Public Participation: a Pre-Condition for Successful Public Sector Reform

Public Participation: A Pre-condition for Successful Public Sector Reform

Chair of Session: Daniel Kaufmann, World Bank Institute

Rapporteur Report: prepared by Sahr J. Kpundeh, World Bank Institute

The objective of this session was to interactively discuss the twin roles of public participation and rigorous empirical diagnostics in building good governance and controlling corruption. Experiences from Thailand, Ghana, the city of Sao Paulo in Brazil, and some transition economies were presented, as well as data from a mini-survey conducted by the World Bank Institute before and during the global forum.

It should be pointed out at the outset that the panelists recognized there are various forms of public participation. However, for the purposes of ensuring the discussions were focused, the panelists were asked to focus on how the power of diagnostic surveys have contributed to greater public participation in fighting corruption and improving governance in general.

Brazil

The Brazil example, which was presented by Dr. Helena Kerr, illustrated the various steps the city of Sao Paulo has taken to move away from corruption and poor governance which were characterized by various scandals, e.g. “chickengate”, “bribery Mafia”, corruption in the health system, procurement, and schools. The election of 2000 has been categorized as a victory against corruption primarily because 51% of the municipal representatives elected are new, and the leader of the Workers party—the leader of the opposition party against the corrupt ex-Mayor had the best results in the election.

The election of 2000 also highlighted several key issues:

a)the role of political parties as legitimate and important actors in the fight against corruption

b)the significant role of engaging effective accountability institutions---the critical role of the press

c)the demonstration effect of comparing administrations---one corrupt administration against another.

The new Mayor has focused on 4 priority issues---

Implement concrete reforms using a participative approach—using diagnostic surveys. The Mayor established a Technical Unit for Civil Servants and they have played a significant role in adapting the World Bank Institute diagnostic survey instruments to the local context.
The office of the Ombudsman was created with total independence. It was pointed out that he has already jailed some people that were involved in corruption in the Health system
Participatory budgeting—about 140 cities now use this system, which was initially started in Porte Allegre by the party of the Mayor
A focus on Management and good governance—establishing, simplifying, and enforcing rules; providing incentives, etc.

Ghana

The example of Ghana, presented by Professor Gyimah-Boadi illustrated how the debate on corruption has become very focused and sustained. First, corruption was one of the key issues during the election campaigns last year in Ghana. Second, the attention to the issue of corruption has become a sustained one—transcending the elections. Public participation has played a significant role, although some of this has been largely indirect, e.g. through diagnostic surveys.

The diagnostic surveys conducted last year in Ghana represents a collaboration between the Government of Ghana, the World Bank Institute, the Department for International Development (DFID) in the United Kingdom, and the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition---a coalition of various stakeholders representing civil society, private sector, government representatives, and other stakeholders.

The survey established in a conclusive manner the magnitude of the problem of corruption in Ghana. Here are some key findings from the survey:

66% of the households interviewed pay 10% of their incomes as bribes to public officials
Police, especially the Traffic police, Customs, and Immigration were identified among the most bribed agencies in the country
87% of those who have had contact with the Motor Traffic have paid a bribe
The judiciary had the highest bribery frequency in Ghana
67% of the people were skeptical about government efforts to address corruption; and 81% of households were not aware of any corruption reporting mechanisms in the country
27% of households were willing to contribute 10% of their income to address corruption, while 44% of businesses were willing to contribute some of their profits to address corruption.

The release of the data generated widespread public interest---extensive media coverage and some officials from affected agencies (those identified as bad) reacted negatively to the results. However, it must also be pointed out though, that some organizations such as the Land Commission have used the results for reform purposes. The survey has in general helped to validate the anti-corruption program in Ghana.

Thailand

The Thailand example, presented by Ms. Khunying Meksawan, demonstrated how the 1997 Constitution which was drafted by the people have actually gone a long way in making changes within the system. Thailand is now undergoing a profound transformation in its foundations of governance. For example, participants were informed that with the new Constitution, 50,000 signatures from voting people could remove any Minister, Prime Minister or any senior Minister. The Constitution has also established several independent agencies, and people are actually now taking active steps to address corruption.

