independent completion assessment report: … completion assessment report: citizens against...

Independent Completion Assessment Report: Citizens Against Corruption Programme PREM, Orissa Prepared By:

A Global Initiative on Citizenship and Democracy

Citizens Against Corruption Programme: Independent Assessment Report

PREM, Orissa 1

Title of Project Reduction of corruption in NREGA, FRA and PDS in Nuagad Block

Project Location: Nuagad Block, Gajapati District Corruption Problem being addressed: (as described in the project proposal). The corruption reported in the communities in Nuagad and reflected in statistics in NREGA, FRA and Public Distribution System (PDS), is perpetrated by local level officials, such as the Gram Sathi, Gram Sevak and Junior Engineer, who are frequently in collusion with middlemen, contractors, bank officials and block level employees. Two types of corruption can be identified:

Corrupt practices whereby government employees falsify document and mislead citizens in order to get financial benefits.

Corrupt practices whereby government employees neglect their duties towards citizens specially where they can see no potential for personal benefits/gains (such as villages which are not included in state government administered programmes).

The overall cost of this corruption is in the continued poverty, marginalization and indebtedness of people who are unable to access their just entitlements. Planned Actual Implementation period

30th August 2009 to 30th July 2010 1st Sept 2009 to 30th Sept 2009

Total Budget (for one year)

939.549 INR 853,976 INR

PTF Contribution

Project Objectives

As described at Project Approval (for two years) Status of Achievement at Completion1 (in view of the Evaluator)

1. Increase transparency and strengthen the system of financial accountability in government departments through monitoring of uptake of scheme provision at community level in 160 communities and use of RTI to track government budget expenditure by March 2011. To use constructive engagement with Block and GP level Government employees and elected representatives at PRI to establish sustained approaches to vigilance, monitoring and action against corruption in public

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1 Please use the following ratings scale and provide brief narrative. 1 = fully achieved, very few or no shortcomings; 2 = largely achieved, despite a few short-coming; 3 = only partially achieved, benefits and shortcomings finely balanced; 4 = very limited achievement, extensive shortcomings; 5 = not achieved.


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service. 2. To improve implementation of NREGA to ensure average 50

days work per cardholder by 2010 through exposing corrupt practice and empowering community members to demand for their rights and monitor and track implementation of the provision in 12 GPs. To ensure that all wages issued under NREGS are paid in full through Bank or Post Office.

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3. To increase public awareness of issues of poor governance and poor implementation of government provision through a proactive media programme and investigative reporting in Nuagad block by March 2011.

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4. To eradicate all incidences of corruption in formal verification for application process under FRA. Total of 2472 claims to be verified and proper certificate issued without payment of any nature by March 2011.

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5. All 5348 BPL households will receive full and regular (i.e. once a month) PDS provision in all 12 GPs by March 2011. All bogus PDS cards will be exposed and confiscated by local government by March 2010.

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Executive Summary: (as mentioned in the project completion report) No Executive summary mentioned in the completion report. Top Three Results (actual). In view of the Evaluator)

1. The community is aware of corruption issues and their rights and entitlements under the three schemes.

2. The community has made good use of RTIA to reduce incidents of corruption and also pressurize govt. officials.

3. The two people’s organizations involved in implementing the activities are pro-actively working towards achieving the objectives of the project.

Overall Achievement Rating2in Evaluators view. Use numeric rating as well as narrative. See footnote 2.

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Commentary to support 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. PREM (People’s Rural Education Movement) has been working with the marginalized communities in the states of Orissa, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu

2 The degree to which the project achieved, or seems likely to achieve, all or most of its objectives and produced the outcomes projected in the logframe attached to the Project Proposal. The rating be based on, and consistent with, the detailed ratings in the Completion Assessment section.


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for the last two decades. It has immense experience in the field of community mobilization and empowerment especially with tribal and dalit sections of the society. It is here that its experiences and learnings added to the implementation of the CAC programme in the intervened area. However, it was felt that inspite of the numerous efforts put in by the team; there is still ample room for improvement in the project, therefore the overall achievement rating is 3, i.e. moderately satisfactory. With regard to the project design it was felt that the goal of the project is very clearly stated in the proposal. It aims at reducing corruption in the delivery of three public services (PDS, NREGA and FRA) through citizen monitoring and further advocating reforms to check the same. The objectives designed to realize the same however, are not very clear (detailed explanation given in point 1 of the completion assessment section). The activities mentioned in the project planning matrix attached with the proposal do not specifically mention the number of such activities to be conducted, which makes it difficult to monitor their implementation status. Also some of the activities planned are not in coherence with the respective objective. For example, the activities under objective four (annexure 1, project completion report) focus more on awareness generation and education rather than on monitoring PDS. The implementation performance and results too cannot be said to be completely satisfactory as there are certain gaps that have been identified in the same. Although corrupt practices have been exposed and reduced to some extent due to the efforts of the community, but still more needs to be done on the monitoring and tracking implementation of the provisions of the targeted government schemes. However, the project has done a commendable job in terms of forging alliances with the media, government officials and PRI members at the local level as well as capacitating the two people’s organizations, Palli Vikas and Margdarsi.

