CENTRE FOR LAW AND RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL (CLARION)
“LEARNING TOGETHER FOR COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT”
PARTNERSHIP FOR BUDGET ACCOUNTABILITY IN LOCAL
AUTHORITIES (PABALA) PROJECT
REVIEWED FINAL PROJECT REPORT
REPORTING PERIOD
OCTOBER 2011 TO SEPTEMBER 2012
Submitted to:
Partnership for Transparency Inc.
CSO Name:Centre for Law and Research International (CLARION)
Project Title:Partnership for Budget Accountability in Local Authorities (PABALA)
Grant Amount:USD 35,000
Dates of Implementation: October 2011 to September 2012
PCR Author:Regina Kibwana
Date of PCR:15th February 2013
PCR OVERVIEW: Please provide brief background information about the project. This includes the grant period, brief outline of the problem being addressed and the project objective(s).
This project seeks to address the problem of corruption in Vihiga Municipal Council, which is one of the local authorities in Kenya. The existence of corruption in Kenya and especially in most of the country’s institutions of governance has over the years led to great loss of the country’s revenues and other useful resources and has also resulted in citizens being denied of some of their basic rights. The vice has been known to take many shapes in these institutions and in local authorities it exists in the form of revenue leakages through faulty revenue collection systems, manipulation of procurement processes and obvious non delivery of procured items which leads to non-completion of projects financed by local authority resources.
While the above is crosscutting for almost all local authorities in Kenya, evidence from Vihiga Municipal Council in western Kenya indicates gross abuse of local authority resources e.g. up to the tune of over Ksh. 30 million between 2008/09 and 2009/10 financial years. It is this abuse that led CLARION to intervene, with the aim of contributing to improved accountability and management of public funds. The organization therefore designed the Partnership for Budget Accountability in Local Authorities (PABALA) project which has been implemented in Vihiga Municipal Council in partnership with a local Non Governmental Organization (NGO) known as Community Engagement for Peace and Development (CEPED).
PABALA proposes a partnership with local communities and community groups as well as the Municipal Council of Vihiga to trace and account for missing resources that could have otherwise met the needs of local taxpayers.
The objective of PABALA therefore was to enhance community participation in monitoring the implementation of devolved funds projects implemented by VihigaMunicipality. The project was implemented from October 2011 to September 2012.
PROGRAM APPROACH
- Briefly describe the approach (es)/ activities used to implement the project, and any changes/innovations in the approach during the project implementation period.
The activities used to implement the project were organized under various result areas as indicated in the table below:
Key results / ActivitiesKR1: Citizen’s audit of select projects implemented by Vihiga Municipal Council carried out /
- Training workshop for 30 community members on social auditing and advocacy
2. Appraisal of funded projects
Immediately after the training workshop, CLARION worked jointly with CEPED and the trained social auditors and community members to appraise projects implemented by the Municipal Council of Vihiga in the 2008/09 and 2009/10 financial years. A total of 8 projects,each with a minimum budget of Ksh 1million, were to be appraised.The appraisals were expected to gather information on the various projects and expose corruption practices such as:
- Missing funds i.e. where funds had been disbursed for projects but no work had been done;
- Mismatch between funds documented as spent and the amounts and quality of work done;
- Incomplete projects which are documented as completed;
- Mismatch between quality of materials planned to be used and what was actually used;
- Overpricing of goods and services especially where materials and services are purchased at prices that are too high as compared to the actual market prices;
- Conflict of interest i.e. awarding of contracts to self, to relatives and/or friends;
- Hiring of unqualified contractors or cases where contractors pay to be contracted;
- Double allocation of funds towards one project;
- Purchase of personal property e.g. motor cars using Council funds; and
- Use of community projects by council officials for personal gain.
-In most cases funds allocated for community projects could not be accounted for and council officers were not willing to provide information on such projects
-Procurement procedures were either lacking or were not followed in most cases. It was therefore not clear how some procurement decisions were made.
-Goods were mostly acquired at overpriced costs
-Some projects had no project committees
-Most projects were stalled and where work had been done it was of very poor quality. For this reason the projects could not serve the intended purpose
-Some contractors had deserted the work they had been contracted for and even paid to implement
-Most projects had been implemented without consultation with the community and thus some turned out not be of great value to the community
KR2: Advocacy processes undertaken to ensure completion of projects and accountability among County officials and the contractors /
- Public accountability forums
At the end of each forum, the participants would select an Action Committee from among the community members present to implement the Action Plan on their behalf.
- Joint meetings with Council officials
The joint meetings were part of the advocacy process aimed at ensuring accountability in use of public resources.
- Public interest litigation
The litigation fund was however not used because the project received quite a good degree of co-operation from the municipal council.