One concrete example has been the diagnostic survey that was conducted with the assistance of the World Bank Institute in 1999. The data showed corruption in the public sector as the third serious national problem (first was poor economy, second cost of living). The data also showed the various government positions that are bought. Participants were told that the payment system for such jobs has changed from Cash to Gold, and now diamonds, because we understand they are easy to carry. The data also showed the frequency of payments that had to be made. For example, 57% had to make extra-payments to get a government procurement contract; 44% have to pay politicians to influence policies on their behalf; the total cost of bribes solicited last year from the Lands Officer to speed up processes, when tabulated totaled 5 billion Baths—approximately $50 million U.S.

The critical point to emphasize here is how the information from the survey has led to various kinds of actions---“cracking and penetrating the walls of the corrupt areas”. In addition, the Government has instituted effective accountability mechanisms to address corruption. Some of the features of the new paradigm instituted by government focus on the following areas:

Reconstructing the environment—aligning organizational structures with their functional objectives---establishing autonomous public agencies that are flexible and efficient in providing services to the people; procurement reform, instituting results based management, etc.
Coalition-building and promoting public awareness towards a transparent and clean public service—a “clean and transparent Thailand”; conducting seminars, workshops, websites—all aimed at creating a network to combat corruption
Promoting high ethical and moral standards in the public sector. Public officials are expected to adhere to a set of core values comprising courage, integrity and accountability, transparency, impartiality, and results orientation
Raising the stakes for engaging in corruption—creation of hotlines, whistleblower protection laws. The Government has also addressed the incentive structure—pay raises have been revised from an annual consideration to consideration every six months, and evaluation of performance of public officials has become more results-oriented
The government is encouraging strong and effective participation from the public to ensure transparency through monitoring of performance indicators, oversight bodies, etc.

As with the other countries, the challenge still remains how to garner and sustain effective public; provide resources to support the coalition against corruption—building trust, share resources, and retain their independence, despite been part of a coalition.

Argentina

The example from Argentina, presented by Dr. Roberto de Michelle, focused specifically on financial disclosure systems illustrating how information technology can be used to increase transparency and control.

The financial disclosure system in Argentina was instituted to monitor and control assets, as well as to detect and prevent conflict of interests. However, this system faced several problems. First, it was based on completing paper forms—approximately 25 pages; and more importantly, civil society did not have access to this information. Creating and implementing software for financial disclosure forms basically solved this problem. The new software helped the situation by lowering the rejection ratio of the forms as well as raised the level of compliance.

Results from instituting the new system in Argentina

A more manageable and efficient system
More access to information
Stronger support to determine cases of illicit enrichment and conflict of interest

The general lessons drawn from the Argentina example are the following:

Deregulation of public ethics—there are too many laws/rules, which most times makes compliance difficult
Avoid overrating financial disclosure systems. They should be considered as a part of an overall anti-corruption strategy
There needs to be a balance between transparency and privacy
Improve the capacity to integrate databases; make systems user-friendly
Try to eliminate paper (move to electronic system)
Try to “get the boring bits” first right; measure management capacity
Define appropriate procedures and objective indicators of performance.
Evaluate technological capacity and the quality of human resources

The power of Data

The Chair of the session Daniel Kaufmann reiterated some of the major points made by the other presenters by showing some data collected from various surveys, including the mini-survey conducted by the World Bank Institute for the Global Forum. The key messages from his presentation were the following:

The crucial importance of diagnostics as an input to developing and prioritizing national anti-corruption programs
The importance of “unbundling” the corruption problem to look at its causes and various dynamics e.g. state capture. In other words, corruption should be seen as a symptom of deep institutional weaknesses.
The notion of prioritization for action plans should be seen at two levels a) which institution needs urgent action, and 2) which determinant of corruption needs particular priorities
The significance of an inclusive and participative approach in addressing corruption. No two countries arrive at the same strategy, but to maximize the prospects of success, any country serious about improving governance must involve all key stakeholders, guarantee a flow of information to them, and lock in the commitment of the leadership.
The importance of broadening the governance framework beyond a focus only on anti-corruption. Issues of “voice”, participation and civil liberties are also important factors in developmental outcomes
Details and priorities in a multi-faceted strategy to address corruption vary from country to country. “One size fits all” approach is not effective.

Finally, let me conclude with an observation from a colleague Dele Olowu—a scholar of public Administration and corruption in Africa:

“…African Governments and developing countries in general have not made much progress in addressing corruption primarily because they have spent a lot of time trying to fix the problem rather than to understand it” (emphasis added). In other words, “if you cannot measure and understand the problem of corruption, you cannot control it”.