NGO
Another Way (Stichting Bakens Verzet), 1018 AM
01. E-course :
Diploma in Integrated Development (Dip. Int. Dev)
Edition
01: 29 November, 2009
Study points
: 06 points out of 18.
Minimum study
time : 186 hours out of 504
The points
are awarded only on passing the consolidated exam for Section B :
Solutions to the Problems.
Fifth block : How
the third block structures solve specific problems.
Study points : 02 points out of 18
Minimum study time : 54 hours out of 504
The
points are awarded only on passing the consolidated exam for Section B :
Solutions to the Problems.
Fifth block : How
the third block structures solve specific problems.
Section 6: Corruption.[5 hours]
02.00 Hours analysis of Model material.
02.00 Hours in-depth analysis.
01.00 Report.
Section 6: Corruption.[5 hours]
Analysis of Model material. (At least 2
hours).
How projects seek to combat corruption.
Introduction.
Integrated development projects are intended to be corruption-free. This
section describes features built into the project structures to combat
corruption. Although most people in project areas generally agree on what
corruption is, delicate border-line situations of privilege linked to widely
accepted traditional tribal practices can arise. Project structures need to be
created to handle these situations on a case by case basis. Although the project
structures set up during project execution operate independently of both the
formal political and administrative structures on the one hand and of the
traditional local tribal structures on the other, they all have to be
complementary to and work in harmony with them. Permanent conflict would
unnecessarily complicate project execution.
The following aspects are taken in turn:
On-going project monitoring.
Project audit provisions.
Support of traditional tribal structures for the project.
Support of formal political and administrative structures for the
project.
Social control through project structures and the leading role reserved
for women.
Some risks taken into account.
Detecting corruption and encouragement
for and protection of whistle blowers.
Structures for the handling of complaints.
On-going Project
Monitoring.
Since project areas cover quite a small surface area and the whole
populations there participate in the project, measurement and monitoring of the
results of the various project activities is relatively simple. The results of
most project activities are physical and visible to all. Use made of the
various project structures is systematically registered and monitored on a day
to day basis as a standard part of their operation. Most operations can
therefore be checked in real time.
Project audit and
protection of investors’ interests.
Details on auditing
structures are set out in section 4.20 Auditing structures. Project
documentations include a diagram of auditing structures. Two levels of audit
are provided for. The first is a permanent detailed on-going independent audit
structure carried out on behalf of the NGO responsible for supervising project
execution. The audit committee is independent of project execution. Its members
may be members of the Board of Directors of the NGO responsible for supervision
of project execution, and/or external experts. The second level is a
traditional periodic external audit. Auditors at both levels have full
investigative powers and can carry out inspections on site and of all
documentation without prior notice.
Project execution passes
through a series of logical steps in the creation of the project structures.
First the social structures are created, then the financial structures, then
the productive structures, and finally the service structures. Exposure of investors at any one point of
project execution is limited. Work on next following structures does not take
place until the preceding structures are in place and in operation.
The new capital content of project structures
tends to increase with progress in project execution. The first (the social and
financial) structures to be set up have relatively low formal money capital
content. The second (the productive) structures have an intermediate level of
capital content. The last (the service) structures, and especially the
distributed drinking water structures, have the highest level of capital
content. By the time the service structures are to be installed, most of the
work on them can be done under the local money system, operational costs and
formal money reserves for maintenance and long-term replacement are already
being collected, and local production of
items necessary for the service structures is already under way. For more details see section 07.14
Built-in protection for financing parties.
Support by
traditional tribal structures for the project.
Projects,
including their section 08.60 on corruption, are approved by all of the
traditional tribal leaders in the project areas. Their approvals, together with
their signatures, are included in
section 01.11 Declaration of
participation of the local population.
Approvals to the projects, including section 08.60, are also obtained from women’s organisations operating
in the project area. These are also
provided in section 01.11.
Support by formal
political and administrative structures for the project.
Projects,
including their section 08.60 on Corruption, are approved by the formal
political and administrative organs in the project areas. Their approvals,
together with their signatures, are
included in section 01.13
Declarations of political support.
These include those of the local council, who may also a member of the
NGO responsible for the supervision of project execution and co-financer of the
project. They also usually include approvals signed by the member of parliament
representing the project area in question,
and of those responsible for health, education, and environmental
services there.
Social control
through the project structures.
Three-tiered elected social structures are set up at an early phase of
project execution. These form the pillars of the various financial and services
structures created in later project phases. They are designed to ensure tight
social control over all activities at all levels.
The first level is the tank
commission level, representing about 40 families.
The second level is the
well commission, representing about 250 families.
