CAC South Asia – Template for Review of Completion Report for Phase 2 projects

Name of Project:

Key Project Data (From Completion report)

Name of the CSO / Paraspara Trust
Title of Project / 50 Corruption-free Fair Price shops in Bangalore
Project Code / CAC / Project Location / Bangalore
Corruption Problem being addressed / Local Governance
Project Objectives / Include all the eligible families that are excluded from the PDS;
Increase the PDS card holders getting the stipulated quantities at the stipulated price without corruption tax;
Advocate changes in policies and procedures for enhanced effectiveness of anti-corruption measures in PDS ;
Increase capacity of communities and CSO Partners to confront corruption in a sustained manner.
Planned / Actual
Implementation period / 1st July 2009 to 14th December 2012 / 1st July 2009 to 30th March 2013
Total Budget / US$ 34,999.00 / US$ 34,999.00
PTF Contribution / US$ 34,999.00 / US$ 34,999.00
Top Three Results (actual) / a)1098 excluded eligible families got new PDS Cards;
b)86% card holders in the project area getting stipulated quantities at stipulated price;
c)Formation of 50 Public Distribution System Monitoring Committees (PDSMCs) for monitoring PDS Shops and preventing corruption.

Completion Assessment[1]

  1. The Implementation Performance

  1. Extent to which the planned project activities and outputs were completed.[2]
/
  1. Adequacy of financial reporting.[3]
/
  1. Adequacy of documentation posted on the website[4].
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  1. Constructive engagement during implementation
/
  1. Community empowerment activities.
/
  1. Focus on sustainability
/

Comments and suggestions for improvement. Guidance. Please use this space to narrate your views on the implementation performance and elaborate on the considerations underlying the rating.

Parasapara Trust (PT) worked against corruption in Public Distribution System (PDS) shops. The shop level corruption includes under measurements of items given to cardholders, bad quality, higher price charged than the stipulated price, not giving ration at all and many others. PT in the phase-I worked with 30 shops and with the help of the government officials and PDS shop owners it declared 3 PDS shops as model PDS shops. The model shops function according to the rules and regulations set by food and civil supplies department. In phase-II, PT took up another 20 PDS shops including the earlier 30 shops and made strong attempts to declare 27 shops as the model shops.

PT achieved this by promoting community led PDS monitoring committees (PDSMCs). The PDSMCs conducted regular monthly meetings and shared the corruption at the PDS shop to other community members. Further a forum called Dhanya Hakku Vedike (Forum for Right to Food Grains) or DHV in order to fight corruption on the one hand and also engage government officials constructively on the other hand. The PDSMCs members went up from 600 to 1000 members. The PDSMCs together with the DHV ensure sustainability of the project objectives.

Financial reporting has enough details. However, Rs. 35,973/- appears to be unspent and there is no reason given or mentioned why the above amount was not utilized.

PT has a website ( that contains information about the Trust. However, there is lack of mention of the PTF-funded project. One needs to search for such a project in order to know about it. Further, whatever information is given about the project on the website is not sufficient enough to know about the project. It would be of help, if PT mentions about the baseline survey results, activities and endline survey results of the project very prominently on their website.

The exact geographical area of project was not mentioned by the PT in its report. Though, it talks about 50 corruption free fair price shops in Bangalore as a part of its goal, no where it is mentioned about the exact locality like wards, etc, within Bangalore. Mention of the exact project area would have been of some help.

PDSMCs and DHVs provided scope for networking with Karnataka chapter of right to food campaign (RFC). Through the efforts put forward by the PT along with the community members many eligible but excluded families got PDS cards. PT also, as a part of the project, helped and supported the food and civil supplies department to identify bogus cards under each PDS shop.

  1. The Results:

a.Accomplishments of the results specified in the logframe and/or project proposal /
b.Clarity of Quantified and demonstrable results /
c.Community empowerment outcomes /
d.Robustness of the evidence for the results narrated in the completion reports. /
e.Responsiveness of authorities to constructive engagement. /
f.Value added of peer learning activities and events. /
g.Project contribution to CSO partner capacity to carry out anti-corruption work. /
h.Prospects for benefits of the project being sustained /

Comments and suggestions for improvement.

Guidance. The results framework for the project is outlined in the Logframe (LFA) which was submitted at the time of the approval. In addition the CSO is required to produce baseline and end of project data for Core Results Indicators(CRI). Please check the progress in results against the objectives and indicators outlined in the LFA and CRI. The evidence to support results may be in the form of anecdotal and/or survey data. In particular please note and comment on success stories that highlight results.

PT as a part of this project has framed four objectives. The first one is include all the eligible families that are excluded from the PDS system. PT was successful in identifying 1580 eligible families who were excluded from the PDS through baseline survey. A total of 590 eligible families were included, while work is under way to include the remaining eligible families. In this regard PT has supported the eligible families to apply, follow up and get their cards as per their entitlements. Though there is a mention of 1500 bogus cards, there is no mention of how many of them have reapplied and got the corrected cards as per their entitlements. Mention of some numbers about reapplying by bogus cardholders would have been helpful in putting things in perspective.

The second objective is to increase the PDS cardholders getting the stipulated quantities at the stipulated price without corruption tax. As a part of this objective, PDS monitoring committees (PDSMCs) were formed with community members in all the 50 PDS shops. Around 1000 members are part of 50 PDSMCs, with each shop level committee consisting of 20 members. The database of each PDS outlet was checked for variations in BPL/AAY/APL card holder details. Further the DHV also was actively engaged in interaction with the PDS shop owners and Food and Civil Supplies officials.