Completion Assessment3

1. Quality of the Project Design

a. Elaboration of the corruption problems to be addressed. b. Clarity and relevance of the objectives to the corruption problem being addressed. c. Proposed community empowerment activities d. Coherence of Results Framework (Logframe) e. Constructive engagement plan

3 Ratings Scale: 1 = Highly Satisfactory or Likely; 2 = Satisfactory/Likely ; 3 = Moderately Satisfactory/Likely; 4 = Moderately

unsatisfactory/Unlikely; 5 = Unsatisfactory/Unlikely; 6 = Highly Unsatisfactory/Unlikely; NA = Not Applicable

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4

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Comments: (to support/explain rating and overall assessment)

The corruption problems have been mentioned satisfactorily in the proposal, separately in different schemes.

As far as the objectives are concerned, some of them lack clarity and precision. Objective one talks about a lot of issues from financial accountability, monitoring of schemes and constructive engagement to use of RTI etc. The idea behind this objective is to make utmost use of the RTI Act to make the respective government departments accountable and engage the citizens in monitoring their performance. This needs to be mentioned clearly in the objective. Objectives four and five seem a bit unrealistic and unachievable considering the extent of corruption problem stated in the proposal as well as the time scale of the project. It cannot be said that all incidents of corruption will be eradicated and all BPL households will receive various provisions in a non-corrupt manner. The objectives have to be designed in a way that they are helpful in planning of respective activities to achieve them and also fulfill the overall goal of the project.

Community empowerment is one of the major aspects of the project as can be seen

from the proposal and also gathered from the field visit. The notion of empowering the communities to monitor and track the implementation of concerned govt. schemes to curb corruption is mentioned in different sections (strategies, objectives as well as activities) of the proposal. However, there is lack of clarity and focus on the activities that need to be conducted to realize community empowerment, which should be mentioned in a concrete manner. For example, the number of capacity building exercises/trainings or awareness generation programmes to be conducted in the entire project period, further dividing them into quarters for effective implementation.

Under constructive engagement, apart from engaging with the government line

departments at different levels, there is a need to focus more on creating linkages with other like-minded organizations, media, academia etc. Though the proposal talks about engaging with these stakeholders, it does not mention the strategies and specific activities that would be taken up to do so.

2. The Implementation Performance

a. Extent to which the planned project activities completed

b. Extent to which the planned outputs completed. c. Community empowerment initiatives implemented d. Constructive engagement during implementation

e. Focus on sustainability

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2

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Comments:

On the basis of the completion report and the field visit, it can be said that the project team has put in a lot of effort to carry out the project efficiently. It is due to the dedication and commitment of the project staff that a number of activities mentioned in the proposal could be initiated. However, there are a few which are still in the process of being implemented or could not be taken up during the course of the project due to various reasons. For example social audits under NREGA, sensitization workshop on inclusive self-governance for PRI members and block level functionaries, district level media workshop etc could not take place in this financial year as planned in the project proposal. Therefore, in terms of overall implementation performance of the project activities, they seem to be moderately satisfactory.

Similarly with regard to the achievement of planned outputs, it is observed that

though some of them have been achieved like increase in the average work days under NREGA from 30 days to 52 days, increase in the percentage of job card holders having a bank account for direct and timely payment of wages (from 32% to 95%), etc. there are others that could not be achieved as planned, specially those related to the issue of land entitlements under Forest Rights Act.

As far as the implementation of community empowerment initiatives are concerned, it

can be said that it was moderately satisfactory, as all the initiatives could not be implemented as planned. This does not imply that the organization did not put in efforts to empower the community, as a number of initiatives like awareness generation programmes, dissemination of IEC material and media advocacy were taken up. 320 Social Watch Monitors from the community were also identified and trained on RTI, NREGA and FRA. 400 village level meetings and 2 interface workshops with the government officials were also conducted to mobilize the community. Whereas on the other hand, there were certain critical activities like social audits, development of personal and leadership skills, functional literacy and district level media workshop that could not take place in the stipulated time of the project.

