Report card process with Nuwara Eliya MC involvement
MC constituents.
NUWARA ELIYA – The ‘Citizen Report Card (CRC)’, a unique way to hold local government authorities accountable and transparent and to ensure the authorities provide the amenities that they are mandated to provide by law, was presented to the constituents of the Nuwara Eliya Municipal Council this week. The findings of the report were revealed to a cross section of these constituents.
CRC, an accepted social accountability tool used to provide systematic feedback to public institutions of their performances was first tested in Bangalore, India, 19 years ago and by now has travelled to more than 20 countries with successes and failures recorded.
In Sri Lanka the CRC initiative has been undertaken by the Asia Foundation in collaboration with Dr Gopakumar Thampi, CEO, The Affiliated Network for Social Accountability, South Asia Region and the Global Partnership Fund, Institution of Governance Studies, BRAC University, Bangalore, the brains behind the CRC and a team led by Prof Siri Hettige, Social PolicyAnalysis and Research Centre, University of Colombo.
Dr. Gopakumar Thampi.
At the Nuwara Eliya Citizens’ rally conducted at the Nuwara Eliya Town Hall, the presentation of the CRC was made by Dr Thampi and Prof Hettige. The CRC looked at five basic services provided by the Nuwara Eliya MC: Solid Waste Management; Sewerage Services; Roads; Street Lighting; Civic Amenities and services such as maternity clinics cemeteries; Town Hall, playgrounds, Community Water Schemes, Public Toilets and Community Centres, etc.
Among the key findings was the vulnerability of communities living in the periphery of the MC area. It noted that there is a marked and worrying drop in service levels in areas that are far off from the centre of the town. According to the CRC the fact that most of the poor residents in Nuwara Eliya reside in these peripheral spaces makes this a key issue for immediate redress as the poor depends heavily on public services.
Mahinda Dodampegamage, Mayor, Nuwara Eliya, at the rally conceded that in the light of the findings of the CRC, there appears to be many flaws and shortcomings in performing their duties to the citizens. He said that since they came to know the findings of the CRC, they have already adjusted to fulfill their responsibility.
He said that the MC is catering to 35,000 residents and in addition there is an inflow of 300,000 tourists (mostly local) per month and they have been providing services at a political level, until their eyes were opened to the real business to be fulfilled to the citizens.
He said that they would not be able to fulfill the tasks 100% but they are determined to at least reach 70%. He congratulated everyone who were involved in the CRC process and said that it was a ?very successful research, which was conducted in a transparent manner.
He said that in the past, the Nuwara Eliya MC was adjudged as one of the best MCs, but only now they realize on what flimsy grounds the selections were made and all what they did was to place some flower pots in the MC premises and ticking the criteria norms, in the set questionnaire as everything was done according to the prevalent political system.
He said that they have taken cognizance of the CRC findings and already adjusted the amenities in some areas that were shown lapses as street lighting that was indicated at 49% level, is now adjusted to 65%. With regard to the city roads CRC showed at 53% (performance) level which has now been adjusted to 75% level. He said that one of the other areas that needed improvement is the sewerage and said that JICA (Japanese donor agency) has now agreed to provide them with a substantial grant to adjust this shortcoming.
The CRC at one point indicated the best performance demarcated with green, moderate performance with amber and bad with red. While the later part of Mr. Dodampegamage’s sounded political and some doubts were created in the minds of the public whether CRC would be carried forward, when he said that all green, amber and red would be replaced with ‘blue’ it was an apparent indication that everything would eventually be again politicized.
The Asia Foundation has been supporting the local government sector in Sri Lanka over the last several years and one among the supporting projects is the CRC. There were some doubts cast on the transparency when there was reluctance to issue a copy of the full CRC to the media.
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