Social Control Mechanisms for Greater Transparency and Accountability

Dr. Craig Reed, Senior VP at DynCorp introduced the panel looking at the use of civil society and other non-governmental independent mechanisms to provide oversight for development. He introduced the panel:

• Gema Aragones, Deputy Chief of Party on the USAID/MCC Threshold Anti-corruption Project for Paraguay
• Eduardo Flores, Deputy Chief of Party on USAID’s Mobilizing Action Against Corruption Project in Armenia
• Varazdat Karapetyan, President, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Gegharkunik Province, Armenia

Ms. Aragones described the MCC Threshold program in Paraguay. The project targets government areas that have the highest changes of corruption. She described how internal, audit and external controls are being strengthened in 12 public institutions in Paraguay. Ms. Aragones said that information and communications systems provide accountability reports to the public. Citizen participation and oversight is encouraged through these reports and the devolution of government services. She described the process of citizen oversight of local health councils and the need for political will.

The Government of Paraguay has developed an Office of Support for Citizen Control with the assistance of Casals and Associates. Access to information is essential to promote integrity. The office also manages citizen complaints. Ms. Aragones said that there has been significant improvements in transparency over the past 2 years but that more civil society organizations need to be involved in Paraguay.
Gema Aragones,ICGFM Accountability English

Gema Aragones,ICGFM Accountability Espanol

Gema Aragones,ICGFM Accountability Francais

Eduardo Flores described transparency initiatives in Armenia. Mr. Flores asked what organizations are responsible for transparency. He described the need for political will, independent media, professional audit, independent legislature, effective law enforcement and other civil society actors. He suggests that not all accountability pillars need to be strong in order to achieve positive anti-corruption. NGOs are used as advocacy and assistance centers in Armenia to manage anti-corruption activities. 11 regional centers have been established. He provided statistics showing 863 corruption cases resulting, so far, in 87 under prosecution. Institutional inefficiencies have also been identified. Armenia anti-corruption processes are gaining improved government credibility according to Mr. Flores.

Mr. Flores had some interesting observations on how citizens change behaviour depending on where they are.

EduardoFloresTrejo ICGFM Social Control Mechanisms Armenia.english

EduardoFloresTrejo ICGFM Social Control Mechanisms Armenia Espanol
EduardoFloresTrejo ICGFM Social Control Mechanisms Armenia-Francais

Varazdat Karapetyan, President, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Gegharkunik Province in Armenia provided specific anti-corruption cases. He described the systemic analysis of the case of where a doctor demanded payment for free services. Mr. Karapetyan pointed out that underpaying doctors creates corruption. He described how holistic analysis provides a roadmap for reform. He emphasized that the culture from the former Soviet times needs reform.

Mr. Karapetyan described how systemic extortion by tax and the registry of new business government ministries was addressed. He also described how individual instances of corruption were adjusted.

VarazdatKarapetyan ICGFM Transparency English

VarazdatKarapetyan ICGFM Transparency Francais

VarazdatKarapetyan ICGFM Transparency Espanol

Procurement Assessment Case Study - Chile

Jorge Claro of the International Procurement Institute presented a case study of a procurement assessment of Chile at the 23rd Annual ICGFM Conference. The Country Procurement Assessment Report (CPAR) process began in 2007, but a comedy of errors resulted in bureaucratic delays of a year. Mr. Claro discussed the best time, within the election cycles, to assess procurements.

Mr. Claro described the complicated political setting in Chile. He cautioned that an effective assessment needs to go beyond the procurement personnel to senior members of the government.

Procurement Case Study - Chile

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Estudio de caso en adquisición – Chile

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Étude de Cas de Passation de Marchés – Le Chili

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The OECD/DAC benchmarking tool is not a perfect methodology, but it has a common vocabulary. Mr. Claro found that country personnel focused on the grading. Donors tell them not to worry about the grading, yet they worry about the grading.

The OECD/DAC methodology is highly participatory, according to Mr. Claro. A good practice is to identity stakeholders, including engaging the press and Transparency International The tool represents a serious investment of time and resources, and the participation of many public officials requires political will. It is not cheap to assess the procurement process.

No one thinks of investments in procurement as investments. They look at it in terms of expenses, even though the investment can have good results.

Mr. Claro is concerned about the message of the procurement assessments to governments.
When systems are perceived as poor, Governments are more amenable to finding problems and identifying solutions Yet, when systems are perceived as adequate, governments prefer not to identify issues and leave the system as-is, as priorities lay elsewhere. Yet, procurement processes can be very much improved to gain efficiencies and value for money. He found that Paraguay was much more interested than Chile to change processing.

The methodology is hard in that items are rated 1, 2 or 3. Consultants found that the real rating should be 1.5 or 2.5, yet there was no facility to articulate this. The political nature has caused frequent drafts of the final report.

Mr. Claro suggests that, although the exercise was successful, opportunities for a more in-depth discussion on present and future issues and further refinement of the system could, perhaps, have been exploited further

Mr. Claro explained that procurement reform in any country is 1)political, 2)political, 3)political