The third level is the central
commission, representing 10.000 families.
View:
Anthropological
justification of the social structures.
Schematic drawing of the project area.
Illustration of the project management lines.
The development of social groupings of humans, in particular over the
last 11.000 years is used as the basis for the choice of administrative levels
for project applications under the Model.
Description of the
tank commission level :
About 11.000 years ago, nomadic bands of dozens of hunter-gatherers
(mostly defined as “extended families” or “clans”) started producing food and
forming village groups. (Diamond J., Guns, germs, and steel, Vintage,
London, 1998). Diamond refers to the
village groups as “tribes” comprising several extended families with an upper
limit of “a few hundred” where “everyone knows everyone else by name and
relationships” (Ibid. p.271). Prof. Robin Dunbar of
Each tank commission serves about 40 families or 200 people.
Description of the
well commission level:
The
second, or intermediate, administrative level provided for in the Model is the
well commission. It can also be called
an area development commission. The well commissions are the equivalent of
Jared Diamond’s “chiefdoms” with “several thousand” inhabitants where “for any
person [living there] the vast majority of other people…. were neither closely
related by blood or marriage nor known
by name.” (op.cit. p.273). They developed some 7500 years ago as a result of
higher population densities made possible by the local cultivation of food.
Leadership institutions (“chiefdoms”) are believed to have evolved to create
ways of resolving conflicts naturally arising amongst inhabitants not directly
bound to each other by blood or marriage. Of special interest to integrated
development projects in the modern world is that the first systems for the
collection and re-distribution of wealth and the first forms of division of
labour were established in this phase. “The most distinctive economic features
of chiefdoms was their shift from reliance solely on the reciprocal exchanges
characteristics of bands and tribes……..[to] an additional new system termed a
redistributive economy.” (op.cit. p.275). The well commissions provided for in
the Model typically represent about 1500-2000 inhabitants. This population base
supports some modern essential services, too. A typical working area for
general practitioners in industrialised countries is 1 doctor to 2000
inhabitants. In the
Description of the central
commission level:
The
third, or project level administrative structure provided in the Model
represents all (50.000) inhabitants living in a given project area. Jared
Diamond refers to this level as “states”, with “over
Women
play a leading role at all levels:
The 40 families
served by a tank commission elect the 3-7 members of the tank commission.
Before the first election, women’s health clubs have been set up in each tank
commission area. The health clubs serve as a platform for women, so that they
can organise themselves and vote en bloc at the tank commission elections. The
result is that most, if not all, of the members of each tank commission will be
women.
Each tank
commission nominates one member to the well-commission serving it. Since a
majority, if not all, of the tank commission members will be women, it is
expected they will nominate a woman to the well commission, so that most, if
not all, of the members of the well
commission will be women.
Each well
commission nominates one member to the central commission, or project
parliament.. Since a majority, if not all, of the well commission members will
be women, it is expected they will nominate a woman to the central commission,.
so that most, if not all, of the members
of the central commission will be women.
Some factors taken into account.
The following table makes use, with the kind consent
of the copyright owner, of material from attachment 09.53 Need and greed: corruption risks, perceptions
and prevention in humanitarian
assistance HPG Policy Brief 32, ODI Overseas Development Institute,
Some of the high risk areas mentioned are not always
applicable to cooperative integrated projects, like this one, where all members
of the population participate in all project structures and all project
activities. All project structures and services are by definition
non-selective. Most project activities take place under close social scrutiny
and control.
|
Activity
group |
High
risk areas |
Corruption
risk examples |
|
|
|
|
|
Assistance process |
|
|
|
|
Assessment |
Incorrect
information provided to direct assistance to certain households, groups or
regions, or to inflate needs. |
|
|
Registration |
Names added
to beneficiary lists in exchange for payment or sexual favours; bribes
demanded; multiple registrations. |
|
|
Targeting |
Leaders/staff/committees
provide false information about which households meet targeting criteria. |
|
|
Distribution |
Distributors
modify ration amounts or composition, or knowingly distribute commodities to
"ghost" or to non-beneficiaries. |
|
Sector |
|
|
|
|
Food aid |
Manipulation
or bribery in assessments, registration and targeting; diversion and sale
during transport or storage; skimming rations. |
|
|
High-value
items e.g. medicines |
Manipulation
or bribery in assessments, registration and targeting; diversion and sale
during transport or storage; substandard goods; manipulation of statistics. |
|
|
Construction |
Intentional
use of substandard materials, manipulation of land titles. |
|
Programme support |
|
|
|
|
Procurement |
Collusion,
kickbacks, multiple submission of same invoice, conflicts of interest,
forging transactions, manipulation of statistics. |
|
|
Human
resources |
"Ghost"
staff, nepotism. |
|
|
Finance |
Falsified
or inflated invoices or receipts or transactions, manipulation of exchange
rates, abuse of bank accounts, embezzlement, manipulation of statistics. |
|
|
Fleet
management |
Unauthorised
private use of vehicles, siphoning off fuel, collusion with fuel/service providers,
falsified records. |
|
|
Logistics |
Falsification
of warehouse documents, diversion during transport. |
|
Engagement modality |
|
|
|
|
Partnership
arrangements |
Partners
can engage in any of the above corruption areas. |
|
|
Scaling up
local offices for direct delivery |
Human
resources recruitment and other programme support risks; bribes required for
permits or access to public services. |
|
|
Working
through committees |
Diversion
of assistance to their own networks including family members and friends,
acceptance of bribes for inclusion on lists. |
|
|
Working
through local leadership structures / local government |
Diversion
of assistance to their own networks and political supporters, acceptance of
bribes for inclusion on lists; undue influence of local elites. |
Detecting
corruption and encouragement for and
protection of whistle blowers.