The third objective is to advocate changes in policies and procedures for enhanced effectiveness of anti-corruption measures in PDS. For this a workshop was conducted for PDS shop owners separately. A consultation workshop was conducted for 21 F&CS officials, 17 shop owners and 25 PDSMC members. The Director of the F&CS announced that model PDS shops would be replicated in other parts of the Bangalore. Also PT involved itself in networks like Right to Food Campaign (RFC) to advocate changes at the policy level and implementation level. A social audit was carried out followed by a public hearing in which officials, shop owners, community members, network partners, participated in the public hearing.

Community members were provided with intensive training through workshops for the women, youth groups and vigilance committee members. This is done keeping in view of the 4th objective – increase capacity of communities and CSO partners to confront corruption in a sustained manner. Further PDS model shops were declared based on community’s assessment of the shop. Further the formation of PDSMCs and DHVs through community members had given enough capacity for the community to fight corruption.

In the context of the PT project area, it appears that the community members are from mainly slums. In this backdrop, sustainability it appears to be volatile, particularly since lot of population in the slums is migratory in nature. Also, the chance of slums being rehabilitated or relocated is also high. In either of the cases, sustainability of the project is jeopardised.

Summary of Assessment.

  1. Overall Achievement Rating[5]
    Guidance. The degree to which the project achieved, or seems likely to achieve, all or most of its objectives. Please base this rating on the detailed assessment above.

Commentary on Overall Assessment.Guidance. Please provide a narrative to accompany your overall achievement rating taking into account your overall assessment (in a maximum of 20 lines) of taking into account quality or project design, implementation performance and results achieved. Reasons for rating of 4 or more may please be explained here. It is suggested that this be written last after the detailed assessment (Section 2 below) has been done and Overall Achievement Rating determined.

The implementation of the project was carried out as per the stipulated activities and objectives. The project was designed to suit the ground realities of the project area. The project appears to have faced some problems in engaging constructively with the officials during the initial stages of the project. However, over a period of time the project was able to engage F&CS officials constructively in order to fight corruption in PDS.Involvement of the PDS shop owners has allowed smooth implementation of the project.

Similarly, the project appears to have problems in the initial stages as it was able to declare only 3 PDS shops as model PDS shops in the first phase. Further, the Food and Civil Supplies (F&CS) Department changed rules for securing PDS ration card in general and BPL card in particular. As a result, there was confusion among the community members as well as the officials about rules and regulations vis-a-vsi PDS. For instance, initially the department gave PDS cards by outsourcing the same to an agency. Once the cards were distributed, the government changed the cards and called in for new applications through online. This has put lot of pressure on the people as many of them are unaware of online application process. Subsequently the project has to support the community members in applying online for the new cards.

Involvement of PT in Right to Food Campaign network at the state level as well as the national level is appreciable, particularly in the context of policy advocacy. The formation of PDSMCs with community people as the members to monitor corruption in PDS shops appears to have worked out well. However, it only creates parallel institutions in the places of existing vigilance committees. Better results, probably, would have been obtained if the vigilance committees have been strengthened instead of creating parallel structures. The PDSMCs periodically monitor the corruption issues in the PDS shop and share them publicly.

Forums like DHV helped not only creating awareness among community members, but also networked with other CSOs as well as right to food campaign. DHV further appears to have worked as a bridge between community members, shop owners and the officials. It helped in establishing ration items as their entitlement.

  1. Dissemination: Please list any outputs of the project that, in your view, would be appropriate for wider dissemination through CSO Partner and/or PTF PAC websites. Examples are tool kits/manuals/guidelines etc.

The following can be replicated:

  1. Formation and experience with the DHV.
  2. Entire experience of engagement with the officials.
  3. Learnings and benefits from networking..
  1. Initial Recommendation. Guidance Please present your conclusions whether the PCR is satisfactory and acceptable or revisions/additional information should be requested. In case of latter please list below the requests/comments that should be communicated to the CSO for revision/clarification.

On the whole the project completion report (PCR) is satisfactory, the following may be included:

  1. Discrepancies in numbers may be corrected (In page 1, it was mentioned 1098 new cards were secured, but in page 9 only 590 cards were secured).
  2. Success and failures of the project may be given as case studies (for instance declaring a PDS shop as model shop can be one case study).
  3. Explanation for non-utilisation of Rs. 35,973/- or plans to utilize that amount.

Reviewed for PAC by Endorsed by PTF Project Adviser

P. Srikant

Dated: 19th April 2013

  1. Final Recommendation. Guidance. In case a revision of PCR was requested please comment whether the CSO has been responsive to the comments and whether the revised PCR is now acceptable and the final (third tranche can be released). If further revisions/clarifications are needed please indicate them below.

As mentioned in above section (no.4). Third tranche may be released by deducting the unspent balance of Rs. 35,973/- after consulting Paraspara Trust on the same.

[1]Ratings Scale: 1 = Highly Satisfactory/Likely; 2 = Satisfactory/Likely ; 3 = Moderately Satisfactory/Likely; 4 = Moderately unsatisfactory/Unlikely; 5 = Unsatisfactory/Unlikely; 6 = Highly Unsatisfactory/Unlikely; NA = Not Applicable

[2] Please compare the activities listed in the proposal and see if they were fully completed or partially.

[3] The Grant agreements require that the accounts of project related expenditures be audited and certified as true and accurate by the Auditor of the CSO.

[4] The PTF Grant Agreement stipulates that the Grant Applicant will “post the Grant Agreement, the Project Proposal, the final Project report, and statement of expenditures on its website and/or the PTF website”.

[5] The degree to which the project achieved, or seems likely to achieve, all or most of its objectives.