KR3: Sustainable mechanisms to control corruption and improve accountability in place / CLARION andits implementation partner, CEPED, planned to engage in continuous actions all year round, investigating corruption and holding accountability and follow-up meetings with the relevant stakeholders which we believe will become an effective mechanism for controlling corruption at the local level. On the other hand capacities of CEPED and Community Action Committees to effectively engage with, monitor and hold the Council and public authorities to account will be strengthened and these will act as structures upon which community advocacy actions against corruption will be anchored both during and after the project implementation.
- Outline the recommendations developed on how to make system changes to reduce the types of corruption addressed by the project
The following were the recommendations developed in order to reduce the types of corruption addressed by the project:
(i)Community participation in the identification and implementation of development projects: it was recommended that community action committees that have been put in place in the various Wards of Vihiga County,act as structures that will:
- Link community members andthe Municipal Council, thus ensuring that community members not only participate in discussing their development priorities but are also part of the implementation process;
- Participate in the procurement of goods and servicesthroughvetting of prospective service providers so as to avoid hiring of rogue contractors and also by providing information on sources of good quality and fairly prized goods and services.
- Monitor the implementation of development projects so as to ensure that the work being done follows the laid down plan in terms of funds allocated to be spent, the quality of the work done and the timelines for completion of specific projects. This will, to a great degree, contribute to controlling corruption where funds are allocated butlater spent on “other important courses” or are spent but no proper accounting records kept.
- Continue appraising development projects that are being implemented so as to provide feedback to the Municipal Council on the progress as well as any other important feedback and/or recommendations for improvement.
(ii)That regular meetings be held between Council officials and community members, for the public to be appraised by the Council on progress of on-going projects and for the community to seek clarifications as well as explanations on any concerns that they have on these projects.
(iii)The working relationship established between CLARION, CEPED and the Municipal Council through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) be strengthened through continuous information sharing and whenever possible holding of meetings,to discuss the improvement of service delivery by the Council to the people.
- Indicate the discussions held with relevant public officials and describe the follow-up actions envisaged
The discussions held with public officials were as follows:
- With the Ministry of Local Government, there were discussions on the need for them to visit the Vihiga Municipal Council to both discuss and audit the projects the local authority was implementingso as to demand for explanations in cases where funds had been misappropriated. The Ministry should press legal charges against officers who are found guilty. Further discussions with the Ministry were on the need to audit projects that had recurrent budgets every year as these were prone to misappropriation. Further expenditure on such projects should be frozen if there is no clear value for money. Below are some highlights of discussions and actions agreed upon at the joint meetings held with Municipal Council Officials on some of the projects audited:
(i)On the Municipal Council Town Hall Project, the Municipal Council committed to:
-Pursue the project contractor to ensure he is brought to account for the funds that his company was paid for the project;
-Hire a structural engineer to evaluate the condition of the building so as to ascertain whether it was strong enough to be completed or whether it needed to be altogether demolished for reconstruction;
-Find other resources to complete the project, that is, if the building was considered strong after evaluation.
(ii)On the Mbale-Endeli-Luanda road the Municipal Council committed to:
-Cooperate with the community by providing all he information they needed with regard to the construction of the Mbale-Endeli-Luanda road for their follow-up action;
-Pursue the reconstruction of the bridge between Tsimbalo and Endeli as recommended by the community; and
-Cooperate with them regarding any other matter that they might raise concerning the implementation of community projects by the council.
(iii)On the Ikuvu primary school project the following were the discussions and action points agreed on:
-The council informed the community representatives that they had it in their plan to still construct 2 classrooms at the school but had run short of funds. A commitment was made to have the remaining classroom constructed as soon as funds were available;
-The council apologized for failing to involve the community in the implementation of the project and committed to do so in all future community projects. In this regard, the school management committee would therefore also be involved in the completion of the school project;
-The Clerk to the Council promised to have the project appraised and the funds used audited to check if there was any misappropriation of finances. He committed to share the report thereof and any other relevant information on the project with the community representatives;
-The Clerk to the Council promised to have the contractor return on site to complete his work. He committed to have the project completed by November 2012. He also promised to continuously share progress reports on the project with the community; and
-The council promised to review its procurement processes so as to not only ensure transparency and accountability but also commitment on the part of those contracted to undertake certain projects in the community.
(iv) On the Civic car project: the Clerk to the council only tried to justify the expenditure on the car project saying that it was meant to facilitate service delivery by the council. He however was not able to explain where the missing funds were.
- Describe the most critical obstacles/impediments/barriersin your efforts and how you overcame or responded to them.
