basic infrastructure and public services in Sirajganj that were in accord
with local priorities and contributed to poverty alleviation and socioeconomic development
• To build the capacity of elected bodies in Sirajganj in relation to planning, financing, and
managing service delivery in response to local needs
• To ensure that the voices of the poor and marginalized were heard, especially those of women
• To apply lessons learned on innovative ways to plan, finance, and manage services to the
government reform process in Bangladesh as a whole
The target audience of the SLGDFP was rural communities, with focus on the poor and on women.
The central government was also targeted for policy change, with the objective of promoting
accountable, transparent, and strong local governments. At the local level, local councils were
targeted as the main actors for the accountability exercise. The sectors targeted were the development
of local infrastructure and local service delivery (education, health, agriculture, and so on).
The SLGDFP pursued an interesting mix of learning-by-doing from performance assessment tools to
community mobilization approaches. Whereas the former brought in the capability for measurement
and comparison, the latter ensured sustained community engagement and involvement in the entire
process.
Participatory Performance Assessments of Local Councils. Participatory performance
assessments—public scorecards—reveal the strengths and weaknesses of local councils by grading
them on a number of criteria. The assessments were done once a year with the participation of
community representatives, of local council bodies, and occasionally of local government officials.
Based on the assessments, the local council developed a capacity-building plan.
Initially, the scorecard was developed by the project team based on the roles and functions of local
councils. However, over time, the stakeholders changed most of the issues the project team addressed,
including the method of project implementation. The participatory performance assessments were
undertaken at public meetings attended by 80 to 120 people, facilitated by the local council
coordinator. The scorecards were hung on a board and attendees were asked to assess the
effectiveness of the local council by judging its performance on a range of activities, including the
opening and operation of the local council office, the status of tax collection, its performance in
relation to finances and accounts, and its implementation of the SLGDFP. Additional competencies
assessed included the extent of participation of female council members, the level of public
participation in the budget preparation process, and the operation of the village court. In addition to
revealing the level of public participation in local council activities and decisions, this process
allowed better dissemination of information on the linkages between compliance with and collection
of taxes and service delivery.
Local council chairs and members have commented that for the first time, they could achieve 100
percent efficiency in the use of development funds by avoiding the losses suffered through other
development funding channels. As a result of the efficiency in the use of funds, the transparency of
the process, and the participation of community members, evidence indicates that local councils find
that revenue mobilization and collection efficiency have increased as community members have a
better understanding of how the money is used. In addition, around a third of participating local
councils were contributing their own revenues to SLGDFP schemes and two of the local councils
were using their own revenues for other schemes identified through the participatory planning
process.
Decentralized and Performance-Based Funding. The SLGDFP provided funds directly to local
councils on a block grant basis, which the local councils controlled and managed. The performancebased
funding criteria are such that those local councils that performed well in the previous year were
eligible for additional funding the next year. This has shown that performance improvements can be
influenced by incentives. The flow of funds directly to the local councils resulted in decentralization
of the decision-making and project scheme selection process.
Open Budget Sessions. The annual income and expenditure statements of the local council were
presented at a budget meeting along with the succeeding year’s income and expenditure plan.
Formerly, the community was not familiar with the local council’s budget, as it was not disclosed.
Thus the SLGDFP made the budget process transparent. The process started by displaying the draft
budget on a notice board. Dates were then set to discuss the draft budget, finalize it, and send it to the
deputy commissioner for approval. This gave community members opportunities to review the
budget, ask about different income and expenditure items, and suggest changes. As a result, people
became aware of the local council’s financial status and expenditures patterns. This transparency
helped local councils mobilize local resources.
Scheme Notice Boards and Complaint Books. These instruments were used to ensure accountability
and transparency. Although the government of Bangladesh requires that information on schemes be
publicly displayed, this is seldom done in practice. The SLGDFP supported improved information
flows through a contingency fund for project scheme notice boards in all scheme estimates that
provided details such as source of funds, work involved, dates, those responsible, and costs.
Complaint books were kept at each scheme site to obtain feedback on quality. Similarly, information
on the local council (annual plan, list of project schemes, funds received, minutes of meetings,
budgets, and so on) was publicized on local council notice boards.
Enhanced Social Mobilization and Social Inclusion for Community Participation. The SLGDFP
operated through two key processes: social mobilization and social inclusion. Community
mobilization was the central dimension of the SLGDFP, both to improve the efficiency and
effectiveness of service delivery and to serve a wider objective of strengthening civil society and
democratic processes. Given the absence of a prevailing culture of participation within local councils,
the SLGDFP supported participation through subdistrict administration project coordinators (full-time
project staff), union facilitation teams (volunteers from the community), and ward development
committees led by local council members who sat on ward development committees.
Communities were mobilized by means of participatory performance assessment exercises,
participatory planning, open budget meetings, project scheme implementation, resource mobilization,
and participation in various committees. The committees were organized at open meetings and the
community selected members. Meetings took place at the start and the end of the implementation of
education, health, and agriculture projects to ensure quality and community ownership.
Participatory planning processes were undertaken at the local council level, with each local council
having nine wards. The ward-level participatory planning process was usually a two-day event that
involved between 120 and 400 people. The participatory planning process employed such tools as
social mapping, problem identification and prioritization, and action planning. On average, 1,100 to
3,000 people participated in the planning exercises, or some 9 to 15 percent of the total population at
the local council level. The community was mainly mobilized through an information campaign
conducted by local councils using various media, such as drum beating, leaflets, invitation letters,
microphone announcements, and personal contacts, all of which are inexpensive and sustainable.
Once mobilization was achieved, an important aspect of the project’s institutional arrangements was
the capacity building of citizens. Members of committees received technical training on a variety of
building and engineering techniques. This enhanced technical knowledge within communities ensured
increased levels of accountability.
As concerns social inclusion, the project sought to ensure that women and the poorest were given a
voice in the planning process and that their priorities were represented in the final selection of
schemes. The chances for elite capture were minimized, as all activities were open, transparent, and
targeted toward the poor. In the case of women, it was required that women should prioritize at least
30 percent of project schemes and that local councils’ approvals of schemes should maintain this
ratio. Various process-based mechanisms reflected participation by women, such as the use of colored
cards to show women’s needs, special planning groups for women, and screening to ensure that
women’s interests were met during the final selection. Women were also mobilized through the
subdistrict administrations and district women’s development forums. However, increasing women’s
participation continues to remain a challenge.
The SLGDFP relied on a tripartite partnership involving the Local Government Division of the
national government, local councils, and the community as follows:
• Local Government Division of the government of Bangladesh. The SLGDFP was a
government-initiated project and was nationally executed by the Local Government Division,
which was also responsible for scaling up the initiative. Project implementation was guided
by the National Steering Committee, which was chaired by the secretary of the Local
Government Division, and the District Project Advisory and Coordination Committee,
chaired by the district commissioner of Sirajganj.
• Local councils. The project was implemented through local councils, which were selected
through a transparent process using set criteria. For the first year, the criteria included local
councils that were open and functional, held monthly meetings, had women representatives
who accounted for at least two-thirds of council members, maintained and updated their
accounting records, and held annual meetings with the community to assess their
performance. Additional criteria as of the second year included opening a bank account for
project funds, organizing open budget meetings with community participation, and carrying
out tax assessments according to the standard government tax schedule. The selected local
councils planned and decided on the allocation of annual block grants in line with project
guidelines.
• Local communities. Participation by communities in local council activities was a core
dimension of the SLGDFP. Community representatives were elected based on their jobs,
mainly primary school teachers, religious leaders, family health workers, agriculture block
supervisors,5 women members of NGOs and vulnerable groups, farmers (small and
marginal), day laborers, social workers, and civil society representatives. The objective of
5A block is the unit of institutional services for farmers. Each block has one block supervisor to provide
extension services to farm families.
having representatives with a variety of backgrounds was to ensure that people from all walks
of life (and from all wards) participated in local council activities.
Resources
As noted earlier, the project was jointly funded by the UNDP and the UNCDF, and had a total cost of
around US$9 million over 2000–05. Toward the end of the project, contributions from the UNCDF
decreased, and the UNDP stepped in to fill the gap. Some initiatives, such as open budget meetings,
were funded by the local councils themselves. While the two funding agencies had largely provided
the financial resources, the facilitation and analytical skills had been procured largely from the
communities. Although voluntary support was available, it was insufficient. As regards leadership,
the role of the local council chair was crucial, because the 1983 Local Government Act bestows most
decision-making responsibilities on the chair. Thus a responsive, accountable, transparent, and
versatile chair plays an important role in efficient community mobilization.
The SLDGFP’s learning-by-doing approach offered many lessons that allowed the problems and
constraints encountered to be taken into account for scaling up and replication of this approach. These
problems and constraints included the following:
• Political interference by legislators. The highly centralized political framework has resulted
in members of parliament being able to exert considerable influence and control that they
exercise in a manner akin to political patronage. Resource allocations from higher tiers of
government to local bodies are often determined by personal or political party needs in a
nontransparent manner. To avoid political interference, project funds were channeled directly
to local councils and decisions to approve project schemes were made at the union level. All
information regarding funds, schemes, and plans was made available to all community
members through scheme notice boards and community gatherings.
• Mindset of bureaucrats. At the initial stage of the SLGDFP, bureaucrats were not very
interested in empowering local councils and communities and were skeptical about local
council representatives being able to approve project schemes and being responsible for funds
received and disbursed and about the involvement of women members. They were loath to
believe that local councils could work in the interests of the people. Bureaucrats also
expressed their concern that the SLGDFP would create greater opportunities for corruption
within local councils. Over time, however, the bureaucrats came to see the potential of local
councils in providing better services to communities.
• Lack of awareness among community members. Community members are not sufficiently
informed about the roles and functions of local councils. This lack of awareness is a direct
result of the considerable gap between public service providers and the users of such services.
In an attempt to address this issue, community awareness programs were organized under the
SLGDFP that employed such means as folk songs, theater, leaflets, notice boards, scheme
information boards, and posters.
Outputs
The SLGDFP achieved a number of important results, namely:
• Financing infrastructure service delivery. The project established a system of providing
predictable annual capital grants to local councils. The funds were controlled at this level,
which has elected leaders, whereas under the government's Annual Development Program,
funds are controlled at the subdistrict level, which has no elected officials and is just an
administrative level of government.
• Planning and budgeting for infrastructure service delivery. The project recognized that local
councils had no prevailing culture of participation and that changing attitudes and
institutionalizing participation can only be achieved incrementally.
• General accountability and monitoring mechanisms. Improving accountability is closely
linked to the promotion of participatory processes, as well as to establishment of a
community organization structure. However, the SLGDP also undertook a range of other
innovations that further served to strengthen and institutionalize greater accountability,
including the annual performance review process and improved information flows.
• Policy impact. The government requested the UNCDF and UNDP to replicate the project in
five other districts as of 2004 and committed government funding for local councils as of
fiscal 2005 on an increasing scale for five years.
Specific outputs of the SLGDFP included the following:
• Local councils in the project area have gained the trust of communities. The project achieved
significant results and was appreciated by communities, local government representatives, the
national government, and donors. This was a result of local ownership and involvement in the
implementation of SLGDFP schemes.
• Local councils have become more transparent and accountable. The provision of funding
directly to local councils made them accountable to communities, and the project developed a
range of mechanisms that served to ensure the flow of information to communities. The
system of regularly monitoring and reporting on the performance of the local councils
contributed to their improved performance.
• Services have improved. A study by the Asian Development Bank and the UNCDF shows a
significant improvement in the performance of decentralized service provision under the
SLFDFP. These improvements are particularly marked in the area of construction and
rehabilitation of community assets, such as roads, paths, culverts, and tube wells. Under the
block grant mechanism, development planning and spending was more efficient than under
the previous arrangement. This resulted in improved services for communities and better
access by the poor. Moreover, the implementation and supervision process resulted in high
quality of work done under the SLGDFP.
• Community members have more access to local decision-making processes. There was a
sense of community ownership of the project. The establishment of standing committees
consisting of members of local councils and selected citizens ensured community
representation and participation. Communities began to raise more questions about various
development activities undertaken by local councils and adopted schemes that had numerous
benefits for the poor.
• Funds are being used in an optimal manner. The project ensured the optimum and efficient
use of funds. This is, in part, due to the substantial degree of autonomy in the SLGDFP block
grant mechanism, which resulted in improved performance in meeting budget targets. This
resulted in better quality projects being implemented than in the past.
• More local resources are being mobilized for local development. This is another dimension
of people’s participation, and one that improved the quality of the final output. Because
communities were involved, they were willing to contribute to improve the quality of the
work. Examples include cash contributions, provision of additional free labor, and greater
willingness to provide land for works.
• Women’s voices are being heard. The project ensured greater opportunities for women to
raise their voices and be heard. Care was taken to ensure that women were involved in every
stage of the process, especially in relation to planning and through the requirement that at
least one-third of project schemes addressed women’s needs.
• The extent of corruption is being reduced. Given the lack of data, the actual extent to which
corruption has been reduced is hard to gauge, but reports from communities, local council
representatives, and other stakeholders indicate that in case of SLGDFP schemes, fiscal
leakages were reduced to as low as 5 to 10 percent of total expenditures, compared with 40 to
50 percent for schemes under annual development plans. In addition, the reduction in
corruption has meant that project schemes were of higher quality and longer lasting than
those implemented under annual development plans.
The project had close linkages with local NGOs, actors in local government reform, and international
and bilateral aid agencies. Recently, the European Commission, the Swiss Agency for Development
Cooperation, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the U.K. Department for
International Development, the Danish International Development Agency, and the World Bank
began to show interest in implementing local governance initiatives based on lessons learned from the
SLGDFP.
The initial success of the project has encouraged the government to revise the tax schedule and
strategies for local councils. The government requested the UNCDF to replicate the project in other
districts, thereby enabling local governments to assimilate the practices of the SLGDFP. In addition,
the Local Government Division had already internalized and implemented the performance
assessment system, and based on the results, the government provided a 10 percent bonus to the
bestperforming
local government institutions in the same way as the SLGDFP provided bonuses to the
best-performing local councils.
Another important outcome of the SLGDFP is that the central government has begun to seriously
consider devolving more authority to local governments. The minister of local government has
already taken steps to empower local councils by providing them with direct block grants. The
Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper identified local government institutions as the key vehicle for
providing services to communities, and therefore stressed decentralization.
To internalize the system, the central government has already asked the UNCDF to replicate the
project in other districts. Performance-based funding, direct funding to local councils, open budget
sessions, and participatory planning processes have been much appreciated by international and
bilateral aid agencies and local government actors.
A core issue for wider replication of the SLDGFP approach is institutional support for the
development of local councils. Government departments should take the lead in providing the
supporting and monitoring role that will be required as part of a wider rolling out of this project.
Government structures that have an important part to play in training and capacity building, funding,
and resource development of local councils must gear up accordingly.
The project ended in December 2005, but an agreement between the central government and the
UNCDF stipulated replication of the project in six other districts from 2006, when the project will
provide less technical assistance. The government has also agreed to implement lessons learned from
the replication project throughout the country to ensure that the project’s innovations will be
sustained not only in Sirajganj, but nationwide.
Building on the experience of the SLDGFP, the World Bank has approved a US$111.5 million credit
to support a government program to develop an accountable local governance system for local
councils. The SLDGFP showed that local government-led projects save time and money in providing
basic services to the poor and that development outcomes improve when communities participate in
decision making and are able to hold their local governments to account for their performance, as
evidenced by stronger own-revenue mobilization and low levels of fund leakage.
Sources: GHK International 2004; World Bank 2006; Web site of the UNCDF (http://www.uncdf.
org/english/index.php); UNDP fact sheet (http://www.un-bd.org/undp/factsheets/Sirajgonj.pdf).
CITIZENS’ CHARTERS FOR PUBLIC SERVICE ACCOUNTABILITY, PEOPLE’S POWER, INDIA
People’s Power (Lok Satta) is a nonpartisan movement that advocates reforms of the governance
structure. Set up in 1997, People’s Power’s believes that people are the true “owners” of a democracy
and that the responsibility of every official, however highly placed, is to serve the people. Although
People’s Power’s grassroots organizations, which have a total of more than 100,000 members, are
limited to the state of Andhra Pradesh, the overarching goal of People’s Power is national, in that it
seeks to place citizens at the center of India’s democracy by joining the movement for governance
reforms, and as an advocacy body and think tank, People’s Power’s reach is national. People’s Power
has initiated many successful reform initiatives, which started off as citizen efforts but were later
incorporated in a broad framework for reform. One example is the initiative to disclose the financial
and criminal records of electoral candidates, which India’s Election Commission recently endorsed
and put into practice.
