‘Citizen Report Card’ to hold local authorities accountable
While many countries are grappling with corruption, lack of transparency and accountability, the rule of law and apathy in good governance, some public spirited organizations and personnel are exploring ways and means to initiate good governance structures in local authorities.
Dr Gopakumar Thampi, CEO, The Affiliated Network for Social Accountability – South Asia Region and the Global Partnership Fund, Institute of Governance Studies, BRAC University, Bangalore, India has been visiting many countries to activate a viable system to get the public authorities to be transparent, accountable and be rid of corruption, a task next to impossibility in a country like Sri Lanka.
In Sri Lanka, the Asia Foundation collaborated with Dr Thampi and Prof Siri Hettige, Social Policy Analysis and Research Centre, (SPARC) University of Colombo, to launch what is called a ‘Citizen Report Cards (CRC)’, an accepted social accountability tool used to provide systematic feedback to public institutions about the quantitative and qualitative aspects of their performance.
This entails random sample surveys of the users of different public services and the aggregation of the users’ experience as a base for rating the public services. Already, the Asia Foundation along with SPARC and BRAC has facilitated two CRCs for the Nuwara-Eliya Municipal Council and the Vavuniya Municipal Council.
At the discussion organized for the media in Colombo this week, Prof Hettige said that they in the academia would be involved in research on various aspects of corruption, lack of transparency and lack of accountability and the lack of good governance. That information, he noted, should filter down to the people at large and using the media to carry the message to the people, is one powerful way. For this reason, he said that they are establishing a strong linkage between the academia and the media.
Dr Thampi said that the group pioneered or first attempted the CRC in the Indian city of Bangalore in 1993 and over the last 19 years this tool has travelled to 15 to 16 countries with success and failures and they have been able to learn some lessons through this voyage of 19 years. He said that there is an urgent need to improve the accountability of governments and service providers to citizens. He said that in India though there have been strides of expanding access to basic services, there has been dissatisfaction among citizens on the delivery of these services.
He said that lack of effective access to services, poor quality and reliability of services, hidden costs and weak accountability mechanisms were found. He said the government has the monopoly power in the public services and often information is withheld from the customers and create huge information gaps that make it difficult for the customers or users of the services to demand accountability. He said that there is no market competition often in the public service to ensure efficient service. Traditional mechanisms such as public audit of government expenditure and legislative oversight focus only on a review of inputs. It does not say how well the money has been spent because very little attention is given to the outputs and outcomes of the inputs. The problem is exacerbated by the difficulties in measuring outputs and in monitoring field level activities.
He said that the legal framework of the country can be a barrier to improved public accountability. The brunt of deficiencies in service, leave the poor people vulnerable to rudeness, humiliation and inhuman treatment by both private and public agents of the state. He said that these experiences of the poor reflect the inadequacy and difficulties encountered by the poor. He said that citizen feedback is a cost effective way for a government to find out whether its services can tell the government a lot about the quality and value of a service.
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