Under constructive engagement, the performance of the project is quite satisfactory as

they have been able to foster cordial relation with most of the government line departments and other like-minded organizations and platforms. Media has been used efficiently at the block level in interface meetings and dialogues as well as awareness generation activities. Linkages with state level platforms like Orissa Adivasi Manch (Orissa Tribal Forum) have been formed to take forward the issue of land entitlements under the FRA. The organization also shares a good rapport with the PRI members as well as the block level functionaries, though this was achieved after a lot of struggles and efforts on the part of the project team.

The focus on sustainability is very clear in the project. This can also be seen in the

way the project was implemented through the regular support received and given by the two community level people’s organizations called Palli Vikas and Margdarshi.


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Both these people’s organizations are taking forward the activities under the project under the facilitation of the CSO partner (PREM). Therefore is can be said that the focus on sustainability is quite satisfactory.

3. The Results: (in the First year)

a. Accomplishments of the results specified in the logframe b. Responsiveness of authorities to constructive engagement.

c. Effectiveness of community empowerment initiatives

d. Value added of peer learning activities and events. e. Project contribution to CSO partner capacity to carry out anti-corruption work.

f. Prospects for sustainability of project activities

Comments: (Please briefly explain the ratings and any noteworthy aspects)

The results specified in the logframe have been achieved in a moderately satisfactory

manner, as they have not been achieved in totality, although the foundation for all of them has been laid in the first year of the project. It can be said that there are some achievements and results of the project that can be witnessed and calculated in a quantitative manner like increase in the number of job card holders, reduction in fake/bogus ration cards, improvements in the quantity of ration etc. but considering qualitative change/results as mentioned in the logframe is difficult to trace. For example, community monitoring and vigilance of public services and establishment of transparent and accountable governance system are some results/outcomes that still have to be achieved in the project.

The responsiveness of the authorities to constructive engagement is quite satisfactory.

Most of the government line departments and officials at the block and panchayat level are supportive of the initiatives taken up in the project. However, as mentioned during the field visit, there are some difficulties being faced with the forest department officials for which adequate steps are also being taken up.

With regard to the effectiveness of the community empowerment activities is

concerned, it can be said that the community has been mobilized to some extent but now they need to be further empowered and strengthened to carry forward the anti-corruption work in their respective areas. In the interaction with the communities during the field visit it was felt that though they were aware of the corruption issues and also narrated incidents where they had used RTI to access information on different issues, they still need to be capacitated to be truly called empowered.

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The project has a very clear vision of sustainability as since the very beginning the two community based organizations (Palli Vikas and Margdarsi) have been involved in all the activities of the project. They have been given the responsibility to take up awareness generation programmes and other community mobilization activities. Both the CBOs have also been conducting RTI Clinics in their respective areas and actively supporting PREM in their project activities.

4. Impact of the project on reduction in corruption Considering that the project has been carried out for just a year, it is difficult to highlight impacts in terms of behavioral change on both the demand and supply side. However, some traces of impacts can be witnessed through the incidents where the community is raising corruption issues. For example, the case of Punjab National Bank where a community member with the support of a GP level RTI activist filed an application seeking information regarding his loan, which in turn helped in revealing huge discrepancies on loan amounts for more than 200 loan applicants. This incident led to the detention of the bank manager and one of the sarpanchs who was involved in this scam. The print and electronic media also captured the incident, which created greater awareness among the common public on this issue. Another impact can be said to be the gradual growth and progress of the Palli Vikas and the Margdarsini, who are the local level organizations to take ownership of the citizens against corruption programme in the near future. Although both the organizations have yet to be fully capacitated and strengthened, they have a huge potential to shoulder this responsibility if appropriate and need based skills and capacities are imparted to them. 5. PAC-PTF Advice (Please consult CSO Partner)

a. Value added of PTF technical advice b. Value added of PAC technical advice

Comments: (In your comments please include Strong and weakest points of PTF-PAC interventions and suggestions for improvement) The organization has taken care of the comments and feedback given by PAC and PTF regarding the proposal as well as the suggestions put forward by other CAC partners during the peer review.

Strong Points: One of the strong points of the PTF-PAC interventions is that they have been supportive of the partner CSO in providing them initial support and guidance on proposal writing as well as orientation on RTI Act etc. Weak Points:


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As far as the weak points are concerned, it came out in the discussion with the project staff that there are a lot of gaps in receiving technical and financial support from PAC. The funds were not released on time, which delayed the execution of project activities.

Suggestions for Improvements: PTF-PAC should emphasize more on enhancing the capacity of the partner CSO through regular trainings and workshops on different tools and mechanisms of social accountability specifically social audits, public hearings, Citizen Report Cards, micro-planning etc. There is also a need to not only strengthen the capacities of the project staff but also the members of the people’s organizations who are equally involved in the work of the project. Apart from this, PTF-PAC should also facilitate the process of building state level alliances and networks for the partner CSO with other like-minded organizations and already existing groups/forums.

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