The driving force behind the citizens’ charter initiative is the increasing helplessness of citizens in
India’s modern democracy. Low levels of accountability and transparency among civil servants,
compounded by often obsolete laws and rules, have resulted in pervasive corruption and an utter
disregard for public satisfaction, especially with regard to public service delivery. A relatively high
degree of centralization of government structures and a view of government officials as dispensers of
patronage have exacerbated the situation. In addition, low levels of education, lack of access to
information, few or no avenues for interaction between citizens and government officials, and little in
the way of collective action (in part owing to people’s lack of awareness of their rights) have
contributed to the shift of power away from the hands of the people. To address this lack of
“citizencentric”
governance, in 1997 People’s Power launched the concept of citizens’ charters6 to introduce
a culture of accountability among government departments of the state of Andhra Pradesh.
The initial phase of the People’s Power initiative was mostly advocacy based. This meant writing
articles for newspapers and magazines and communicating the idea of charters to people through
speeches and discussion forums. During this phase, in 1998, People’s Power meticulously researched
6A citizen’s charter is a document that informs citizens about the service entitlements they have as users of a
public service, the standards they can expect for a service (time frame and quality), remedies available for
nonadherence to standards, and the procedures, costs and charges of a service. The citizen’s charter aims to
improve the quality of services by publishing standards that users can expect for each service they receive from
the government. Sometimes, citizens’ obligations or acts that are subject to fines are also listed. The charters
entitle users to an explanation (and in some cases compensation) if the standards are not met. If citizens are well
informed about their rights as clients of public services and about existing complaint mechanisms to voice
grievances, they can exert considerable pressure on service providers to improve their performance.
and published a citizens’ charter on various public services. The document listed the details of
services in more than 40 departments in Telugu, English, Hindi, and Urdu.
The citizens’ charter and the People’s Watch movement, a citizens’ group that organizes locally under
the auspices of People’s Power for collective, informed demand for better governance, forced the
state government to commit to releasing citizens’ charters in nine departments in 2001. The
government undertook the preparation of the following citizens’ charters in a systematic manner
through consultations with stakeholders, training of staff and officials, and publicity and awareness
raising among citizens:
• Andhra Pradesh Road Transport Corporation
• Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Board
• Transport Department
• Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Works and Sewerage Board
• Employment exchanges
• Commercial Taxes Department
• Stamps and Registration Department
• Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad
• Other municipalities
Objectives
The citizens’ charter is the basis for citizens to be able to assert their rights locally, and the intent is
for the government to publish such charters as a legal entitlement to citizens. The basic premise of
People’s Power was that the charters are a means to empower citizens with knowledge to enable them
to wade through the thicket of regulations and procedures.
People’s Power focuses on increasing people’s awareness of citizens’ charters by providing them with
information and encouraging them to expect and demand better services from the government. It also
provides citizens with information about broader issues of good governance and public accountability
tools, and provides basic training in successfully employing techniques of collective and informed
participation. To this end, People’s Power has provided training for citizens in various districts and
towns in the state. As of May 2005, People’s Power had conducted two-day training sessions in all 23
districts of the state of Andhra Pradesh, with 25 to 40 people being trained in each district. In this
manner, a total of 79,089 people received training.
Citizens invited to the training events are typically active, public-spirited citizens committed to
improving the lives of people in their communities. Representatives from reputable, local NGOs and
CSOs also participate. The participants are encouraged to undertake participatory activities that
showcase the use of accountability tools, such as citizens’ charters, to improve public service delivery
by various government entities. People’s Power helps these groups so that their efforts can be
replicated or scaled up. The activities in various districts begin on completion of training.
People’s Power also plays an active role in propagating citizens’ charters across the state. People’s
Power provides the advocacy and mobilizes people as its contribution to the overall campaign to
educate citizens about the use of citizens’ charters. Through its primary approach of advocacy,
People’s Power has reached out to groups as diverse as grassroots communities, ordinary
(disempowered) citizens, parliamentarians, political parties, and the media. The People’s charter for
public services was prepared in collaboration with the public, academics, former civil servants,
government officials, and the media. The print media in particular have played a key role in
disseminating advocacy articles and information about People’s Power publications. People’s Power
pays particular attention to its media advocacy, conducting training and sensitization programs for
journalists.
People’s Power’s activities are aimed at grassroots communities, ordinary citizens, parliamentarians,
political parties, and the media. People’s Power’s campaign mobilized citizens with the objective of
exerting public pressure on the government to introduce citizens’ charters in various government
departments. Once charters have been introduced, People’s Power trains and empowers citizens to
ensure proper implementation of the charters by demanding better service from public agencies.
People’s Power has about 100,000 active members across the state, but it estimates that some 10 to 15
percent of the state’s population of 75 million recognize and support People’s Power’s campaigns.
The members have formed nearly 3,000 primary units (at the village and municipal ward level), 520
intermediate units (at the subdistrict and municipal level), and district-level units in all 23 districts of
Andhra Pradesh. Active members of People’s Power democratically elect all office holders and
executive-level functionaries. A group of elected delegates from across the state functions as the
state-level apex body.
Resources
People’s Power relies heavily on its pool of trained human resources, and to this end has trained more
than 10,000 young people in the techniques of citizen assertion. This movement for accountability is a
solution-oriented and inclusive approach strengthened by the involvement of various segments of
society.
As the first phase of the activity was focused on advocacy, the only real cost involved was the
printing of a booklet. A significant component of the second phase (training and advocacy) consists
of voluntary efforts by People’s Power members and supporters. It supplements this support through
donations and from the sale of its publications. People’s Power accepts donations from Indian
citizens, particularly overseas Indians, and such donations are tax deductible. People’s Power has
cooperated extensively with the Center for Good Governance (CGG) in carrying out the citizens’
charter initiative. The CGG has borne the expenses of organizing the training courses at each venue.
People’s Power has identified the following constraints to its campaigns as key challenges:
• The low levels of education and lack of access to information among the target group of
citizens
• The low levels of collective action, resulting mainly from people’s lack of awareness of their
rights
• The low levels of accountability and transparency among civil servants that are compounded
by excessive and opaque discretionary power often built on obsolete laws and rules, which
results in pervasive corruption and an utter disregard for citizens’ satisfaction, especially with
regard to public service delivery
• A relatively high degree of centralization of government structures
• The few or no avenues for interaction between citizens and government officials
• The enduring legacy of the colonial and socialist past, resulting in government officials
generally being viewed as dispensers of patronage and citizens as recipients of such
patronage
• The lack, until recently, of specific accountability instruments, such as the right to
information and citizen’s charters.
Outputs
The systematic campaign spearheaded by People’s Power resulted in the preparation of a
comprehensive citizens’ charter for municipalities in Andhra Pradesh. People’s Power was involved
in drafting and disseminating the municipal charter, which applies to more than 40 common public
services and is being implemented by more than 100 municipalities in the state. The unique feature of
this charter was that it provided for compensation of Rs 50 per day of delay in services, the first such
instance in India. Experience has shown that the compensation clause, which stipulates that
compensation has to be recovered from the salary of the employee at fault, has been properly
implemented.
In addition, People’s Power has worked with the government to formulate citizens’ charters for
village local government. Under the present three-tier system of local governance in India, the village
local government is the lowest unit of local governance. The village charters also incorporate a
compensation clause, whereby compensation of Rs 10 per day of delay is to be paid to the user of a
service.
However, village local government charters have not proven to be as effective as the municipal
charter. A number of reasons account for this, such as the fact that these charters do not cover all the
services provided by village local governments. The primary reason, however, is people’s low level
of awareness about the charters’ existence and their implications. Most Indians have become attuned
to a system whereby they expect to pay bribes to access even the most basic services from a
government department or functionary, and the concept of being compensated for inadequate service
has yet to sink in. Another reason suggested by People’s Power is that ordinary citizens might lack
the confidence or the capacity to demand the compensation they are due.
As a result of media coverage of People’s Power and the CGG’s activities, the Andhra Pradesh
government constituted a committee consisting of CSO representatives to review the implementation
of charters in each department. Each month the committee conducts a poll to obtain feedback from
citizens about services and their satisfaction with services.
The following lessons have been learned from the citizens’ charter initiative:
• Informed, peaceful, and collective action by citizens is a powerful tool for improving
accountability on the part of service providers.
• Citizens’ charters and similar initiatives work well only when they are designed and
implemented with an appropriate degree of citizen and employee involvement.
• Citizens’ charters work well only when they include a meaningful mechanism for
compensating citizens for poor service.
Citizens’ charters are tools to help solve accountability problems pertaining to service delivery at the
local level, but fundamental governance reforms are needed for more basic, systemic improvements
in the overall social accountability framework.
Citizens’ charters are now an integral part of governance in Andhra Pradesh. The initiative led to the
establishment of citizens’ charters in 9 government departments by 2001, and today there are more
than 700 charters in various government departments in Andhra Pradesh and across India. The
citizens’ charters have been institutionalized by means of the following approaches and activities:
• People’s Power works on the premise of collective and informed demand by citizens. To this
end it provides training to community-based organizations and collaborates with other CSOs
and the media to facilitate greater citizen involvement. People’s Power also conducts
neighborhood-level training programs. The CGG’s role focuses on training government
officials and sensitizing them to these issues.
• People’s Power makes a conscious effort to include various segments of the population in its
training programs. After a training program, participants are expected to take the initiative
forward in their respective fields of expertise with guidance from People’s Power.
• People’s Power undertakes the advocacy and mobilization part of the overall campaign,
whereas the CGG provides technical, research, and documentation inputs. The CGG prepares
the citizens’ charters for departments, along with contact information for officials in the
departments. By providing information and educating citizens on charters, People’s Power
and organizations such as the CGG act as catalysts and guide other organizations in the
effective implementation of charters.
There is potential for this initiative to be further scaled up. People’s Power is planning to expand its
activities by strengthening redress and compensation mechanisms in citizens’ charters. The
prerequisites for scaling up include the following:
• Persuading the government to draft and implement charters for all government departments
• Having greater citizen involvement during the charter preparation and implementation stages
• Creating awareness among citizens on their rights and responsibilities and the need to make
use of the charters
• Factoring in supply constraints
Sources: Carter 2004; Centre for Good Governance 2004; Thampi and Paul 2000; Web site of
People’s Power (http://www.loksatta.org).
Monitoring by Public Watchdogs
An increasingly vigilant civil society is critiquing, monitoring, and contesting the role of the state and
its institutions in shaping and controlling the contours of governance.
SOCIAL AUDITS, COMMUNITY INFORMATION AND EPIDEMIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGIES,
PAKISTAN
Even though Pakistan has had evidence-based monitoring initiatives since 1995, genuine
opportunities for institutionalizing these approaches received a boost with the devolution of power to
local governments that commenced in 2000. In an effort to improve both governance and democracy,
the government of Pakistan, through its National Reconstruction Bureau, introduced a major initiative
by launching a new local government system whereby authority and decision-making capacity were
devolved to lower levels of government and to communities. The new system replaced one that had
been in place in more or less the same form since the 1800s. Elections of office holders at the new
decentralized levels (union, subdistrict, and district) took place in 2001.
The reform is intended to improve access to public services; to encourage the sustainability of local
development initiatives; and to augment the public sector’s resources through community
mobilization of resources, increased transparency, and reduced leakage of resources out of the
system. The reform combines devolution of political power and functions, decentralization of
administrative authority, redistribution of resources, and introduction of checks and balances. The
new governance framework envisages the empowerment of citizens through officially recognized
citizen community boards (CCBs) and enhanced representation by means of elections for the three
tiers of local government. Members of the public set up CCBs to monitor service provision and
government projects. In addition, CCBs must undertake their own projects with a 20 percent
contribution from the public and 80 percent from the relevant local government.
To enhance the reliability of institutional data and to monitor the working of the new governance
framework, the government has set up the National Reconstruction Information Management System.
However, this new system has no scope or mandate to capture citizens’ concerns and priorities
effectively, because the formal system includes only those people who have access to services. People
who do not use government health clinics, schools, or police stations are not part of the system, yet
they are often the most disadvantaged members of society and those most in need of the services.
This problem could only be addressed by a district-level survey process designed to include the most
vulnerable groups. The skills to undertake such a process are currently not available at the district
level, and stand-alone, externally managed monitoring mechanisms run the risk of encountering
resistance or neglecting local sensitivities, resulting in a lack of ownership of the results. The stage
was thus set for a community-driven and owned monitoring process. One such process was the social
audit.
A social audit aims to make organizations more accountable for the social objectives they declare.
Characterizing an audit as social does not mean that it does not examine costs and finances: its central
concern is how resources are used to achieve social objectives, including how resources can be better
mobilized to meet those objectives. Social audits involve more than just examining internal records,
but include the experience of the people the organization or service is intended to serve.
Organizations that engage in the social audit process convey the message that they are serious about
accountability, equity, effectiveness, and value for money. In addition, social audits strengthen a
community’s voice, not only by allowing people to express their views through surveys, but through
formal mechanisms of participation in interpreting evidence and developing solutions. The entire
process builds capacities at national and local levels, both in community organizations and among
service providers.
The CIET is an international group of professionals from a variety of disciplines, including
epidemiology, medicine, planning, communication, and the social sciences, who bring scientific
research methods to communities. By involving local communities in information gathering and
analysis, the CIET helps them participate in decisions that affect their lives. Through both formal and
on-the-job training over a series of reiterative survey cycles, the CIET shares its collective skills and
methods with national, regional, and local planners to help develop information systems for local
stakeholders and build indigenous capacities for evidence-based planning and action. The evidence
that the CIET helps gather is of a kind that shows where changes can be made and the likely impact
of such changes.
In 2001, the UNDP in Pakistan, the UNDP Participatory Action Research to Advance Governance
Options and Networks Regional Governance Program, and the United Nations Educational,
Scientific, and Cultural Organization provided funding for Community Monitoring of Public Services
and Human Rights in Pakistan Project, a pilot social audit project in 10 districts covering more than
10,000 households. The funding was provided to the Devolution Trust for Community
Empowerment, a NGO tasked by the government of Pakistan to empower local communities and
build their capacity for better local governance according to Local Government Ordinance 2001. The
trust contracted Community Information and Epidemiological Technologies (CIET) to monitor the
effects of the governance devolution on the delivery of public services and on local governance.7 The
intent was to establish the feasibility of the process and a basis for extending more in-depth social
audits to the whole country.
A 10-district pilot of the social audit was undertaken in 2001, and data collection for a full baseline
survey of all the remaining districts was undertaken in 2002. In addition to the 2002 household
interviews of 57,321 households, information was also collected from 751 school principals; 310
heads of government health facilities; and 757 union magistrates, deputy magistrates, and councilors.
Some 14 percent of households in the survey were categorized as very vulnerable based on house
construction, room occupancy, and occupation of the main breadwinner. About half the household
respondents were women. The field teams constructed a basic community profile for each sample
community. Preliminary findings from each district were discussed in focus groups divided by gender
at the survey sites: a total of 374 male and 365 female focus groups.
In 2002, the Canadian International Development Agency provided funding for the Local Tools for
Governance and Community Monitoring in Pakistan Project for CCBs, whereby the CIET extended
the collection of baseline social audit data to all remaining districts in Pakistan. Detailed work to
establish the social audit process at the district and subdistrict levels was undertaken in one focus
district. The findings from the 10 pilot districts, combined with those from the remaining districts
covered in 2002, provided a baseline for the national social audit 2004–09. The lessons learned about
establishing the process at the district level in the focus district have been applied in extending the
district social audit to all districts.
The most recent national social audit in 2005 surveyed 53,960 households (representing information
on 424,841 people) in 430 representative communities. Key informant interviews were also carried
out with district-level service providers, government and elected officials in 110 districts, and
provincial-level key informants. Data collected included information about citizen participation;
citizens’ satisfaction with and perception of subnational government actors; and citizens’ access to
and satisfaction with basic municipal, police, and court services.
Objectives
The objectives of the CIET’s social audits are as follows:
• Improve public services through evidence-based planning
• Build capacities at various levels (local community groups, local government) for collecting,
analyzing, and using information to plan and implement priority improvements in key public
services
7 The CIET was founded as the Tropical Disease Research Center in Mexico in 1985. In February 1994, when
the CIET registered as a nonprofit NGO based in New York, it changed its name to Community Information
and Epidemiological Technologies to reflect the broader application of epidemiological methods to research
areas beyond the health field, but in South Africa and Europe, the CIET is known as Community Information,
Empowerment, and Transparency. The Canadian branch of the CIET conducted the social audits in Pakistan.
• Improve governance through increased citizen participation in planning and monitoring
services
The concept of the social audit is simple: collect information about public services from the intended
beneficiaries and from service providers, and use this as a basis for involving the public and service
providers in making changes to improve the services. Following generation of the baseline, the social
audit process has the following three distinct phases:
• Design and data collection. The strategic focus was clarified and the instruments were
designed and pilot tested. Information was collected from households and key informants
using a panel of people from representative communities. Households were asked about their
use and perceptions of and experience with public services.
• Evidence-based dialogue and analysis. Data gathered from households was then linked with
information gathered from public service providers. On this basis, an analysis was undertaken
in a way that indicated which actions might improve matters. These findings were then taken
back to the communities to elicit their ideas for improving the services. Finally, community
representatives were brought face to face with service providers and planners to discuss the
evidence and findings and to consider changes.