The following were the most critical obstacles of the intervention:
- Lack of proper records and hence lack of adequate information on the projects that were being appraised. This caused delays in carrying out the project appraisals and also resulted in numerous visits being undertaken by the social auditors for data collection. This challenge was overcome through working with the Local Authorities Service Delivery Action Plan (LASDAP) monitoring committee, which is the organ mandated by the Municipal Council with the responsibility of ensuring all the projects funded by the Council are implemented as planned. This committee was key in providing more information on the projects that were being appraised.
- Difficulties in securing appointments with council officials for the consensus building meetings. Meetings had to be rescheduled many times and this was both demoralizing as well as time wasting for the social auditors. The social auditors thus resolved to use the more friendly officials e.g. some of the Councilors, to reach out to their colleagues and thus schedule consensus meetings.
- Unresponsiveness of council officials when confronted with accountability issues. In some cases e.g. the case of the VihigaMunicipalCouncilTown Hall project, the council failed to respond to theconcerns raised on the stalled project and the missing funds and this forced the social auditors to seek the intervention of the Ministry of Local Government.
- The slow response by the Ministry of Local Government: Although the petitions that were made by the community members to this Ministry (as indicated above) were quite urgent, this institution did not respond as expected. A promise that they made to visit and investigate the Town Hall project had not been honoured by the time the project came to a close and this provided ample time for the municipal council to cover up the mistakes that had been noted and documented on this project. The social auditors however will not relent in their efforts to address the problem of misappropriation of funds and will therefore continue with their advocacy until this project is completed.
- Finally describe any enabling conditions that helped you achieve results.
- The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between CLARION, CEPED and the Municipal Council helped to some degree in getting the commitment of the Municipal Council to address corrupt practices by its officials.
- The commitment of the trained social auditors who were available to carryout the appraisals and the follow-up advocacy activities was also useful as it kept the momentum of the demands for accountability throughout the period of implementation.
- The willingness of the community members to participate in the planned actions also helped us to achieve results. Community members, as beneficiaries of the project, provided the backup support that the social auditors needed to do their work effectively as they participated in data collection and also in the follow-up advocacy actions,enabling the building of a critical mass against corruption.
- RESULTS / IMPACTS AND Activities not accomplished:
- Assess the project'simpact on reducing corruption and sustainability, against the indicators framed under outputs, outcomes and impacts in the project’slogical framework.
Impact indicators of Success
/ Impact on reducing corruption and sustainability-Improved governance of local authorities
-Improved service delivery by local authorities / The community has taken ownership of the intervention and continues monitoring the use and management of public resources by the local authority, even as it participates in important decisionsregarding the use of resources. This focused engagement will lead to transparency and accountability in management of resources and shall in the long run contribute to a situation in which local authority resources are channeled to key priorities thus enabling these institutions to provide requisite and improved services andcreate a conduciveenvironment for improving other aspects of development.
Outcome indicators of success / Impact on reducing corruption and sustainability
-Improved level of accountability in use of local authority resources
-Reduced incidences of pilferage and corruption at the Council / -The increased participation of citizens in decision making processes that revolve around use of public resources by local authorities as well as their participation in the implementation and monitoring of planned actions e.g. the identified development projects, has resulted in improved accountability and better use of resources by the local authorities. This has in essence resulted in increased completion rate of development projects and hence contributed to improved service delivery. That is why we see a project like the Munoywa dispensary that had stalled due to missing funds, completed and equipped, and basic services like maternity care and laboratory testing offered to the people efficiently.
Output indicators of Success / Impact on reducing corruption and sustainability
-1 Training workshop for 30 community members on social auditing and advocacy held by end of month one
-8 funded projects appraised by end of month 11
-8 public accountability forums held by end of month 11
-5 joint meetings held with Council officials by end of month 11
-20% Reduction in new corruption incidences at the Council
-15% increase in number of stalled projects completed / -The training workshop provided knowledge and skills on social auditing and advocacy to the community members and especially the social auditors. This helped a great deal in the investigation and publicity of information on corruption practices within the development projects implemented by the Municipal Council of Vihiga.
The appraisal of funded projects and the follow-up public accountability and joint meetings with the Council officials all contributed to the exposure of corrupt practices in the workings of the Municipal Council. It was possible for the community to lay down its demands for accountability and in return the council officials committed to work with them to resolve the issues of concern. We believe this continued engagement will contribute to putting corruption in check and therefore result in the reduction of new corruption incidences and increase the number of stalled projects that will be completed.
- Describe key ways in which your approach for tackling corruption was successful, with evidence to support each ‘success.’
The approach that CLARION used, and which employed community mobilization;awareness creation; action planning, implementation and monitoring was effective in tackling corruption in the following ways: