Saqartvelos Kanoni Saxelmwifo Sakutrebasi Arsebuli Sasoflo-Sameurneo Danisnulebis Miwis

Saqartvelos Kanoni Saxelmwifo Sakutrebasi Arsebuli Sasoflo-Sameurneo Danisnulebis Miwis

Monitoring the Renovation and Reconstruction of the Mayor's Office via Crowdsourcing

Project Objectives

Transparency International Georgia will facilitate the monitoring of public funds which are financing the reconstruction and renovation of the Mayor's Office by empowering CSOs and the public at large to participate in the process. TI Georgia's main objectives are twofold: firstly, to provide an environment in which all interested parties might participate and contribute equally in the process of monitoring; and secondly, to hold the authorities (in this case, specifically the Mayor's Office) accountable to the public in its use of public funds.

Background

Since 2003 the Tbilisi budget has increased threefold, from GEL 200 million to GEL 600 million. While petty corruption has all but been eliminated under Saakashvili's administration[1], the level of sophisticated corruption, corruption which is difficult for the public to understand, yet alone follow, is believed to have increased. The public at large volleys rumors and speculation (i.e. there is a Jacuzzi on the roof of the Mayor's Office) all the while there is little documentation to either allay suspicion or prove it. An initial look at the Tbilisi budget for 2008 shows vague line items and an overload of documentation that does little to dissuade popular opinion that public funds are indeed being spent properly[2].

New technologies now exist that allow the public and any interested party to volunteer their time and play a larger role in civic activism. Technologies, until now used for social networking and recreation, are now being used in ways the authors never dreamed – directing public energy to participate in different causes into real action. Forums such as Facebook and news shoutouts such as Twitter have emboldened a new generation to actively, not passively, exchange relevant information and organize to take action to resolve real social and political problems. Interactive web-based crowdsourcing tools have enabled communities to easily dedicate their time with concrete results[3].

Problem Analysis

The misuse of public funds has far reaching consequence throughout Georgian society. Funds misused in one sector are funds that could otherwise be used in sectors in sore need of additional support. All stakeholders within society, albeit vulnerable women, children and the unemployed or even other ministerial departments vying for funding to increase the effectiveness of their projects lose in this zero sum distribution of finite funds.

Where corruption is even suspected, the level of trust the public holds for those institutions decreases and public frustration increases, a result of the fact that there are few forms of recourse to address the mistrust, whether founded in fact or not. With no corroboration from CSOs and officials alike, the mistrust is only likely to increase.

A documented approach which either allays the doubts of the public or provides tangible evidence supporting their mistrust will put aside doubt and frustration and provide a firm platform on which all members of society can base future actions to address the problem.

Intervention Strategies

By targeting how funds were spent on the construction and renovation of the Mayor's Office, TI Georgia works toward a tangible goal that either supports or refutes the doubts that currently circulate among the Georgian population. Including all stakeholders in the process by new and innovative forms of crowdsourcing, the implementation of this project engages and empowers the public to contribute to the ultimate goal – highlighting dubious expenditures that may indicate public funds are not being used properly.

Project Outcomes

The project outcomes ultimately are two – engagement and empowerment of the public to directly participate in the process (TI Georgia will facilitate the process by providing the technology and invoices from the Mayor's Office) and holding government officials accountable to their public.

Plan of Action for the Project

The project's duration will be six months. The following phases describe the activities that will achieve the project's outcomes over those six months.

Phase 1

  • Announcing of the project to the public via the media, social web tools (Twitter, Facebook, email, etc.) and other campaigning;
  • Research of budget legislation that oversees how the Tbilisi Mayor's Office must expend public funds;
  • Requesting initial documentation via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request highlighting which department allocated funds for the reconstruction and renovation of the Mayor's Office and how much was allocated;
  • Initiating construction of web-based tools (crowdsourcing tools) that will facilitate a user-friendly and interactive interface for following invoices resulting from the construction of the office.

Phase 2

  • Requesting all invoices via a FOI request resulting from the construction and renovation of the Mayor's Office;
  • Continuation of the web interface to allow open public participation.
  • Campaigning to raise awareness among the public at large that it can make a difference by volunteering their time to inspect the invoices once they are online.

Phase 3

  • Completion of the web interface;
  • Scanning of all invoices and allowing the public to directly inspect and scrutinize, expenditures and provide feedback on the individual invoices leading to an organized and coherent data set;
  • Raising awareness among all parties that the data set is a tangible and document-based mechanism that can be acted upon – where suspicion of corruption is corroborated with documentation, journalists will write articles, the CSOs and the public will approach the necessary institutions to investigate these claims.
  • Evaluating the effectiveness of using these new technologies and mechanisms in the Georgian context by measuring the completion of invoice processing, the number of direct actions CSOs and the public take to address concerns should they arise.

Cooperation with NGOs and Journalists

During the third phase of the project, after the main workload is done and web interface completed, TI Georgia will organize a presentation/working meeting for local NGOs and journalists. At the meeting TI Georgia will inform local civil society representatives and the media about the project, present the web-interface and explain how the site functions. TI Georgia will ask NGOs to assist in publicizing the process by distributing printed leaflets from their central and regional offices. Lastly, TI Georgia will brainstorm with participants' on additional ideas for further web-based crowdsourcing activities and encourage local organizations to initiate similar activities. TI Georgia will organize additional training on how other organizations might utilize similar strategies.

Marketing Activities

The bulk of marketing activities will be conducted during the third phase of the project. The main goal will be promoting the project idea and the web address, where interested parties can check information that was posted and/or provide their own input and comments. Marketing activities will include:

  • a press conference organized once all receipts are posted to the website;
  • a presentation for local NGOs and international organizations;
  • an advertisement will be posted on TI Georgia's website, as well as on those of other NGOs, various forums and news portals;
  • the project coordinator will participate in different radio programs, such as Radio Liberty, etc.;
  • leaflets will be printed and distributed in front of metro stations, universities and institutions;
  • leaflet distribution will be conducted by specially trained individuals who will be wearing t-shirts with comical yet catchy images and a slogans (these tools will be brainstormed);
  • project information will be distributed via mailing lists; and
  • social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter will be used to broadly publicize information.

Evaluating the Methodology

Since budget monitoring via crowdsourcing is an experimental and innovative approach in Georgia, one of the most important aspects of the project will be its evaluation. For this reason TI Georgia will use tools similar to Google Analytics and participant feedback. Through regular analysis it will be possible to assess what worked and what did not, how many people participated in the project and the geography of its end-users. In addition, project volunteers will analyze the comments of participants and their feedback from different forums utilized specifically for these purposes.

Budget

The budget with explanations is attached separately to this proposal.

[1]See TI's Global Corruption Barometer

[2]See Tbilisi's budget

[3]See the Guardian.co.uk project on MP expenditures

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