• “Socialization.” The evidence for public accountability is presented through workshops, a
communications plan, evidence-based training of planners and service providers, training for
members of the media, and partnerships with civil society.
The loop was closed by repeating the fact-finding exercise to assess changes and their effects.
An important feature of the CIET’s social audit methods is a baseline survey: a combination of
quantitative and qualitative data collected from the same locations on the same issues. This kind of
survey allows qualitative data to be used to give context to quantitative findings during the analysis.
Therefore the following different instruments were designed and used for the social audit’s baseline
survey:
• Household questionnaire. The main instrument for collecting quantitative data, this was
divided into several sections. A general section covered house construction and demographics
of the household members, including the education and occupation of the main breadwinner.
A section on public services enquired about perceptions of, use of, and experience with water
supply, health, education, police, and court services. In 2002, a section about overall
satisfaction with a range of public services was added and the subsection about primary
education revised for clarity. A section about local government examined intent to vote or
voting in the union council elections (some communities were surveyed just before the 2001
elections, some just after) and expectations about the new councils. In 2002, the questions
about voting were made more specific and questions about contacts with the new union
councilors were added. A section on community participation asked about membership in
voluntary groups and knowledge about CCBs. It then provided brief information about CCBs
and asked about respondents’ willingness to participate as CCB members.
• Community profile questionnaire. This instrument collected information about features of the
community that could be relevant to the use of and experience with public services, such as
the types and locations of health and education facilities, the arrangements for disposal of
garbage, and the availability of radio, newspapers, and community-based organizations. This
instrument was completed in discussion with a community leader who was contacted when
the field team entered the community to conduct the household survey. The community
profile instrument was refined for the 2002 survey to more adequately cover issues that could
be linked to responses to the household questionnaire.
• Key informant interview schedules with service providers. These instruments were used to
collect information from school principals and heads of health facilities about their facilities.
In addition, some sections were completed based on observations the interviewers made in
the facilities. The information included issues likely to be relevant to the level of use by and
to the experience of service users. For schools, the information included class size; staff-pupil
ratios; and the availability of facilities such as electricity and water supply, classroom
furniture and equipment, toilets, and boundary walls. For health facilities the information
included staffing levels, official fees, complaint systems, health education arrangements, and
observations.
• Key informant interview schedules with union councilors. In communities surveyed before
the 2001 union council elections, a community elder or a candidate standing for election to
the union council was interviewed. In the districts surveyed after the 2001 elections and in all
the remaining districts surveyed in 2002, members of the new union councils were
interviewed. In 2002, an attempt was made to interview the union magistrate or union deputy
magistrate in all the union councils covered by the survey (at least four per district), as well
as another council member, preferably a female council member. The interview schedule,
which was revised for the 2002 survey, included questions about priority problems in the
union council, information needs of council members, members’ methods of seeking the
views of citizens, financial support issues, and knowledge about and views regarding CCBs
and their formation among union council members.
• Focus group guides. The focus group guides are not questionnaires, but topic guides intended
to ensure that discussions are focused and to share findings. The guides for the feedback
focus groups were therefore developed once basic analysis of the household surveys had been
undertaken. For the focus groups in each district, the relevant findings from that district were
included in the guide. The focus group discussions in the main 2002 survey covered priority
public service problems, potential for CCBs in the community, difficulties inherent in setting
up CCBs and suggestions for how CCBs could work effectively, satisfaction with health
services and how CCBs could monitor health services, whether the police made people feel
safe, and how citizens could monitor the police.
In 2001, Pakistan’s new local government system allowed public participation in decision making.
Following the devolution process, the government entrusted the Devolution Trust for Community
Empowerment to empower local communities and ensure their participation in the development
process by facilitating the formation of CCBs. Funded by multilateral and bilateral donors and tasked
by the Devolution Trust for Community Empowerment and the National Reconstruction Bureau to be
the main government counterpart at the federal level, the CIET developed social audits to benefit
local governments and local communities. Thus the main stakeholders in social audits have been the
central government, donor agencies, the CIET, CCBs, civil society, union councils, local
governments, and communities.
Resources
The social audit projects for monitoring the impact of devolution on the delivery of public services
have been funded by a number of donors, including the UNDP; the Swiss Agency for Cooperation
and Development; the government of Norway; the U.K. Department for International Development;
the Canadian International Development Agency; and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and
Cultural Organization. In 2003, the audit projects received a significant boost from the Swiss
government, which contributed US$1.3 million through the Swiss Agency for Development and
Cooperation. The Swiss funding covered 25 percent of the total cost of the five-year social audit
program and was channeled through the UNDP. Whether the social audits at the national level will
receive continuous funding once the donors end their program in 2009 is unclear.
The data from surveys conducted by the CIET since 2001 represent powerful and pioneer information
about citizens’ perceptions of the delivery of public services in Pakistan. Despite the overall success
and impact of the social audits, several weaknesses have not allowed for full utilization of the
findings, namely the following:
• Lack of communication. Report dissemination, awareness raising, and information sharing
with the main stakeholders, civil society groups, and government agencies were insufficient.
The lack of outreach to a wider audience resulted in limited policy dialogue, data comparison,
and analysis of findings between 2002 and 2005.
• Lack of local ownership. No local counterpart has yet been identified for continuing the social
audits after the 2004–09 program ends. The reasons lie in the complex nature of the CIET
technology and in the scarcity of workshops and training for local partners.
• Lack of coordination with other data gathering exercises. Even though other agencies are
conducting a number of national surveys, collaboration between the research organizations in
relation to the coordination and exchange of data is limited.
Outputs
Although it is too early to see extensive improvements in the delivery of public services that can be
attributed to the results of social audits, local governments do seem to have changed how they
approach development planning in terms of assessing priorities and matching them with individual
requests, and the CIET has begun to document the correlations between improved governance and the
impact of social audits. Nevertheless, the CIET has had several tangible outputs resulting from social
audits as follows:
• Establishing credible benchmarks. The pilot district project revealed that only 23 percent of
households were satisfied with the government’s health services, 45 percent were dissatisfied
with the available services, and 32 percent said they had no access to the government’s public
health services. Urban residents tended to be more satisfied than rural residents. The survey
also asked where people obtained medical care: 31 percent reported going to public health
facilities, 47 percent availed themselves of private services, 21 percent sought care from
unqualified private practitioners, and 1 percent sought care from NGOs. The utilization
pattern differed across Pakistan’s three provinces.
• Building local capacity. To help build a solid base of skills in social audit methods and
evidence-based planning, the CIET has begun to conduct a series of eight-week intensive
courses in evidence-based planning for local government staff to enable them to use the
social audits for planning purposes. The first such course in Asia was conducted in January
2005 and the second took place in September 2005.
• Engaging the media. Another important component of the CIET approach is the development
of relationships with local and international media. By packaging the evidence to provide
concise, newsworthy copy, major issues make for engaging reading and ensure ongoing
coverage. Involving key stakeholders in the research also means that in many ways the
“research is the message” and has the potential to change people’s perceptions and actions.
The pilot district project on devolution led to social audits every year for five years with the objective
of tracking citizens’ views of and experiences with public services and monitoring the improvement
in public service delivery under devolution in all districts.
Following the first and second national social audits in 2002 and 2004–05, respectively, findings have
been widely discussed with the public, civil society, service providers, planners, and policy makers.
Social audits provide a means for citizens to have a say in district and subdistrict planning and
support evidence-based planning at the district level. To help engage citizens in local planning and to
support evidence-based planning, the CIET is implementing district social audits in five focus
districts. The CIET helps district governments prepare development plans that incorporate the
findings of the social audits, with a focus on health services and child nutrition. The social audit
scheme in selected focus districts is part of the strategy for ensuring the sustainability of the social
audit process whereby the five focus districts will serve as a test case for developing tools for
implementing detailed social audits in other districts.
Data collection for the first social audit cycle in each focus district was completed in early 2005.
Community focus groups to discuss key findings took place in June and July 2005. The first social
audit report with a focus on preventive child health for the Khanewal district was published in
February 2006 and revealed valuable findings, such as the low use of government health services and
the high use of unqualified practitioners for treating diarrhea and acute respiratory infections, both of
which are prevalent among children.
A 10-district pilot in 2001 was expanded into the baseline social audit in 2002. This led to the fiveyear
social audit of governance and the delivery of public services. During 2004–09, the national
social audit will be repeated in alternate years to track progress under devolution and to inform
policy.
Sources: CIET Pakistan and National Reconstruction Bureau 2003, 2005; CIET, December 18, 2003,
press release (http://www.ciet.org/www/image/press/press-media_101803_swisspak.html); Web site
of CIET Pakistan (http://www.ciet.org/www/image/country/pakistan.html): Web site of the National
Reconstruction Bureau (http://www.nrb.gov.pk/publications/LG_Final_Plan_2000.pdf).
CITIZEN MONITORING OF INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS, ABRA, THE PHILIPPINES
The need to monitor public works arose as a result of the systemic corruption in the Philippines,
which is rooted in its history and manifest in its institutions. Despite changes of government over the
years, corruption and a lack of accountability to the people has continued. The country ranked 102nd
out of 145 countries in Transparency International’s 2004 corruption perception index, indicating
rampant corruption.
Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good Government (CCAGG) was founded in February 1986 with the
objective of monitoring public spending and raising political awareness in local communities. The
initial members of CCAGG came from an election watchdog group, the National Movement for Free
Elections, whose members decided to reorganize themselves into CCAGG after observing the need to
monitor public expenditures. The group rallied around the issue of roads in Abra, a neglected and
isolated region. This was an emotional issue as much as a rational one, for without roads, the region’s
agricultural produce could not be taken to markets. The impetus for CCAGG’s monitoring work came
from a news article that listed 20 completed public infrastructure projects in the region. CCAGG
decided to verify the information, and in the process exposed discrepancies and anomalies in the
government’s reports. CCAGG’s report eventually led to the suspension of 11 government engineers.
CCAGG focuses specifically on development projects and public expenditures in the Abra region
with a view to enhancing public participation in development processes and bringing accountability
tools, such as social auditing, closer to the people.
In 1987, the Philippine government implemented the Community Employment and Development
Program under the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA). The program allotted
small projects to communities and employed the projects’ beneficiaries to augment their incomes. It
also involved CSOs in monitoring project implementation. This relationship was formalized through
a memorandum of agreement signed by NEDA, the Ministry of Budget and Management, and
CCAGG. In 2000, CCAGG was one of two organizations chosen to participate in the first
participatory audit project sponsored by the UNDP. The pilot involved monitoring the Community
Employment and Development Program.
Objectives
The key objectives of CCAGG are as follows:
• Organize communities and create a sense of citizenship
• Establish permanent structures for regular and direct consultation with the public on their
needs, problems, and interests
• Deal effectively with government agencies to ensure that the public’s interests are on the
political agenda
• Monitor government projects to ensure that funds meant for the projects are judiciously used
and that projects’ plans and specifications are followed
• Undertake projects aimed at improving people’s socioeconomic and political conditions
CCAGG conducted its first expenditure monitoring exercise in 1987. The project to come to its
attention was the Community Employment and Development Program, President Corazon Aquino’s
investment plan for infrastructure aimed at boosting the economy. Following training sessions by
NEDA on monitoring, CCAGG organized the project beneficiaries and transferred the monitoring
technology to them. The underlying force behind the movement was active participation by the
people. The monitoring unearthed anomalies such as “ghost” projects and incomplete works. The
government acted on CCAGG’s findings and conducted an investigation. The public works officials
accused of corruption were found guilty and suspended from office for four to nine months without
pay. The unqualified success of the activity ensured that the activity was repeated for subsequent
projects.
In 2000, the UNDP and the Philippine Commission on Audit (COA) held the first-ever participatory
audit of a local government in the Philippines using CCAGG as the NGO partner. Unlike regular
audits that simply stressed compliance with rules and regulations, this audit added the concept of
value for money, where community members assessed the actual benefits derived from the public
expenditures. The intent was that NEDA and other oversight agencies would use the results of the
participatory audit for planning purposes.
All CCAGG activities are participatory in nature. The infrastructure monitoring initiative is extremely
inclusive, as monitoring teams are composed of the beneficiaries of the projects being investigated.
As regards the participatory audit, the name of the initiative suggests the vital role of citizen
participation. The social validation part of the audit provides a promising venue for community
members from poor and marginalized families, many of them women, to participate. Their views and
concerns about a project are solicited during informal community meetings or household interviews.
CCAGG also ensures sustained community participation by organizing people into village monitoring
and evaluation teams. CCAGG provides regular training to these groups, and communication and
interaction between them and CCAGG is ongoing to ensure sustained participation.
Monitoring infrastructure is CCAGG’s “signature” activity. It uses the following procedures in
conducting its infrastructure monitoring activities. It begins by formulating a monitoring work plan
and then acquires the technical profile of the project it has decided to monitor from the government
implementing agency or office. Once it has become familiar with the technical aspects of the project,
it organizes the project beneficiaries and transfers the monitoring technology to them. The monitoring
teams led by CCAGG members conduct a field visit to validate field conditions, that is, to check
actual status against baseline parameters mandated by the project documents, namely, workmanship,
quality, cost, and time. After completing the monitoring over a period of time, CCAGG compiles its
findings and releases them at a conference at which recommendations are also discussed with the
head of the implementing agency or office.
Thereafter, CCAGG collects comments and solutions for better management of the project—and of
other projects—and incorporates these into a final report, drawing on its members’ multidisciplinary
academic, practical, and technical expertise. The final monitoring report is disseminated to the
pertinent communities. CCAGG also uses the media for broad dissemination of its findings during its
monitoring of government projects.
In the beginning, the activities of CCAGG spawned negative reactions from government agencies and
some members of the private sector. One member was killed at the height of its monitoring activity.
CCAGG members received anonymous threatening calls and faced a hostile reception during field
visits. They were also offered bribes, but refused them. Despite such intimidation, CCAGG members
continued with their work.
In relation to CCAGG’s participatory audit work, CCAGG was selected as the CSO partner
organization for the Enhancing the Public Accountability Program of the Philippine COA through
Participatory Audits with CSOs Project, which was supported by the UNDP. The project piloted the
involvement of CSOs in an attempt to address the increasing demand for transparency and
accountability through greater citizen participation in auditing government services. The success of
the project challenged the mind-set of government officials by demonstrating that citizen groups have
the technical skills, could be unbiased, and could work in partnership with the government. However,
the incoming chair of the COA was initially resistant to involving civil society in a function that
required accounting expertise.
Participatory audits proceed as follows. CSOs are selected, trained, and deputed as members of an
audit team. The audit team is formed on a per audit activity basis, meaning that it is dissolved after
the specific audit activity has been completed. The overall terms and conditions covering the CSO
audit activity are spelled out in a memorandum of agreement signed by the COA and the CSO.
The focus of the participatory audit is value for money, a systematic evaluation of the agency’s
objective and how this was achieved through programs, projects, and activities. During a participatory
audit, project beneficiaries evaluate the effectiveness of a project. The audit process documents
project information and observations and recommends productive implementation of project
activities. The participatory audit was pilot tested in 23 road projects in Abra province and the COA
judged it as very successful.
CCAGG primarily reaches out to the citizens of Abra province, the government, and the media and to
other NGOs. Initially, however, the monitoring evoked suspicion and resentment among officials and
field staff in Abra, who were unused to being questioned by lay people. Some contractors even tried
to bribe CCAGG members. Slowly, as CCAGG’s activities gained credibility, it developed allies
within the government, especially at the national level.
CCAGG has been able to forge strong links with various government departments, including NEDA,
the Department of Budget and Management, and the COA. In addition, as noted previously, CCAGG
is one of two NGO partners for the UNDP’s participatory audit program. Both the COA and the
UNDP have acknowledged the role of CCAGG in conducting focused and efficient audits.
CCAGG also partners with the mass media for information dissemination purposes. The media are
crucial in spreading the word about the results of CCAGG’s investigations and in helping influence
public opinion. CCAGG has gained national recognition in the Philippines and its reports attract
national media attention.
Echoes (Allangungan) is CCAGG’s weekly, primetime radio program that is broadcast every Sunday
and rebroadcast on Wednesdays. The coverage area is wide, reaching four provinces. Once CCAGG
receives the list of projects implemented in Abra, it goes on the air to disseminate details of the
projects, such as the costs, the agencies implementing the projects, and the manner of
implementation. The radio program has been one of CCAGG’s most effective tools for information
dissemination and advocacy.
Resources
CCAGG has five full-time monitoring staff, including engineers and accountants, but depends on
voluntary contributions of time and labor. CCAGG deliberately avoided applying for grants or funds
for a long time, as it did not want to compromise its independence. The UNDP recently stepped in to
provide funding for its participatory monitoring program.
The participatory audit tool has the following limitations:
• During the initial meetings before the conduct of the participatory audit, the COA stressed a
need to uphold the confidentiality of reports and to avoid premature disclosure of audit results
to parties who were not involved in the audit process. Although CCAGG resisted this
strongly on the grounds of probity and transparency, it finally had to comply with the
standard auditing procedures and processes followed by the COA.
• Participating NGOs such as CCAGG must provide counterpart expenses. These consist of the
operational expenses of the office in undertaking the day-to-day activities of the audit
engagement, such as electricity, telephone calls, and production of draft reports.
• Only the COA reviews and finalizes the findings of the NGO partner, which is CCAGG in
this case.
• Capacity still needs to be improved for both the government (in relation to community
organizing and the social aspect of monitoring) and CCAGG (in relation to auditing skills).
Outputs
The following outputs resulted from the infrastructure monitoring:
• Unearthing corruption. The government audit teams investigated CCAGG’s initial
complaints and filed administrative cases against 11 public works engineers. Although
politicians tried to step in and intervene on their behalf, other CSOs supported the cause
while the cases were being prosecuted. Eventually, the accused were found guilty and
suspended from office for a period ranging from four to nine months without pay.
• Prosecuting inept officials. Another example concerns the Sinalang Detour Bridge. The
bridge was completed in 1996 at a cost of P8.26 million. It was hastily built and in the end
was never used because of errors in the engineering design. To add fuel to the controversy, a
flash flood destroyed the bridge in 1997, unleashing a public outcry. CCAGG pushed for
government agencies to investigate the matter, and NEDA, the Department of Public Works
and Highways, and the COA sent in teams. CCAGG was not satisfied with the response of
the Department of Public Works and Highways, following which the COA recommended the
prosecution of certain Department of Public Works and Highways personnel.
• Improving infrastructure. A visible impact of CCAGG’s work is greater accessibility to
remote areas as a result of roads, bridges, and so on. Children are now able to go home every
day after school instead of once a week.
• Saving scarce government resources. CCAGG’s vigilance has saved scarce government
resources from graft and corruption. Early detection of technical flaws in projects has resulted
in collaborative correction of the projects, thereby saving millions of pesos. One example is
the project for laying gravel on the Abra–Kalinga Road, where CCAGG identified the gravel
as coming from a location close to the project site and not 51 kilometers away as required in
the plans. The savings amounted to millions of pesos. CCAGG reported the matter, and an
investigation by the government corroborated its findings. The contractor was ordered to use
local gravel, thereby saving scarce government resources. CCAGG has also “rescued” a
number of projects with faulty designs, such as the irrigation system in the municipality of
Tubo. In addition, CCAGG closely monitors tenders for bids, leaving little scope for
tampering. “Ghost” projects no longer exist in Abra province.
• Reducing graft and corruption. CCAGG’s monitoring activities have checked the systemic
corruption in the region. Government officials have become quite cautious in case they end
up being “CCAGGed,” a new slang term for having one’s misdeeds exposed.
• Changing the attitude of government officials. Attitudes among local officials in relation to
CCAGG have shifted from strong resistance to cooperation, and these officials now use
CCAGG’s assessment reports as one of the bases for the release of government funds. That
is, CCAGG’s work has become part of the system.
In general, the project succeeded in creating a more transparent, accountable, and participatory
environment. Furthermore, the agencies being audited were more comfortable in the knowledge that
members of the audit team were residents of the area. Accountability was highlighted, because area
residents monitored the results. The sense of community was heightened, as the project brought
citizens together to work for a common goal. Lastly, the exercise built up citizen empowerment, as
residents could use their new knowledge as a weapon against corruption.
Institutionalization has been manifested in the creation of links with the government and with NGO
networks. As concerns the former, CCAGG’s relationship with the government has undergone a
marked change: the initial resentment and threat perception gave way to grudging, and then open,
support. CCAGG even began to receive insider information from well-wishers in the government.
CCAGG’s monitoring work has always been aided by other government agencies, such as NEDA and
the Department of Budget and Management, in terms of data and training. The government has duly
recognized CCAGG’s role in bringing about greater accountability and transparency in public works.
President Aquino gave CCAGG a presidential citation for outstanding community service.
CCAGG’s activities have been firmly embedded in the structure of the state. As mentioned earlier, it
became a partner NGO of the UNDP and the COA for the first participatory audit of a local
government in the country. After its first audit, the Ministry of Public Works and Highways in Ilocos,
one of 17 regions in the Philippines, made CCAGG monitoring reports a requirement before projects
were paid for. Members of CCAGG were also appointed as observers in the Prebid and Awards
Committee, in which they participated as volunteers. Partnerships with CSOs are one of the
prioritized reform measures identified in the COA’s framework and strategy for reform.
CCAGG has realized the importance of creating and fostering networks and is already part of several
NGO networks, such as the Transparency and Accountability Network. In 2003, the Northern Luzon
Coalition for Good Governance, a network of mainly parish-based social action groups, was
established. CCAGG is at the helm of this alliance, which encompasses a much wider geographical
area than just Abra and northern Luzon. CCAGG has realized the importance of being part of national
transparency networks, as directly lobbying the central government is extremely time-consuming.
The COA published a book on participatory audits to help institutionalize them.
Citizen monitoring of infrastructure projects has been replicated in a number of provinces, in some
cases with assistance and inputs from CCAGG. The participatory audit process was successfully
replicated in Mountain province, Samar, and Camarines Norte. CCAGG’s participation in the audit
process contributed to sound fiscal management and good governance. To build capacity among
NGOs interested in conducting this activity, CCAGG members act as resource persons, providing
training on the theory and practical aspects of monitoring. They also teach the NGOs how to write
reports, make presentations, and so on. CCAGG is currently developing a monitoring manual to give
lay people the knowledge to undertake project monitoring. CCAGG now has a presence in 15 of the
79 provinces in the Philippines.
Sources: Batalla 2000; Philippine Commission on Audit and UNDP 2002; Transparency International
2005.
TEXTBOOK COUNT PROGRAM, THE PHILIPPINES
The Textbook Count Program was an effort to check widespread corruption in textbook procurement
in the Philippines. The shortage of textbooks in many public schools had reached an alarming ratio of
one textbook for every five students.
With the objective of achieving a ratio of one textbook per subject for each student, the Education
Department undertook two projects: the Second Social Expenditure Management Project and the
Third Elementary Education Procurement Project. These 2003 World Bank-supported projects aimed
to deliver 37 million textbooks directly to elementary and secondary school students in all public
schools in the country at a total procurement cost of P1.3 billion (US$23 million). However, the
specter of rampant corruption compelled the Department of Education to seek civil society
participation by approaching the Government Watch project of the Ateneo School of Government to
organize and coordinate the CSO’s monitoring activities and ensure corruption-free textbook
delivery. Opinion surveys conducted before the launch of the program revealed that the Department
of Education was considered to be one of the most corrupt government departments.
In 2003, the Department of Education was to deliver textbooks and teachers’ manuals for all 10 years
of elementary and secondary education to 5,500 delivery points nationwide. To address previous
delivery problems, the Department of Education initiated the Textbook Count Program: National
Monitoring of Textbook Delivery. The department needed involvement of the CSO monitors in three
main phases of the program: the bidding process, book production (quantity and quality), and book
delivery to high schools and districts.
Government Watch served as the national coordinator of the CSOs. The former was a logical choice,
because it had been set up in 2000 as a corruption prevention project to track public expenditures and
monitor the implementation of government programs. Government Watch addressed the Textbook
Count Program’s initial limitations of monitoring only as far as zone and division levels by extending
the monitoring to the district level. Government Watch monitored the onward delivery of 263,771
textbooks from 15 districts to 155 elementary schools in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
As the textbook count project was nationwide, Government Watch faced a scarcity of resources
(human, financial, and technical) to actually perform the count across the country and asked for help
from other CSOs. Given the extensive experience of the National Movement for Free Elections
(NAMFREL) with election monitoring and its dispersion of volunteers across the country, it fit the
needs of the count.
NAMFREL is a nonpartisan, nationwide organization of individuals and civic, religious, professional,
business, labor, educational, youth, and nongovernmental groups that work for free and honest
elections in the Philippines, but the network also involves itself in other activities during nonelection
years. Currently NAMFREL has more than 250,000 individual members and more than 1,500
volunteers in various provinces.
Later on, the Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts of the Philippines took the lead in mobilizing volunteers
for textbook counts. The involvement of young people and children was a significant asset to the
initiative, given their presence in every school.
During the first textbook count in 2003 and two consecutive counts in 2004 and 2005, 52 million
textbooks worth P2 billion (US$40 million) going to 4,844–7,499 delivery points were tracked.
Objectives
The objectives of the initiative are to fight corruption, solve previous problems with textbooks
delivery, and eliminate alleged irregularities in textbooks quality and quantity by engaging parentteacher
associations and NGOs in monitoring the bidding process, undertaking quality control,
overseeing deliveries, and helping districts distribute the textbooks to schools.
The Textbook Count Program brought together several CSOs, including NGOs, whose role was to
help the Department of Education monitor the timely delivery of the correct number of textbooks to
districts and high schools. The program supervised the suppliers’ delivery schedules at the zone,
division, high school, and district levels and introduced a mechanism for on-the-spot monitoring and
inspection of textbooks at all delivery locations. The program involved CSOs with nationwide
networks to ensure coverage, and NAMFREL, which had chapters nationwide, took the lead in
mobilizing volunteers.
A press conference was held to formally launch the Textbook Count Program. NAMFREL and the
other NGOs advertised the initiative in the main newspapers and on the radio. The consortium printed
posters containing information on the delivery schedules for each region and division.
CSO participation in the predelivery phase included observing the bidding process and the
negotiations between winning suppliers and the Department of Education. With the objective of
injecting transparency into the entire process, the program printed the complete list of schools and
districts that would receive new books and the corresponding number of copies they would receive in
leading daily newspapers. Groups monitored the terms of and schedules for delivery and inspected the
printing, binding, and packaging of textbooks in warehouses.
The delivery phase involved monitoring deliveries on site and documenting the delivery process.
CSOs observed whether deadlines were being met, the condition of the delivered goods, and the
accuracy of the book counts. They also asked citizens residing in localities near schools to monitor
whether schools received the intended number of copies.
The postdelivery phase included a postevaluation workshop organized by the Philippine Governance
Forum with support from the Asia Foundation. Stakeholders such as the Department of Education and
suppliers participated in the workshop. The workshop included presentations by the stakeholders,
followed by discussions on the key issues that had arisen during the first round of the program. The
discussion examined such concerns as storage, damage to textbooks, sufficiency of supply, and
relevance of textbook content. Participants were also asked to formulate recommendations for
improving the process.
Two innovations that were part of the third textbook count stood out as unique contributions to the
anticorruption effort, particularly in relation to transparency. The first innovation was making
children and young people important and effective contributors to the initiative. The second
innovation was using the logistical strength of the private sector to address the textbook distribution
problem by using the Coca-Cola truck distributors’ network and an education advocacy group to
reach schools located in far-off villages.
Since the launching of the Textbook Count Program in 2003, the number of partners and stakeholders
has grown each year. The main stakeholders remain the Department of Education, Government
Watch as the national coordinator, parent-teacher associations, pupils, and CSOs. In the third
Textbook Count, the CSOs’ participation was formalized with the signing of a commitment of
support and cooperation letter between the Department of Education and the consortium of CSOs. In
addition, the Education Department signed separate memorandums of agreement with Coca-Cola
Bottlers Philippines, Inc. and the Community Development Initiative for the distribution of textbooks
in remote areas. The 2005 textbook count was undertaken in partnership with volunteers from the
Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of the Philippines; Coca Cola Bottlers; the Community Development
Initiative; and numerous members of the consortium of NGOs, including NAMFREL.
Resources
When the Department of Education decided to fight against rising corruption and improve textbook
distribution, it not only lacked the personnel to effectively monitor all deliveries, but also sufficient
funding for monitoring activities. The extent of nationwide distribution required the help of a
consortium of CSOs that were able and willing to volunteer their participation. The
Asia Foundation provided funds for coordinating the work, conducting briefings, processing
documents, evaluating the first two rounds of the Textbook Count Program, and undertaking an
institutionalization study. The Partnership for Transparency supported the coordination work and the
evaluation.
Government Watch raised two important questions on completion of the third round of the Textbook
Count Program. The first question was whether civil society could continuously bear the cost of
participating in the program. The second was how long citizens would be willing to volunteer to help
maintain government transparency and accountability. These questions remain open.
The postevaluation workshop helped identify numerous problems and challenges, namely:
• Relationships between the CSO monitors and Department of Education officials were
strained. The latter tended to be defensive when asked about defects in books; for example,
about 100,000 textbooks were found to have weak bindings and the publisher had to repair
them.
• Printing delays occurred because of a lack of paper.
• Difficulties encountered during the delivery phase included inspections not being thorough
and meticulous; for example, in some cases, the delivery and acceptance receipts were signed
without counting the books or checking their quality, or the suppliers took the lead in the
counting and quality inspection.
• Certain suppliers failed to meet their deadlines or to observe their delivery schedules. They
also seemed to lack a sense of responsibility in that they did not handle the books with care,
as a result of which many books were damaged. A number of delivery service providers
refused to deliver books to schools that were not easily accessible.
• In the postdelivery phase, the main problem was a lack of adequate and secure storage areas
at the district level, which again resulted in books being damaged.
• District offices of the Department of Education did not follow a policy of uniform textbook
distribution for their schools, despite a rule that states that the bigger a school’s enrollment,
the larger the share of textbooks it is to receive.
• Monitors noted gaps in the quality of books, as certain schools felt that textbook content did
not fit their needs.
• Some schools could not cope with the policy encouraging multiple titles to promote
competition in textbook production. The policy assumed that teachers had the necessary skills
to handle multiple titles. Many teachers, already burdened with huge classes found that
multiple titles made teaching more complicated and learning more difficult. They opted to
stick to one title, leaving the other books unused.
Outputs
Although the content of textbooks did not meet the requirements of all students, the student-textbook
ratio did improve. For the first time, by November 2003, the entire procurement of 37 million
textbooks was carried out in 12 months, compared with 24 months as in the past. In addition, the
average price per book fell from P90 pesos to P41 pesos because of more transparent procurement
procedures, resulting in government savings of P68.5 million (US$1.4 million), which had previously
been lost due to corruption-based inefficiencies. The quality of textbook printing and binding has
improved. Delivery errors decreased to as low as 5 percent on average.
Public opinion about the level of corruption in the Department of Education shifted perceptibly. A
2002 survey by the Social Weather Stations indicated that respondents believed that the Department
of Education was one of the five most corrupt government agencies. However, another survey carried
out in 2003 found that people now viewed the Department of Education as one of the five agencies
doing the most to address corruption.
The recommendations of the postevaluation workshop, including developing user-friendly
information about the program, creating grievance mechanisms, and conducting training programs
and stakeholder meetings, were given top priority when the Department of Education planned the
second Textbook Count Project. For example, in response to the Government Watch report, the
Department of Education issued a directive on proper use of the textbook distribution fund.
The second textbook count, which took place from November 2003 to November 2004, was a
continuing project of the Department of Education. With the monitoring support of CSOs, the
program supervised the delivery of 14 million textbooks and teachers’ manuals to 2,158 districts and
5,498 high schools across the country. The 18 members of the CSO consortium included a wide range
of local, national, and international organizations. The responsibilities of the CSOs included drafting
a code of conduct for warehouse inspectors, sending representatives for warehouse inspections, and
submitting reports on the outputs of the inspections. The Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts of the
Philippines served as provincial coordinators of the monitoring project.
The third textbook count took place from April 2005 to June 2006, under which 1.3 million textbooks
were delivered to 42,000 public schools. By this time, the consortium of CSOs had 34 members. The
network was strengthened by help from the private sector. Government Watch and the Department of
Education planned to launch the fourth textbook count in November 2006. Government Watch is also
planning an additional component tentatively called the Textbook Walk to take place in January 2007.
This component will include simultaneous events nationwide at which local officials from the
Department of Education and community volunteers will gather to walk and bring books to
elementary schools. Participation by the Coca-Cola Company is anticipated. The aim of the textbook
walk is to address district offices’ failure to deliver to elementary schools, especially those in remote
villages.
According to Government Watch, the biggest and most difficult challenge is the program’s
institutionalization. The element proposed for institutionalization is the management of the various
volunteer groups that monitor bidding and textbook quality and delivery. To pursue
institutionalization, Government Watch organized focus group discussions with pertinent officials
from the Department of Education and CSOs. The focus groups included their recommendations in a
memorandum entitled “Institutionalizing NGO and Private Sector Participation in the Department’s
Procurement Process” and proposed it to the Department of Education. The memorandum expands
the coverage of CSO participation to all other department procurement, such as school buildings,
furniture, and nutrition program items. Feedback from the department’s management has been
positive and the department is expected to sign the memorandum soon.
The design and implementation of the Textbook Count Program was successful in that it was not
designed to solve all the problems of the Department of Education, but to test a template for civil
society monitoring of projects. It had a visible impact on reducing textbook-related corruption,
proving that with simple templates and simple objectives, citizens can monitor government
performance and influence government policies and programs. The monitoring template is currently
being used by other CSOs engaged in a national monitoring initiative known as the Coalition against
Corruption.
The Textbook Count Program has shown that the following ingredients are key to the success of
monitoring projects in the Philippines: (a) the development of simple templates; (b) the desire on the
part of CSOs to work with government agencies in the design of templates; and (c) a nonjudgmental
approach by CSOs in making their findings known. This approach has yielded positive responses
among government agencies, especially when reformists within the government are identified and
their cooperation is ensured. The program’s ability to develop relationships with government agencies
responsible for prosecuting cases of corruption gave the project the clout and the influence to do what
it needed to do and to let the appropriate agency follow through on its findings.
Sources: Government Watch 2005, 2006; Ramos 2003; Visayan Daily Star 2004; Tolentino 2004;
Web site of the Department of Education of the Republic of the Philippines (http://www.deped.gov.
ph/posts.asp?dp=58); Web site of NAMFREL (http://namfrel.zamboanga.ph/index.php); Web site of
the Partnership for Transparency Fund (http://www.partnershipfortransparency.info/index.html); Web
site of Procurement Watch (http://www.procurementwatch.org.ph/index.htm); Web site of the
Transparency and Accountability Network (http://www.tan.org.ph/files/home.asp); Web site of
Transparent Accountable Governance (http://www.tag.org.ph/cac/textbook.htm).
NATIONAL CITIZEN OMBUDSMEN LIAISON COUNCIL, JAPAN
Japan’s local governments have long been plagued by widespread corruption, including bribery of
senior public officials, misuse of public funds, and massive expenditures on white elephant public
works projects whose primary purpose is to benefit large construction companies and politicians
rather than the public. The National Citizen Ombudsmen Liaison Council (NCOLC) is a network of
(at this writing) 84 separate citizen organizations located across Japan that have joined forces in a
coordinated effort to fight this corruption by seeking greater transparency in government, especially
in relation to the expenditure of public funds.
The NCOLC was created in a spontaneous response to the disclosure of one of the biggest
investigations into government corruption in Japan’s modern history. When a handful of public
interest lawyers appeared at Sendai City Hall in June 1993 to request information about spending on
entertainment by Mayor Toru Ishii, they were startled to discover that Ishii had been arrested on the
very day they had first filed their request for information. (Sendai is a city of more than 1 million
people in northern Japan.) Before Ishii’s arrest, many rumors of corruption had attracted the lawyers’
interest. The final outcome was that the mayor was charged and convicted of collecting huge bribes
from Japan’s major general contractors in connection with bid rigging for public works projects in the
Sendai area.
Mayor Ishii was not alone. Prosecutors would soon arrest and convict the governors of two
prefectures (equivalent to provinces or states), and the chairs, presidents, and other officers of several
major general contracting companies. These cases show that the process for procuring works funded
by taxes is thoroughly corrupt. Japan’s giant construction companies have long been accustomed to
bribing officials to obtain confidential budget information concerning public works projects and then
subverting the bidding process by secretly agreeing on inflated bids in advance and deciding the
winner of each bid themselves.
The arrest of the mayor and his cohorts inspired the Sendai lawyers to continue their search for
incriminating documents, and they commenced a practice of filing a request for information about
officials’ entertainment expenses every month. This led to startling results: they would identify
reports of millions of dollars in questionable entertainment expenses. The regular scrutiny by these
volunteer lawyers and the after-effects of the Ishii scandal had an immediate impact, in that the
entertainment expenses suddenly dropped off.
Flush with the initial success of their venture, the Sendai lawyers contacted other lawyers across the
country and explained how their group had dug into officials’ expense accounts. Attorneys in Osaka,
Nagoya, and elsewhere shared their concerns and participated in the first national meeting of socalled
citizen ombudsmen in July 1994. This led to the formation of the NCOLC. Since 1994, the
NCOLC has continually applied Japan’s freedom of information laws and other tools in its efforts to
eliminate corruption in government.
Objectives
To formalize the creation of its national network and to make a clear declaration of its objectives and
modes of operation, the NCOLC adopted a charter. Article 2 of this charter states that its purpose is
“to conduct surveillance of improper and unfair acts concerning national and local public bodies, and
to exchange information and experiences among citizen ombudsmen and conduct joint research and
other activities with the objective of correcting such improper and unfair activities” (translated by
Repeta 1999).
“Improper and unfair activities” refers to wasting public resources and to corruption. Since the initial
investigation into excessive use of public funds for entertainment, the ombudsmen have expanded
their range of targets to include activities such as the following:
• Bid rigging in public works projects
• Reimbursement for fraudulent expense requests
• Moribund official “audit” committees made up of retired government officials and their
cronies
• Contracts for public services issued to private companies
• Secret and unaccountable police funds (intended to pay informers and to be used for other
official purposes)
The citizen ombudsmen who attended the first national gathering at Nagoya in 1994 and who
continue their work today are not government officials. They have no official authority, and therefore
cannot order that information be disclosed or threaten to arrest individuals they think are breaking the
law. Nevertheless they do have some important tools and approaches at their disposal, including the
following:
• Freedom of information rules. The most important tool is the law pertaining to freedom of
information. Japan’s local governments began adopting freedom of information rules in the
mid-1980s and all major local governments had such rules in place by the time the NCOLC
network was founded in 1994. This is an especially flexible and practical tool that enables the
NCOLC and others to request the release of any information in the government’s possession.
• Annual coordinated filing. Japan is divided into 47 separate administrative districts
(prefectures). Japanese law empowers each prefecture to adopt local regulations to govern
government operations and other matters. Not long after the Sendai ombudsmen invited their
colleagues to the first national meeting in 1994, they hit on the idea of using the new network
to file identical requests for information at all prefecture offices on the same day to note any
differences among the government responses and to exploit such differences to push for
reform. The first such coordinated filing took place on April 25, 1995. Since then, the
NCOLC has filed identical requests for information once a year on the same day at all major
local governments, including prefecture and city governments.
• Annual transparency ranking. As the result of its coordinated requests, the NCOLC had
begun to collect a unique set of internal documents gathered from local governments
nationwide. Next it faced the question of what to do with this information. Most important,
how could it both draw attention to corrupt local governments and recognize those
governments that had adopted measures to eliminate corruption. Before long, the NCOLC hit
on the simple, but powerful, idea of publishing its own national transparency ranking,
whereby a handful of citizens would appoint themselves to pass judgment on the practices of
elected representatives. The NCOLC spent much of 1996 designing a methodology for
deciding on a meaningful ranking and the best way to disseminate it as widely as possible.
The system it devised is based on each local government’s response to information requests
filed that year, with points allocated based primarily on the scope of the information
disclosed. Each year the NCOLC appoints a committee to review the documents obtained
and, based on a list of openness factors, to determine a score for each local government. For
example, the openness factors used in the 10th annual ranking published in 2006 included the
following:
− Entertainment expenses for the chief executive
− Records concerning the selection of so-called designated contractors
− Investigative reports on the results of bidding for design contracts
− Fees paid for “policy research”
− Funds for police informers
− Minutes of the meetings of the public safety committees, which are charged with police
oversight
The NCOLC also assesses the availability of certain information (on entertainment expenses
and designated contractors) through the Internet.
• Public advocacy. Each year, the news media across the country report the annual
transparency rankings of local governments. If the ranking of a particular prefecture
government rises or falls, this is big news to that government and to the voters who elected its
chief executive. Because voters could be expected to respond warmly to high rankings, local
politicians pay close attention. Undoubtedly some take measures calculated to improve their
rankings. Wide publicity regarding the NCOLC’s activities has been an important catalyst of
recent reforms in local politics.
• Citizen suits. In addition to the information disclosure system, Japanese law provides other
tools to enforce accountability in government. One the NCOLC often uses is the citizen suit.
This empowers ordinary citizens to petition the government to seek compensation for injury
caused by corrupt officials, and in cases where the government does not act, citizens can file
suits on behalf of the government themselves. For the NCOLC, this has been an especially
important tool in the area of price fixing in public works projects. Because such price fixing
can be a criminal violation of Japan’s antitrust laws, the NCOLC can follow up on cases
where national prosecutors or the national Fair Trade Commission take regulatory action or
pursue criminal prosecutions. In a recent highly publicized case involving bid fixing in
relation to bridge construction, for example, the NCOLC filed 11 separate suits seeking the
recovery of public funds and won 5.
Because the NCOLC is a national network, it has succeeded in coordinating participation by many
small organizations, each representing a different group of citizen stakeholders, into a single national
movement. Therefore the core partners and stakeholders are lawyers and other public-spirited
citizens. The NCOLC has also spawned a sister organization, a nonprofit entity known as the Citizens
Center for Information Disclosure. The mission of the Citizens Center is to support information
requesters from across the country in using Japan’s freedom of information laws, especially to obtain
information from national government agencies.
In addition to the 84 constituent groups, their members, and citizens themselves, the most powerful
partners have been the news media. The news media are not only capable of alerting citizens to the
results of the NCOLC’s investigations, but because politicians fear a public backlash from revelations
of wrongdoing, they tend to avoid actions that will result in negative portrayals in the press.
The Constitution of Japan requires chief executives of local governments to be elected by popular
vote. If the national government appointed mayors and prefecture governors, the work of the NCOLC
would have little effect, but election of these officials has provided the opportunity for reformoriented
politicians to become key partners in the ombudsmen movement. The NCOLC highlighted
the issue of corruption, and thus helped create the opportunity for a new breed of politician to arise.
These reform-minded politicians have shown that a commitment to clean and open government and to
reductions in spending on giant public works projects can bring in votes and win elections.
The unquestioned leader in this regard is Jiro Asano, who served as governor of Miyagi Prefecture
(which encompasses the city of Sendai) from 1993 though 2001. Asano resigned his position in the
national government to run for governor when his predecessor resigned and was prosecuted for his
involvement in bid rigging. From the governor’s office, Asano encouraged the ombudsmen, ordering
his subordinates to disclose all the information they requested. In September 1996, Asana became the
first governor to prohibit all use of public funds for entertainment by public officials. When the
Sendai District Court issued a historic decision ordering the prefecture to disclose the names of all
those entertained with public money, Asano overrode the objections of prefecture officials and
instructed that the court order be enforced. Other reform-minded governors followed his lead,
creating national momentum for reform.
Resources
Although no complete roster of the members of all the organizations that constitute the NCOLC is
available, 350 to 450 people attend each annual NCOLC meeting. The NCOLC relies on dues paid by
members and financial contributions from individuals to fund its operations. It does not accept any
financial support from the government or from businesses. (It may make an exception to this rule only
for funding to support the annual meetings.)
The NCOLC maintains an office in Nagoya, and as noted earlier, also maintains an alliance with the
Citizens Center for Information Disclosure in Tokyo. However, the NCOLC’s primary resource is the
willingness of lawyers and other citizens to volunteer their time to work to achieve the NCOLC’s
ideals.
The most fundamental constraint is the small number of lawyers relative to Japan’s population. As of
late 2006, Japan had approximately 22,000 people licensed as private lawyers for a population of
approximately 120 million. The small number of lawyers means that the average person has limited
access to the legal system and that the supply of public interest lawyers who can join initiatives such
as the NCOLC is also limited. The national government has responded to continued calls to expand
the number of lawyers with a judicial reform program that is expected to increase the number of
lawyers to at least 50,000 by 2010. Meanwhile, the NCOLC remains severely shorthanded.
A second fundamental restraint is the limited availability of funding to support public interest
initiatives. Given Japan’s high taxes on wealth transfers and other factors, philanthropy is poorly
developed. Groups such as the NCOLC have a hard time raising significant funding to support their
work. As one simple illustration, the NCOLC’s office is not an independent office, but is located in
the offices of an attorney who is a leading member of the organization.
Another continuing obstacle is the entrenched position of most local governments, and especially of
the national government. Like other governments around the world, they are opposed to transparency
measures for fear they will dilute their authority and may result in revelations of illegal or
embarrassing practices. Thus the NCOLC must accept as a fact of life that governments will typically
oppose their work and the reforms they espouse.
Outputs
Despite the constraints, in the space of a few years, the NCOLC has achieved dramatic results.
Decline in Entertainment Spending and Other Wasteful Spending. The simple requests for
information initiated by the Sendai lawyers in 1993 and 1994 had a powerful effect on reducing
wasteful entertainment spending, not only in Sendai, but throughout the country. Their launch of
coordinated requests for information nationwide allowed them to gather enough information to start
compiling a national database of information disclosed from government files.
One response to a request for information revealed that local government officials had spent large
sums of money to entertain national government officials with the goal of entering into their good
graces and obtaining approvals for lavish public works spending in their home districts. Further
investigation revealed that all prefecture governments had adopted this practice. As one ombudsman
from Tokyo commented, “All local governments around Japan operate under the same national laws
and with the same administrative structure… corruption in government was not just a special product
of one local government. There may be differences of degree, but such corruption can occur
anywhere in Japan, and without a doubt, is taking place.”
Until the ombudsmen’s requests, Japanese voters had been completely ignorant of their local
officials’ use of public funds for excessive entertainment expenses. Suddenly this was a big story.
News agencies around the country competed to get the latest details on the ombudsmen’s discoveries.
Every time another instance of expensive imported wines and lavish parties at Ginza nightclubs was
revealed, another news story was born. The tale of government officials wining and dining
themselves at taxpayers’ expense seized the national imagination, and editorials condemning the
practice quickly appeared.
Reported estimates of total spending for officials’ entertainment of other officials quickly rose to
hundreds of millions of dollars per year. In reaction, the more progressive governors followed the
lead of Governor Asano of Miyagi and ostentatiously declared a ban on such spending.
New Breed of Reform Politicians. The revelations initiated by the NCOLC led to the removal of
politicians from office. Several such politicians have been replaced by a new breed of local reformminded
politicians committed to cost cutting and citizens’ interests, many of them unaffiliated with
previous practices and often unaffiliated with any political party. The most well known of this new
breed of politicians is Yasuo Tanaka, a novelist who was elected governor of Nagano prefecture in
2000, succeeding a man who had held that office for 20 years. Tanaka not only made a “no new
dams” pledge and other declarations against wasteful public spending, once he took office he moved
the governor’s office to the first floor of the prefecture building to a suite with glass walls so that any
passer-by could observe the governor at work.
The trend continues. In September 2006, a female college professor was elected governor of Shiga
prefecture based on her pledge to reduce government waste. In particular, she adopted the unheard-of
position of opposing the construction of a new station in her prefecture for Japan’s high-speed bullet
train. Other bullet train stations are located in neighboring prefectures not far away, and studies
indicated that the cost of construction would far exceed any expected benefits to the public.
New Efforts to Stop Bid Rigging in Public Works. Partly as a result of the NCOLC’s investigations
of bid rigging and citizen suits filed to recover funds lost because of inflated prices, a new consensus
regarding the lack of propriety of bid rigging developed in Japan. In addition to a series of court
judgments ordering construction companies to pay compensation, the NCOLC’s efforts have played a
role in demands for legislative reform. In 2004, the Antimonopoly Law was revised with a specific
focus on bid rigging. The law not only increased financial penalties for companies that engaged in bid
rigging, it also established an entirely new system providing for sharply reduced penalties for
companies that voluntarily came forward to disclose bid rigging to the authorities. In response to
legislative changes and public demand for changes, the chief executives of many construction
companies, including the five giant contractors that dominate the industry, have issued public pledges
that their firms will not participate in bid rigging.
The NCOLC uses its annual meetings and its management structure to ensure that the NCOLC’s
participating groups and members are satisfied that they are fully involved in moving the organization
forward.
Since the first meeting attended by 130 members in Sendai in July 1994, the NCOLC has made its
annual meeting the key focus of each year’s activities. The meeting is always held at the same time
each year and the venue is changed each year, enabling different constituent groups to serve as hosts
and enjoy ease of access to the meeting site.
The annual meeting also enables members to directly discuss issues of interest, both at general
sessions and among individuals and subgroups. The NCOLC typically announces one or more formal
resolutions to put the network on record for or against a topical issue. Such formal resolutions often
call for measures such as increasing the transparency of police spending of public funds, ceasing
unnecessary dam construction, and strengthening measures to stop bid rigging. In 2006, one
resolution called for stopping legislation that would require the losing side in litigation to pay the
attorney’s fees of the winning side.
The annual meeting also becomes the starting point of an annual cycle. Each year’s national
coordinated requests for information are filed in late November or early December. Responses from
local governments are generally received within a month. The ombudsmen are then ready to begin
their analyses and to publish a new annual transparency ranking by a few months into the following
year.
The NCOLC is managed by a board of three or four directors elected at the annual meeting.
Typically, the directors are somewhat dispersed geographically. The directors meet approximately six
times a year. The attorney whose offices in Nagoya serve as the NCOLC’s national office is the
network’s executive director and is responsible for administrative activities.
The NCOLC has subcommittees to coordinate work on specific topics. Some of the current
subcommittees focus on such issues as bid rigging, public works, outside audits, police information,
and information disclosure rankings.
Japan`s legal training system is highly centralized. Historically, the great majority of Japanese
lawyers graduate from only five universities. Wherever lawyers work, they must pass a single
nationwide examination and spend a lengthy period studying at a national training institute in Tokyo.
They must also become members of a single national federation of bar associations. Accordingly,
personal and institutional ties among lawyers are close. For this reason, the NCOLC was able to
establish a national network quickly.
However, given the small number of lawyers, large-scale expansion of the network is unlikely.
Nevertheless, the NCOLC has spawned new organizations with related purposes, including the
Citizen Center for Information Disclosure and Police Net. The latter was formed in 2006 and focuses
on monitoring police activities and seeking to eliminate the improper use of funds and other illegal
activities.
Sources: Repeta 1999; Web site of the Information Clearinghouse Japan (http://www.clearinghouse.
org/); Web site of the Information Disclosure Citizen Center (http://www.jkcc.gr.jp/); Web site
of the National Citizen Ombudsmen Liaison Council (http://www.ombudsman.jp/).
CHILDREN’S REPORT CARD SURVEYS, CHILDREN’S MOVEMENT FOR CIVIC AWARENESS,
BANGALORE, INDIA
The power of credible sources of information to mobilize public action and create informed advocacy
programs has been well documented in recent publications on governance. One such welldocumented
and globally replicated effort is the citizen report card initiative in Bangalore, India,
pioneered by the Public Affairs Centre (PAC). Anchored in the twin concepts of measurement and
comparison, citizen report cards are increasingly seen as a potent social accountability tool for
making governments, especially providers of public utilities, more responsive and accountable.
The efficiency and effectiveness of public services in a country are important determinants of the
productivity, progress, and quality of life of its people. In 1993, Bangalore, like other cities in India,
was straining under the weight of its inadequate and inefficient public services. A number of factors
contributed to this, most notably, the administrative and political constraints under which public
agencies operated, coupled with the rapid expansion of urban areas without a corresponding
expansion of resources. In addition, widespread corruption, abuse of discretion, and inadequate
oversight and corrective actions by the government contributed to the deterioration of public services.
The lack of organized and collective action by citizens, civil society, and the media combined to stifle
public service agencies’ responsiveness to the public and their motivation to improve services even
within the limits of their available resources.
Over the past 10 years, citizen report cards have been replicated, scaled up, and adapted in various
settings across the world. The report card model has been applied to such diverse issues as the quality
of health care services in public hospitals, the delivery of education in government schools, the public
distribution system, the impact of information technology, and the impact of economic liberalization
on small and medium industries.
Scope and Description of the Intervention
One unique adaptation of the citizen report card is the children’s report card survey, which is
conducted by children each year in Bangalore. Members of the Children’s Movement for Civic
Awareness (CMCA) have conducted report cards on civic issues in Bangalore, beginning with the
roads survey in 2000.
Launched in 14 schools in Bangalore in 2000 as a small initiative to foster civic and environmental
consciousness among children, the CMCA has since instituted civic clubs in more than 180 schools in
Bangalore, Bidar, Hubli Dharwad, and Mumbai. Since its inception, more than 7,000 children have
been engaged in civic and environmental activities.
A survey on the theme of the year is an annual CMCA feature, whereby civic club members become
field investigators and interview adults in their areas of residence. The survey assesses the public’s
awareness of the issue and elicits their opinions. The findings are compiled, analyzed, and presented
in the form of a report card at a public function to which officials of various service agencies,
celebrities, and the media are invited. Over the years, civic club members have undertaken a variety
of report cards or surveys as follows:
• Roads survey (2000–01). This was the first children’s survey and was conducted as part of
PAC’s civic awareness summer camps, in which 28 schools in Bangalore participated. The
objective was to enable children to assess the quality of roads in Bangalore. In all, 23 roads,
including 15 main roads and 8 crossroads, in the areas around four civil awareness camps
were chosen for the survey. The roads survey complemented work by PAC’s Citizen Panel
examining the quality of roads in Bangalore and took place the same year PAC released its
Guide to Monitoring the Quality of Road Works, an attempt to demystify the process of road
works and enable citizens to hold the government accountable for the poor quality of roads in
Bangalore. The survey methodology was visual observations based on a checklist of various
components of about 300 meters of each road. Each road was surveyed by a team of four
students age 12 to 14, led by a trained volunteer. The children were first briefed on the need
to drain water from roads to maintain their quality using a three-dimensional model that
showed the various components of a typical urban road. The CMCA survey revealed such
deficiencies as ineffective drainage systems, unusable footpaths, and many potholes. The
children presented their findings to the municipal commissioner of Bangalore at a public
function that made headlines in local newspapers, demonstrating the value of this kind of
intervention in attracting media attention. The outcome was that the municipal commissioner
instructed his officials to take immediate steps to upgrade the roads covered in the survey.
• Polythene bag survey (2001–02). This survey of people’s practices and their awareness of the
environmental hazards caused by polythene bags also aimed to assess how much citizens
were willing to reduce the use of plastic bags and cups.
• Water survey (2002–03). This survey of people’s awareness about water conservation, access
to water, and quality of water in Bangalore was also intended to throw light on patterns of
water consumption in the city.
• Garbage survey (2003–04). This survey looked at public awareness of and waste
management practices in Bangalore. It aimed to assess the level and quality of access to
garbage disposal facilities (door-to-door collection service) and the extent of ongoing waste
minimization efforts at the household level.
• Tree survey (2004–05). This survey looked at people’s opinions and awareness of greenery in
the city. It was complemented by a group called the Investigation Brigade, which sought to
draw the attention of key stakeholders to the decline in greenery and to seek their views on
this decline.
Objectives
The main aim of the CMCA is to educate and actively engage young people in the process of
reclaiming civic virtues and citizenship and complement the ongoing efforts of CSOs. The objectives
of the children’s report cards were as follows:
• To enhance both children’s and citizens’ awareness of an issue
• To shape children’s perspectives on an issue
• To provide a conduit for children’s outreach to the community
• To build the interpersonal and analytical skills of civic club members
• To initiate advocacy to improve public services through social accountability and
transparency
• To raise people’s levels of awareness
• To influence people’s opinions about a particular issue
PAC’s citizen report cards are an aggregate of public ratings of different aspects of service quality
built on scientific random sample surveys of users of different public services (utilities) in a city. The
specific aspects addressed in a typical citizen report card survey include availability of service, level
of use, satisfaction, service standards, major problems with the service, effectiveness of grievance
redress systems, corruption encountered, and other hidden costs borne by citizens because of poor
service.
The children’s survey is usually completed over three weeks in October–November. A typical citizen
report card study is organized along the following lines:
• Designing the questionnaire for the survey. The CMCA team designs the questionnaire,
which usually contains 15 to 20 questions. The questionnaire is then translated into the local
language. The field survey is entirely administered by children.
• Identifying the sample for the survey. The sample of respondents is chosen based on
geographic proximity to the school and the children’s place of residence. Given the wide
spread of civic clubs across the city, the sample covers a cross-section of neighborhoods in
Bangalore. As children conduct the field investigations, their safety and convenience are
accorded top priority in the design of the survey; therefore the sampling cannot be based
strictly on rigorous statistical principles. Thus caution must be exercised when generalizing
the findings of the survey.
• Training and orienting survey enumerators. Before each survey, CMCA resource persons
train volunteers, who in turn orient the children about the issue and explain the objectives of
the survey and how to conduct the interviews. Volunteers then supervise the conduct of the
survey.
• Conducting the survey. Pairs of students interview, on average, five households and three
commercial establishments (shops, offices, nursing homes, schools, restaurants, and so on) in
their locality. At the end of the interview, each respondent is given a pamphlet to fulfill the
objective of enhancing citizens’ awareness about the issue in question. The children also
carry posters with them and have generally succeeded in convincing the owners of
commercial establishments to put up the posters at their premises. On average, 2,000
households and commercial establishments are interviewed.
• Analyzing the data. Formats for data entry are provided to each civic club and the relevant
CMCA representative and civic club members compile the data. Data from all the civic clubs
are then consolidated and analyzed.
• Presenting the findings. The children themselves present the findings at a public gathering
with stakeholders present. The public event is usually well attended by the print and
electronic media, which disseminate the findings widely for two reasons: (a) the unique
nature of the initiative in that children are the main and most visible actors, and (b) the
pressing nature of the issue itself.
• Undertaking advocacy with the government. The CMCA elicits promises from stakeholders,
mainly various government departments, pertaining to the findings of its survey, and
thereafter follows up on these assurances. In this way, it exerts influence on policy and on
official decision making.
The CMCA draws inspiration and support from a wide range of stakeholders and partners as follows:
• PAC and Swabhimana. The CMCA is the brainchild of these two organizations. PAC is an
NGO dedicated to improving the quality of governance and Swabhimana is a coalition of
CSOs whose vision is to make Bangalore a cleaner, greener, and safer place to live.
• Volunteers. Volunteers are the backbone of the CMCA and its success depends on the quality
of the facilitation and leadership they provide.
• Past and present civic club members and other students. The civic consciousness of club
members is transmitted to other children in their schools, to their family members, to their
neighborhoods, and across the city, resulting in increased civic awareness. The CMCA terms
this the ripple effect.
• School staff and management and teacher coordinators. Teachers are an important link
between the CMCA and school management. Teacher coordinators are involved in all stages
and activities of the CMCA.
• Parents of civic club members. Parents play a vital role in encouraging their children and are
also targets of the ripple effect.
• Community-based organizations. Community-based organizations in Bangalore are kept
abreast of the CMCA’s activities and are highly appreciative of such activities.
• Officials of government agencies. Children visit government officials during the survey to get
their feedback on the issue at hand. They later present the findings of the survey to officials at
the public function, and thereafter visit them to resolve problems revealed by the report card
findings.
Resources
PAC and a number of corporate entities provide financial support for the CMCA’s activities. In terms
of human resources, the PAC research team provides technical assistance in conducting the survey,
from designing the questionnaire to analyzing the data. The CMCA also gets inputs from subject
experts when designing the questionnaire.
Although highly innovative in nature, the children’s report card surveys faced some methodological
and operational constraints and problems, namely the following:
• The need to assure the safety of the children conducting the survey affected the statistical
rigor with which random samples were selected.
• The response of those interviewed was generally encouraging, but in some cases children had
to face relatively uncooperative respondents, which affected the children’s enthusiasm.
Outputs
The media have played a major role in creating awareness of the children’s report cards and
sensitizing the public through the prominent publicity given to survey findings by the main
newspapers. The quantification of information and the novelty of the method used are, in part,
responsible for this response.
The children’s report card studies have brought to light a wide range of issues, both quantitative and
qualitative, and sent strong signals to public service providers. The use of a rating scale permitted
respondents to quantify the extent of their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with public services, and
quantification and rankings demand attention in a way that anecdotal data do not. They focus
attention on specific agencies and services that can be embarrassing to those in charge because of the
adverse publicity generated.
While not all issues highlighted by the surveys have had the desired impacts, some of the report cards
have had significant results. For example, the 2000 roads survey resulted in action by the Bangalore
City Corporation and the 2001 survey of the use of the plastic bags resulted in decisive action by the
Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, which banned the use of certain types of polythene bags.
The uniqueness of the initiative and the professionalism and sincerity with which children conduct the
surveys has made it easier for the CMCA to obtain corporate funds. Corporations believe in the cause,
and with children as major actors in the initiative, are willing to sponsor CMCA activities.
The initiative has also provided the participating children with a unique set of skills. Not only do the
children enjoy participating in the survey, but eventually the CMCA plans to have the children
themselves design the questionnaire, conduct a preliminary analysis, and present the report cards.
Currently, the CMCA has not forged institutional linkages with other programs and networks, but it is
making a conscious effort to build such linkages with the aim of maximizing its impact.
Since its inception, the CMCA has considerably expanded its scope of work. The CMCA has also
recently made its presence felt in schools outside Bangalore with the initiation of civic clubs in 10
schools in Mumbai in 2004. In 2005, the commissioner of the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation
contacted the CMCA with the intention of initiating a CMCA program in Hubli (a municipality in
Karnataka). With technical assistance from the CMCA, the commissioner planned to start 122 civic
clubs during the 2006–07 academic year.
Sources: Das 2004; Paul 2002; Paul and Sekhar 2000; PAC and Swabhimana 2000, 2001; Sekhar and
Shah 2006.
Other Initiatives
Given their innovative and unorthodox character, the following case studies do not fit into the
previously defined thematic areas. Nevertheless, they are both strong examples of social
accountability tools. The first initiative used public advocacy tools and campaigns to improve the
electoral process, thereby enhancing citizens’ elementary tool for holding politicians accountable: that
is, voting. The second study deals with the growing phenomenon of innovations in information and
communications technology and their potential impact on improvements in relation to the
transparency and accountability of public service delivery.
ELECTORAL INTERVENTIONS, PUBLIC AFFAIRS CENTRE, BANGALORE, INDIA
In a democracy, the quality of governance is greatly influenced by its political institutions, processes,
and leaders. In India, where elected representatives are the key architects of development in their
respective constituencies, improvements in the quality of electoral processes are reflected in
important improvements in the quality of governance. Improving the quality of elections is therefore
crucial for effective policy making, development planning, and policy implementation.
The past few decades have witnessed rapid deterioration in India’s democratic way of life. Across the
country, democratic processes and institutions have come to be characterized by a lack of
transparency and accountability. Abuses of money and power, an increasing number of elected
representatives with criminal records, and asymmetrical information flows, along with a rise in castebased
political mobilization, have frustrated voters and alienated citizens from the electoral system.
People attribute the ills plaguing Indian society to those in power, namely, politicians and the
bureaucracy, while others point to apathetic, indifferent, and illiterate citizens as the root cause of the
problem. At the same time, political institutions seldom reflect the mandate of the people, and
therefore lack legitimacy.
In this context in 1996, PAC sought to intervene in the electoral arena to increase citizen involvement
and interest and to stimulate informed choices in the selection of candidates. Since then, a number of
civil society groups have sought greater involvement of citizens in the electoral process. This effort
has encompassed a series of programs, ranging from cleansing the electoral rolls to studying the
backgrounds of candidates and disseminating the information, undertaking advocacy with political
parties against nominating people with criminal backgrounds, and launching motivation campaigns to
increase voter turnout. The impact of these initiatives is partly reflected in reforms pertaining to
various electoral issues and problems over the last five years.
PAC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of governance in India that
focuses on areas in which the public can play a proactive role. PAC has almost a decade of experience
in the area of electoral reforms. Its interventions have led it to believe that any improvement in the
quality of governance depends on a corresponding improvement in the quality of elected leaders.
With the humble beginning of a small but proactive citizens’ initiative to stimulate informed choices
during municipal elections in Bangalore in 1996, PAC has continuously striven to enhance
transparency, accountability, and citizen participation in electoral processes. PAC’s campaigns in
collaboration with citizens’ groups and other NGOs have endeavored to stimulate informed choices in
parliamentary, assembly, urban local body, and village government (panchayat) elections.
PAC has initiated several national and regional campaigns, both independently and by networking
with like-minded organizations. Dissemination of relevant information, application of innovative
tools, and creative use of the media have been some of the key strategies used. Over time, a marked
change has been noted in the responses of concerned officials, and many administrative reforms have
also taken place to make the electoral system more citizen-friendly. The electoral interventions have
made some difference to the lives of citizens of Bangalore and other parts of Karnataka, and have
encouraged groups across the state and the country to undertake similar initiatives.
Objectives
PAC’s main objectives are as follows:
• To enhance transparency and accountability in the electoral process
• To enable voters to make informed choices
• To enhance citizen participation during revisions of electoral rolls
• To increase voter turnout at the polls
• To secure the rights of voters
• To promote the free and fair conduct of elections
PAC’s electoral initiatives draw on a wide range of public advocacy tools. The following paragraphs
present some examples of PAC’s campaigns.
Know Your Candidate Program and Informed Choices. Over the years, PAC has endeavored to give
people informed choices during elections. PAC partners with leading daily newspapers and residents’
welfare associations to disseminate information about candidates to voters. When PAC initiated its
first experiment in 1996, no provision existed for candidates to disclose information about
themselves. PAC initiated an innovative exercise, the first in the country, during the 11th
parliamentary elections in Karnataka, when it collaborated with the Deccan Herald, a leading
English-language daily newspaper, to collect and disseminate information from candidates belonging
to the major political parties. After reporters collected details from candidates regarding their
educational and criminal backgrounds, plans, and priorities, PAC analyzed the data and the media
publicized it. The exercise highlighted the importance of transparency with respect to disclosure by
candidates running for office. The campaign received a boost with a landmark Supreme Court verdict
in 2003 that made it mandatory for candidates to declare their criminal antecedents, assets and
liabilities, and educational qualifications at the time of filing nomination papers. The court’s verdict
itself was a result of intense civil society advocacy under the banner of the National Campaign for
Electoral Reforms, in which PAC participated.
Campaign during the Revision of Electoral Rolls. PAC supports the Election Commission of
Karnataka during the yearly summary revision of electoral rolls.8 The summary revision, which is
conducted simultaneously across the country, aims to provide citizens with an opportunity to include
their names on the list of voters and exercise their fundamental right to vote. Before elections, during
the summary revision, the names of eligible voters are publicized in designated public offices for
citizens to ascertain whether their names have been omitted. Unfortunately, lack of adequate publicity
and coordinated efforts by the Election Commission and the Bangalore City Corporation has resulted
in consistently poor turnout during summary revisions. Immediately before the parliamentary
elections in 1998, media reports pointed to a large-scale omission of names from the electoral rolls.
Against this background, PAC undertook to assist the authorities in publicizing the summary revision
of electoral rolls and the need for people to verify that their names were on the rolls. PAC effectively
harnessed the media and other networks, such as residents’ welfare associations, to disseminate
information regarding the summary revision. During the summary revision of 2003, PAC partnered
with NGOs and radio stations in six cities across the country to organize awareness campaigns by
disseminating leaflets translated into local languages. PAC’s campaigns also facilitate the redress of
grievances by means of telephone help lines. PAC identifies volunteers in various towns and cities in
Karnataka, who are then supplied with information kits that contain details about the summary
revisions, important dates, locations, and similar information to help them effectively staff the help
lines. Residents’ welfare associations supported by PAC have also verified discrepancies in the list of
voters. In 2001, PAC launched a campaign to inform the public about the verification and to give
them information about how to participate. Armed with information kits provided by PAC, residents’
welfare associations conducted random verifications in their localities. Groups reported several
discrepancies on the rolls, such as the names of deceased persons, which were reported to the relevant
authorities.
Voter Awareness and Motivation Campaign. PAC has observed that low voter turnout in urban areas
is directly linked to lack of information about the electoral process. An inadequate flow of
information to citizens, together with an indifferent bureaucracy, has, to a large extent, resulted in an
apathetic urban middle class. PAC’s voter motivation campaigns have targeted this segment of the
population in particular. PAC has partnered with residents’ welfare associations, cable television
networks, radio stations, industry and business associations, and advertising agencies to conduct a
program aimed at motivating citizens, especially those in urban areas, to “go out and vote” and to
educate them on the need to prevent fraudulent votes from being cast. Such campaigns have also
focused on initiating dialogue with the major political parties to pressure them into selecting honest
and competent candidates. PAC launched a massive campaign during the 2004 parliamentary and
state legislative elections. The theme of the campaign was “Vote Today, Don’t Curse Tomorrow,”
developed by a leading advertising firm. A nationwide media campaign was launched and a series of
promotional spots featuring celebrities were aired on national and regional television channels and
radio broadcasting networks. Mass e-mailing through industry and business associations reached
more than 3,500 companies.
8 A summary revision is a process aimed at providing citizens with an opportunity to include their
names on the voters list. The Election Commission of India conducts this periodical revision to
update the rolls once a year or just before any elections. This is also an occasion for citizens to object
to the inclusion of names of nonresidents and the deceased, to correct personal details, and to make
changes with regard to transpositions.
Capacity Building for CSOs. PAC has developed resource kits on elections for urban and rural local
bodies as a guide to help NGOs educate, sensitize, and motivate people to vote. The kits contain
information on how to conduct various electoral campaigns and PAC resource persons use the kits in
their training programs. This kind of training and orientation on elections has generated immense
interest across the state. In July 2003, the State Election Commission of Karnataka extended the
disclosure law to local government elections, thereby joining the handful of states that took a
proactive stance on voluntary disclosure at the grassroots level. The elections to village local
governments in Karnataka in February–March 2005 gave PAC an opportunity to work in rural areas
for the first time. With the objective of enhancing the quality of local government polls and
promoting informed participation by voters, PAC embarked on a four-pronged campaign for effective
local governance. This involved (a) training local civil society groups in several districts on how to
verify electoral rolls; (b) scrutinizing the affidavits of candidates; (c) training candidates, especially
women, how to file their nomination papers; and (d) organizing public meetings at which candidates
declared their past achievements and their future plans for a particular village. The program met with
an enthusiastic response from villagers and CSOs.
Public Advocacy. PAC has made use of a variety of means for its dissemination efforts as follows:
• Newspapers. Leading dailies like the Deccan Herald and the Times of India have supported
the informed choices campaigns. Before the Supreme Court ruling, reporters collected
information from candidates and disseminated the analyses conducted by PAC. English and
local-language newspapers have carried the information leaflets about candidates compiled
by PAC during election campaigns.
• Film. PAC’s film, “Choose the Right Councillor Programme,” made during the Bangalore
City Corporation elections in 1996, was shown to interested groups across the country. The
film has been used as an effective advocacy aid to help citizens make informed choices
during elections and to encourage organized groups to undertake similar efforts.
• Cable television, radio, Web sites, and mass e-mails. PAC has used these means to motivate
and inform citizens on how to register to vote and how to vote. Radio stations such as Radio
City 91 FM in Bangalore and Radio Mirchi in Mumbai, and popular Web sites like
Indiatimes and Microsoft Network India have supported numerous campaigns by publicizing
the help line or the PAC Web site. Mass e-mails through industry and business associations
have also conveyed PAC’s messages to thousands of companies.
• Street theater. During the special summary revision of the voters’ list in 2004, PAC engaged
the services of Somepoorna, a group of young software professionals who dabble in street
theater. The group conducted a street play in prominent locations in Bangalore to motivate
young people to participate in the electoral process.
Partner organizations were resident welfare associations in the city, Swabhimana, city-based cable
television and radio networks, corporate networks and e-groups, and advertising agencies. PAC’s
campaigns have targeted two main groups of stakeholders: (a) voters, especially young people; and
(b) officials responsible for managing the electoral process.
Resources
Agencies such as the National Foundation of India and the Ford Foundation have provided funding
for PAC’s electoral interventions. In addition, corporations have provided many services for free, as
have television and radio networks and Web sites. Advertising and public relations agencies and
production houses have either heavily reduced their fees or supported campaigns at no charge.
As concerns human resources, PAC’s core team consists of a small number of full-time staff
members. In addition, campaigns rely heavily on a pool of volunteers, usually members of residents’
welfare associations and various CSOs. Volunteers help PAC staff with a variety of tasks ranging
from disseminating information leaflets to coordinating with election authorities in their respective
localities, conducting exit polls, verifying voter lists, and organizing face-to-face meetings with
candidates.
PAC’s electoral interventions face some critical challenges and constraints, namely:
• Difficulty in scaling up. Given the magnitude of the influences working against PAC’s
interests, scaling up is an uphill task and civil society efforts are a drop in the ocean. At times
the messages conveyed by CSOs tend to get lost in the deluge of propaganda by political
parties.
• Lack of resources. Although campaigns are resource intensive, donors may not be willing to
provide resources for them. Much time and effort is required to convince them to donate
funds, as the results of the campaign are not immediately visible, and neither are the outputs
always tangible.
• Slow and not inclusive poll reform process. The low level of involvement by the public is a
major cause of the current state of affairs. Citizens’ apathy can be attributed to the fact that
more often than not, politicians, once elected, cease to act as representatives of the people
that elected them. Moreover, elections do not appeal to people as much as more tangible
issues, for example, children’s rights.
• Lack of research on the complex patterns of voters’ behavior. Multifarious influences make it
difficult to determine voting patterns.
• Candidates’ wariness of the information dissemination campaign. Elections in India have
traditionally been fought on the basis of caste loyalties rather than informed choice. The right
to information in elections is an extremely recent phenomenon, which has the potential to
change the nature of politics. Not everyone has welcomed the attempt by NGOs to
disseminate information about candidates, some of which could harm their prospects. During
the 2003 elections in Mahadevpura, a small municipality on the outskirts of Bangalore, PAC
staff and volunteers were physically harassed by supporters of a political party who mistook
them to be supporters of another political party launching a smear campaign against their
candidate. It is imperative to inform candidates about the campaign beforehand and to ensure
their support.
• Inadvertent printing of the wrong information. During its information dissemination
campaigns, PAC is extremely careful when transferring information from affidavits to leaflets
and brochures. Knowing that a simple mistake could result in a serious backlash, PAC staff
take care to double and triple check information on their leaflets. Until it is confident that
partner groups can do the data transfer on their own, PAC staff do it for them. Nevertheless,
some lapses have occurred. When an error occurs, PAC immediately issues clarifications in
leading newspapers and withdraws erroneous leaflets. Despite threats, PAC has continued
undeterred with its information dissemination campaign.
• Citizens’ lack of faith in campaigns when systems are not geared to respond to reforms.
Citizens tend to lose faith in civil society groups when the government machinery does not
respond to CSOs’ interventions by implementing immediate corrective measures.
Outputs
Given the current nature of the electoral arena in India, PAC has had only a limited influence.
Nonetheless, PAC’s interventions have yielded several tangible results, namely:
• Highlighting the importance of disclosure by candidates during the electoral process. PAC’s
campaigns were a precursor to the Supreme Court ruling on mandatory electoral disclosure.
Groups across the country have emulated the PAC model, which has also sparked interest
among civic groups in other developing nations such as Bangladesh. Watchdog groups like
Election Watch have arisen in recent years that do precisely what PAC had initiated in 1996:
monitor the backgrounds of candidates and disseminate information about them. The recently
enacted national right to information legislation has further reinforced citizens’ right to know.
• Facilitating informed choices. PAC’s informed choices campaigns have always concluded
with exit polls to assess their impact. Exit poll results indicate that voters who had received
the information had used it when making their electoral choices.
• Increasing voter registration. Based on PAC’s suggestions, the Bangalore City Corporation
undertook various initiatives during the special summary revision of 2004, such as
encouraging online registration, designating post offices as registration centers, and setting up
help desks. PAC supplemented these efforts with a multimedia awareness campaign. As a
result of these initiatives, the corporation and the Election Commission confirmed that the
number of registrations in and around Bangalore had tripled compared with the previous year.
• Increasing voter awareness and participation. The deluge of calls received on the help lines
demonstrates that citizens are eager to participate in the electoral process, but are unaware of
how to do so. Clear and patient replies from PAC staff have motivated callers to participate in
the electoral process.
• Disseminating information. In 2002, PAC published a voting guide in a number of regional
languages as an educational tool to create awareness among voters on various electoral
matters. Excerpts from the guide are disseminated as information leaflets during campaigns.
• Changing officials’ attitudes. Senior officials of the State Election Commission and the
Election Commission of India are now eager and willing to work with PAC and act on its
recommendations. A change is also apparent in the attitude of Bangalore City Corporation
officials in charge of revising the list of voters. During the 2003 revision, PAC staff made
random calls to ascertain the efficacy of help desks set up by the Bangalore City Corporation
and noted that officials were extremely helpful in guiding citizens to their nearest polling
place and patiently answering queries. PAC staff also observed that officials were present in
all offices on the last Sunday of the revision. This was a sea change in the attitude of officials,
and the former deputy commissioner of the Bangalore City Corporation has publicly
acknowledged PAC’s role in this welcome change.
• Undertaking research and analysis. PAC’s work on elections is not just about promoting
citizen action and informed choice, but also involves meticulous research and subsequent
dissemination of its analyses. PAC’s 2005 publication Holding a Mirror to the New Lok
Sabha presents the findings of a systematic analysis of data taken from affidavits by 541 (of
543) members of parliament elected in 2004. The publication has been widely disseminated
to legislators across the country and has significant policy implications.
• Building the capacity of CSOs. Before PAC’s electoral interventions, CSOs were unwilling to
think beyond their regular concerns and participate in the larger realm of governance. The
capacity-building aspect of PAC’s campaigns has enabled residents’ welfare associations and
CSOs in smaller towns and cities, and even villages, to advocate for better governance. The
Supreme Court verdict on mandatory disclosure by candidates has further strengthened their
resolve to have a positive impact on elections. The increased demand for training has resulted
in the creation of a PAC capacity-building component with a focus on groups in remote and
backward districts of Karnataka. The demand for such training has also come from civil
society groups in parts of Africa, where electoral reforms are becoming a major issue in civil
society circles.
As mentioned earlier, PAC’s informed choices campaign has been boosted by numerous recently
enacted electoral disclosure laws. The campaign for electoral reforms has gathered momentum and
has attained a national character. From a small experiment in 1996, PAC has moved beyond
Bangalore and has developed links with groups across Karnataka and in other states that have
partnered with PAC during several campaigns.
PAC has interacted regularly with the State Election Commission and the Election Commission of
Karnataka on various reforms. Both agencies take PAC’s recommendations seriously. In addition,
PAC’s credibility and commitment have ensured the support of leading newspapers. During elections,
PAC is regularly asked for analyses, which are widely disseminated. Neighborhood newspapers also
carry regular features during campaigns.
The campaign for electoral reforms has now spread to various parts of the country and assumed a
national character. Several civil society groups, such as the Association for Democratic Reforms, the
People’s Union for Civil Liberties, the Catalyst Trust, People’s Power, and Agni, are actively
pursuing the common goal of cleaning up the electoral process by engaging various stakeholders in
the government for reform. Whereas some of these initiatives have already led to path-breaking
reforms, others have created a groundswell of public opinion and participation in the election process.
Programs have also been replicated by organizations in other states, notably People’s Power in
Andhra Pradesh, Agni and Youth for Voluntary Action in Maharashtra, and Election Watch. PAC’s
informed choices campaign has also been successfully adapted in Bangladesh.
Sources: Manjunath 1998; PAC 2002, 2006; Paul 2003, 2004; Paul, Poornima, and Rao 2005; Web
site of PAC (http://www.pacindia.org); various issues of Public Eye.
PUBLIC PROCUREMENT SERVICE, REPUBLIC OF KOREA
To fight corruption and increase transparency, some countries have launched e-governance systems,
which promote the use of communications technology such as the Internet and mobile telephones to
open up government processes and enable greater public access to information. E-government is the
online publication of information that enables citizens to download application forms for a variety of
government services. It can also include the actual delivery of services, such as filing a tax return or
renewing a license. More sophisticated systems facilitate the processing of online payments.
Electronic procurement (e-procurement), an important component of e-government, combines the use
of Internet technology with procurement best practices to streamline the purchasing process and
reduce costs. E-procurement increases transparency and probity by keeping a traceable record of
government transactions online. A comprehensive e-procurement system includes three main
components: (a) information and registration, (b) e-purchasing, and (c) e-tendering. Studies in
developed countries have shown that e-procurement benefits the state through reduced monetary and
administrative costs for organizations using the system, increased business opportunities for
suppliers, and more efficient use of tax money. E-procurement has been applied successfully in the
European Union and in countries such as Japan, Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Even though e-government has emerged worldwide as an important tool for government reforms,
citizen participation is lagging. The concept of e-government, beginning with an emphasis on
improving efficiency and progressing toward a more “customer-centric” effort, is now being recast to
include the transition toward participatory government that seeks to realize e-democracy. However, a
report by the United Nations Online Network in Public Administration and Finance (2003) points to a
situation where despite major advances in the concept of e-government, citizen participation is lower
than expected, probably because of the low levels of Internet penetration in many developing
countries.
Even though Korea has achieved the one of the highest level of e-government service in the world,
the issue of low citizen participation has emerged as a major challenge.9 A 2003 analysis of egovernment
usage indicates that whereas the percentage of civil servants using e-government to
obtain job applications was 45 percent, with the exception of passive information searches, citizens’
usage rate for more active public administration services was at a low level.
To transform the quality of e-government to enhance participation by citizens, the government of
Korea embarked on an undertaking to improve its transparency and efficiency. Participatory egovernment
that is citizen oriented entails innovations in work methods, government service reforms,
and information resource management. As a result of its efforts, Korea became the fourth country
with an electronic bidding process, and government-to-government services were extended to
government-to-business services. Even before the launch of the government e-procurement system
(GePS) in October 2002, 9.4 million people belonging to 1,500 organizations participated in
electronic bidding for activities worth a total of US$13 billion.
Korea began to lay the foundations for e-government in the late 1970s. Through several information
system projects in 1980s, the government established a high-speed communications network and
begun storing vital government records, such as resident registration, real estate transactions, and
vehicle records, in a digital format. By the mid-1990s, the focus had shifted to efficiency-oriented
egovernment,
with major information being put into databases and the development of operations
processing systems to improve efficiency. Information technology has been applied to enhance key
government functions, such as levying custom duties and approving patents, while also fostering
interagency collaboration. A nationwide information super highway was built shortly after the turn of
the century and has become an important part of the e-government infrastructure. At the same time,
the government prepared a coherent implementation plan that it used as a basis for constructing a
service-oriented system of e-government by focusing its efforts on service improvements, such as
allowing the sharing of information among government agencies and the linking of their operations
and activities.
Korea’s e-procurement is partly a natural outgrowth of its information technology culture: 70 percent
of households have a high-speed Internet connection. Having achieved what is generally recognized
9 An index of municipal Web sites worldwide found that Seoul remains as the top-ranked city in relation to
egovernance
performance. The research was conducted jointly by the e-Governance Institute of Rutgers
University-Newark and the Global e-Policy e-Government Institute of the Graduate School of Governance,
Sungkyunkwan University, Korea. The survey was cosponsored by the United Nations Division for Public
Administration and Development Management and the American Society for Public Administration. This index
is the only systematic effort to evaluate digital governance in municipalities throughout the world.
as the most advanced telecommunications infrastructure in the world, the next step was to have the
appropriate systems in place in the government. In November 2001, the E-Government Special
Committee, which consisted of government officials and private sector specialists, was appointed to
plan and budget the application of information technology to e-government nationwide. The most
important of the 11 tasks selected for e-government was GePS.
The Public Procurement Service (PPS), the central procuring agency, operates GePS. The PPS
provides around 30,000 Korean public institutions with the goods and services they require to carry
out their responsibilities. Before the introduction of e-procurement, the PPS’s procedures were
cumbersome and involved a huge amount of paperwork and frequent visits to PPS offices. The PPS
underwent a reform of its entire procurement system to reduce the level of inconvenience and
inefficiency and to eliminate corruption.
GePS was inaugurated in September 2002. It processes complicated procedures and paperwork by
digitalizing all procedures from purchase requests to payments and drastically reducing the extent of
documentation (http://www.g2b.go.kr/). Since 2003, the annual transaction volume of GePS has
grown by 20 percent every year. Today GePS is the world’s largest cyber market, where 35,000
public institutions and 150,000 private companies trade about US$48 billion worth of goods a year.
About 93 percent of total bidding in the public sector is handled on GePS, cutting an estimated
US$4.8 billion a year in indirect costs for private companies.
Objectives
The objective of GePS is to enhance the efficiency, fairness, and transparency of the government’s
procurement administration by establishing a nationwide, Web-based procurement system that
handles all procurement procedures electronically. It was aligned with the nationwide strategy known
as Cyber Korea 21 (1999–2002) to build an online, knowledge-based system to improve national
competitiveness and the quality of life and to develop Korea as one of the most advanced countries
with respect to information technology.
GePS is a single window for comprehensive information on procurement by all public organizations,
including all information about national procurement projects, procurement requests, bids,
contracting, and payment. GePS is also the single repository of vendor data for the entire public
sector. The main features of the GePS government-to-business approach are as follows:
• Public announcement of all government projects for bidding. Private contractors can bid
online for projects by various government agencies after registering a single time on the
government procurement Web site.
• Online process. Government agencies and private contractors can use GePS to complete the
entire procurement process, including announcing a public project for bidding, submitting
bids, selecting a winning bidder, signing the government contract agreement, monitoring the
completion of the service or supply contract, and paying for services. The process can be
monitored in real time.
• Establishment of a standardized category system for procurement supplies. The sorting and
identification of procurement supplies that were previously managed by each government
agency independently were changed to comply with a set of governmentwide standards for
public procurement. These changes allowed government procurement to be compatible across
agencies and to comply with e-commerce standards with which citizens were familiar.
The shift to e-procurement involved the following stages:
• Converting procurement operations into e-commerce. After the initial strategic planning by
the Ministry of Planning and Budget, the PPS, with its experience as the central procurement
agency for the past 50 years and development and administration of the electronic data
interchange and e-commerce since 1997, began building the system. The next step was to
harness Korea’s well-developed Internet infrastructure by means of a step-by-step process as
follows:
− An electronic signature is used to authenticate the identity of the sender of a message or
the signer of a document and to ensure that the original content of the message or
document that has been sent is unchanged. E-signatures are easily transportable, cannot
be imitated by someone else, and can be automatically time stamped. This ensures that
the sender cannot deny having sent the original signed message.
− By sharing various types of information, including data on suppliers, GePS users were no
longer required to repeatedly submit the same documents.
− Through its connections with 11 guarantee agencies, GePS ensured the online submission
of bonds for prepayment, tenders, performance, and so on.
− GePS’ association with 13 major commercial banks shortened the time taken to pay
contractors.
• Reorganizing from an administration-centered to a customer-oriented service. In July 1999,
the PPS began reforms that overhauled its organization and culture. By establishing the PPS’s
vision and mission and letting staff know of the goal of the reform, the PPS encouraged them
to participate. User manuals and multimedia resources were distributed to contractors and
government employees to increase their understanding of the GePS. The change in staff
attitudes resulted in a steady increase in customer satisfaction.
• Making procurement-related information available to the public. The PPS rooted out sources
of corruption by opening up procurement-related information to the public. Information was
put in the public domain by means of the Internet on a real-time basis and the participation of
external experts such as NGOs in the procurement process.
• Linking the GePS to outside systems. The provision of a one-stop service through its links to
the online systems of other institutions such as ministries, associations, and financial bodies is
one of GePS’ advantages.
The common feature of each major e-government initiative was the need for an information network
that would link the systems and databases of each agency through a seamless network, which required
the cooperation of all government agencies. The following key stakeholders and factors contributed to
the success of GePS:
• Active government support. The involvement of President Kim Dae-Jung, vice ministers,
government agency directors, and midlevel government employees was extremely helpful in
making the project a success. Ministers from various government agencies gave their full
support to the E-Government Special Committee. Nongovernment members of the committee
carried out their assigned tasks conscientiously, and in the space of two years, the committee
held more than 50 working-level committee meetings. The president’s strong support helped
smooth bureaucratic processes across agencies during committee meetings.
• Support of the National Assembly. Political support in the form of legislation and sufficient
government funding were the preconditions for making the 11 major e-government initiatives
a success. The Millennium Democratic Party formed a special committee to develop and
promote e-government services and processes. Assembly members from the Grand National
Party also supported the e-government initiative.
• Collaboration between government-funded agencies and the private sector. The existence of
a highly developed private sector in the area of information systems and information
technology played an important role, in that the requisite systems were put into place by
private sector contractors. In addition, government-funded agencies, including the National
Computerization Agency, the Korea Information Society Development Institute, and the
Korea Education and Research Information Service, were also involved.
• World-class Internet infrastructure. Korea has historically been among the top five countries
in terms of Internet connections, with 70 percent of the population being Internet users. This
infrastructure helped ensure problem-free e-bidding.
Resources
GePS cost a total of US$24.9 million.
Outputs
GePs resulted in the following improvements to the government’s procurement system:
• Allowing paperless transactions. A unique feature of GePS is the ability to conduct the entire
procurement process online. This was achieved, in part, through the simplification of
documents and the development of prompt e-payment methods. Previously, contractors
would have to submit numerous documents, fill out lengthy forms, and visit many different
government agencies to conform to the requirements for participating in public bids.
• Providing online access to information. To ensure the ease of online bidding, GePS provides
integrated domestic bidding information: according to the National Contract Act, all bid
information must be placed on the system. Contractors can visit GePS and gain access to all
information about public bids across all government agencies. The government procurement
brochure that carried listings of future public bids is no longer published.
• Simplifying the bidding process. In the past, contractors were required to register their
companies with each government agency to be allowed to bid on agency-specific projects.
GePS has eliminated these redundant processes. Once contractors have registered with the
system, they can bid on any project by any government agency.
• Creating a business-friendly environment. This is evidenced by high participation in ebidding.
• Classifying commodities. Following the introduction of GePS, government items for
procurement were categorized more efficiently, enabling government agencies to select and
procure supplies more conveniently.
• Saving government resources. The simplification of the entire procurement process has
resulted in major savings of government resources estimated at approximately US$20.3
billion since its launch.
• Enhancing transparency. As all steps of the procurement process are now carried out online,
contractors and civil servants in charge of procurement do not need to meet face-to-face. This
has had a significant impact on the extent of corruption in the procurement process.
Bidding information used to be disseminated in gazettes and newspapers, but must now be provided
online. To this end, relevant laws and regulations had to be revised to establish the legal foundations
for handling procurement operations electronically.
The completion of a government-to-business system and the enactment of laws to govern the system
resulted in an expansion of the government-to-business market in terms of both scope and scale.
Other public institutions in Korea and procurement agencies in other countries could modify the
PPS’s e-procurement system for their own use.
Sources: Bhatnagar 2003; Fisher 2000; Special Committee of E-Government 2003; Web site of the
Korean Overseas Information Service (http://www.korea.net/); Web site of the Public Procurement
Service (http://www.pps.go.kr/english/); Web site of the United Nations Online Network in Public
Administration and Finance (http://www.unpan.org/).
Lessons Learned
According to Nobel laureate Sen (2005, p. 39): “Silence is a powerful enemy of social justice.”
Nowhere does this statement resonate more powerfully than in the realm of social accountability.
However, the cases discussed in this volume give reason for hope. These profiles of courage and
innovativeness highlight how ordinary people can make a difference by asking the right questions at
the right time in the right manner, or in other words, by making their voices heard, often backed by
the power of information and knowledge. Although far from being comprehensive or representative,
these vignettes highlight some enabling themes and approaches and also some areas of concern.
Key Enablers
The case studies discussed in this volume reveal some cross-cutting concepts and applications that act
as key enablers for social accountability, namely:
• Responsiveness and voice. Some of the cases have demonstrated the potency of blending state
responsiveness with voices of the community. Instead of taking adversarial positions, these
cases illustrate refreshing instances of state and community partnerships and proactive
engagement. The key here seems to be strategic partnerships, mostly commencing as pilot
projects that end up creating empowered processes that often become rooted and survive
beyond the lifespan of the project.
• Power of information. Most of the cases demonstrate the emanicipatory and empowering
potential of information to usher in accountability. Whether the information is voluntary
disclosure by state agencies or the generation of contested information by civil society
groups, information has the potential to bring about change.
• Local ownership. The presence of a local “champion” to own and drive social accountability
initiatives is crucial for generating support and participation, but the credibility and
nonpartisan character of the local champion are critical.
• Political buy-in. Many institutional innovations and radical popular movements often
piggyback onto charismatic individuals or institutional entrepreneurs. Often these pioneering
interventions fail to engage political representatives, with the result that larger issues of
institutionalization and scaling up often face political opposition. Some of the cases discussed
here have underscored the critical need for political buy-in.
• Local capacity building. Many of the specific tools and approaches explored in this volume
call for certain levels of competence and skills. The initiators of social accountability tools
have recognized this and have emphasized the need to infuse local networks and
organizations with the skills to own and sustain the interventions.
Areas of Concern
Notwithstanding the potency of the documented tools and approaches, certain areas of concern need
to be kept in perspective when exploring possibilities for replicating, adapting, and scaling up these
tools, namely:
• Fragility of civil society space. An interesting observation that emerges from state-civil
society dialectics is the fragility of the space for CSOs to challenge and contest the state on
issues of accountability. The essence of civil society lies in its autonomy from the state, yet to
77
influence public policy, civil society institutions need to relate to the state. Total
independence is virtually incompatible with political influence. The citizen is an agent and
subject of politics, and is consequently constrained and protected by the state. The state also
provides an integrative framework characterized by the rule of law and a certain degree of
coherence without which civil society would rapidly become uncivil and potentially chaotic.
• Urban focus. Barring a few cases, most of the initiatives discussed in this volume are based in
urban centers; thus there is a clear need to spread these kinds of initiatives to rural enclaves.
The main challenge in this respect is building competencies and skills within rural
populations. Also there is a dire need to translate publications on accountability into local
languages. Existing documentation about most of these initiatives is in English, limiting the
potential for wider outreach.
• Challenges of adaptation and contextualization. Global good practices are seldom relevant
unless they are contextualized and adapted to suit local conditions and needs. The cases
discussed here underscore this need to redesign and contextualize tools and approaches that
build on local capacities and address local priorities.
• Weak regional networking. A striking observation that cuts across this collage of emergent
social accountability initiatives in Asia is the weak networking and learning within the
region. Given the social and political contexts within which these initiatives have emerged,
there is a great deal of scope for replication and adaptation.
Contact Details of Organizations
ActionAid International Nepal (AAIN)
GPO Box 6257
Kathmandu, Nepal
Phone: 977-1-44-36477, 19115, 21232
Fax: 977-1- 4419718
Email: mail@actionaidnepal.org
Web site: http://www.actionaid.org/nepal/
Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA)
A-11, 2nd Floor, Niti Bagh,
New Delhi 110 049, India
Phone: 91-11- 417-412-85, 86, 87, 88
Email: cbadelhi@vsnl.net
Web site: http://www.ncasindia.org/public/staticpages/cbga.asp
Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA)
#422, 80 feet road, Koramangala 6th block
Bangalore 560 095, India
Phone: 91-80-255-25452 / 3
Email: cmcaexpressions@yahoo.co.in
Web site: http://www.pacindia.org/CMCA
Community Information and Epidemiological Technologies (CIET)
PO Box 1621
Islamabad, Pakistan
Phone: 92-51-287-5608
Email: cietpakistan@ciet.org
Web site: http://www.ciet.org/en/
Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good Government (CCAGG)
Divine College of Banguad
2800 Banguad, The Philippines
Phone: 63-74-752-8196, 7664
Fax: 63-74-752-8196
Email: ccagg2000@yahoo.com
Government Watch of the Ateneo School of Government
Rm. 408, 4/F Ateneo Professional Schools, Rockwell Center
Makati City, The Philippines
Phone: 63-899-7691 local 2409
Fax: 63-899-4588
Email: government_watch @ yahoo.com
Web site: http://www.asg.ateneo.edu/sp_gwatch.html
Indonesia Forum for Budget Transparency (Forum Indonesia Untuk Transparansi Anggaran)
Jl. Mampangprapatan XVIII No. 20 Duren Tiga
Jakarta Selatan, Indonesia
79
Phone: 62-21-799-7410
Fax: 62-21-799-7410
Email: seknas_fitra@yahoo.com
Web site: http://seknasfitra.blogspot.com/
Indonesian Women's Coalition (Koalisi Perempuan Indonesia)
Jl. Siaga I No.2 B Pejaten Barat
12510 Jakarta, Indonesia
Phone: 62-21-798-5110, 910-0076
Fax: 62-21-798-5110
Email: koalisip@uninet.net.id
Web site: http://go.to/koalisip
National Citizen Ombudsmen Liaison Council, Japan
Phone: 81-52-953-8052
Fax: 81-52-953-8050
Email: office@ombudsman.jp
Web site: http://www.ombudsman.jp/
People’s Power (Lok Satta)
401Nirmal Towers Dwarakapuri Colony Panjagutta
Hyderabad-82, India
Phone: 91-40-233-507-90 / 78
Fax: 91-40-23350783
Email: loksatta@satyam.net
Web site: http://www.loksatta.org/
Public Affairs Centre (PAC)
No.15, KIADB Industrial Area, Bommasandra - Jigani Link Road
Bangalore - 562 106, India
Phone: 91-80-255-20246, 25452, 25453, 37260
Email: pacindia@vsnl.com
Web site: http://www.pacindia.org/
Public Procurement Service (PPS)
Building 3, Government Complex , Daejeon, 920 Dunsan-Dong,
Seo-Gu, Daejeon, Korea 302-701
Phone: 82-42-481-4114
Fax: 82-42-472-2297
Web site: http://www.pps.go.kr/english/
Sirajganj Local Governance Development Fund Project (SLGDFP)
Building No. 06, Bangladesh Secretariat
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Phone: 880-271-60371
Fax: 880-271-60371
Email: slgdp@gononet.com
Web site: http://www.uncdf.org/english/local_development/
Matrix of Social Accountability Initiatives in South Asia
Name of the Initiative
Name of the
Organization Country Type of SA Tool
1 Sirajganj Local
Governance
Development Fund
Project
UNDP/UNDCDF Bangladesh Learning-by-doing, performance
assessment tools and community
mobilization approaches
2 Independent Budget
Analysis
Centre for Budget and
Governance
Accountability
India Budget analysis and expenditure
monitoring
3 Citizens’ Charters for
Public Service
Accountability
People’s Power India Citizens’ charters
4 Children’s Report Card
Surveys
Children’s Movement
for Civic Awareness
India Citizen report cards (sample surveys
of users of different public services )
5 Electoral Interventions Public Affairs Centre India Public advocacy tools
6 Budget Transparency
Movement
Indonesia Forum for
Budget Transparency
Indonesia Budget analysis and advocacy work
7 Participatory Gender
Budget Formulation
and Gender Budget
Analysis
Indonesian Women’s
Coalition for Justice and
Democracy
Indonesia Budget analysis; budget training
8 Citizen Ombudsmen National Citizen
Ombudsmen Liaison
Council
Japan Freedom of information rules; The
national “Openness Ranking”;
Network activism-coordinated
action, sharing information; Skillful
use of the news media
9 Budget Analysis ActionAid Nepal Budget analysis; participatory
baseline studies
10 Social Audits Community Information
and Epidemiological
Technologies
Pakistan Social audits (baseline survey)
11 Public Procurement
Service
Government of Republic
of Korea
Republic of
Korea
Electronic procurement (egovernance)
12 Citizen Monitoring of
Infrastructure Projects
Concerned Citizens of
Abra for Good
Government (CCAGG)
The
Philippines
Participatory audits of infrastructure
and expenditure projects
13 Textbook Count
Program
Government Watch The
Philippines
Monitoring of the bidding process,
quality control inspection and book
deliveries
81
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