Within some traditional social systems, some community members may not wish
to report cases of possible abuse of privilege by their social seniors. As
already stated, abuse of privilege may in some cases even be socially
tolerated. In those circumstances, potential whistle-blowers may be reluctant
to report abuse, or even afraid of doing so. They need to be convinced their
complaints will be taken seriously. It is not enough to declare a policy of
zero tolerance with regard to corruption. The people in the project area need
to be clearly informed what the project considers to be corruption. Community
leaders will be expected to underwrite both the anti-corruption policy itself
and the definition given to corruption. Since the project is co-operative in
nature, privilege for one person usually means a lowering of priorities and/or
benefits for other members of the community.
With a view to the contents of the above table, and taking into account
the elements favouring powerful social control in the project area, people will
be asked to watch out in particular for cases of abuse of privilege in general,
unjust exclusion from or inclusion in services, cases where community members
are asked or forced to pay bribes, cases of extortion, requests for sexual
favours in exchange for services, forced sharing of project benefits, and substandard
workmanship.
Structures for the
handling of complaints.
As project structures are formed and become operative, responsibility for
their on-going management and maintenance is passed over to the permanent
Project Management Cooperative. All people in the project area are members of
the Cooperative. They elect Tank Commission members, who appoint Well
Commission members, who appoint the members to the Central Committee, which
appoints a small project Management Team.
Settlement of conflicts arising during on-going management of the project
structures is one of the express tasks
of the Central Committee of the Project Management Cooperative. The Central Committee for each project must
decide how it will do this. It is expected the Central Committee will usually
choose to set a Claims Review Committee up. The members of the Claims Review
Committee comprise Central Committee members only or members entirely
independent of the project (therefore external to the project area) or a
combination of these. The Claims Review Committee answers exclusively to the
Central Committee. It is independent of Project Management, whose members may
not be members of the Claims Review Committee.
Settlement of conflicts arising during project execution and before
passage of project structures to the Project Management Cooperative, is the
task of the Board of Directors of the Project NGO set up to supervise project
execution. The Project NGO is the project parliament during execution. It controls
the operation of the independent project
coordinator and his team (the project government). The Board of Directors of each project NGO
must decide how it will organise the settlement of conflicts. It may itself to
act as the Claims Review Committee. It may decide to include these duties in
its instructions to the independent on-going auditing committee. Or it may
nominate a Claims Review Committee with members entirely independent of the
project and therefore external to the project area. It is independent of the
Project Coordinator and his team, whose members may not be members of the
Claims Review Committee.
1. Opinion.
You are in
the course of explaining to the populations in your project area how corruption
is avoided during project execution and after that, in the course of on-going
management of the project structures. Explain to them on one page why you need
two structures for the solution of complaints.
2. Opinion.
For an
effective control on corruption and irregularities committed during the
creation and management of integrated
development project structures, the «government », the executive power,
and («the parliament »), the legislative power, act strictly independently
of each other. On one page, describe exactly
how they achieve this separation
of powers, both during project execution and during permanent management
operations.
3. Opinion.
Subject
always to decisions taken by the inhabitants, preference is given to conflict
resolution by commission members from outside the project areas. In the case of a pilot project in a region or
country, this decision may be expensive, as the commission members may require
payment in formal money. Where there are several projects in a region or
country, commission members can come from on or more of the other project
areas. In that case, the commission members can be paid by way of exchange
agreements between local money systems. On one page, explain the
philosophy behind the principles set out.
4. Opinion.
Integrated
development project structures do not replace formal administrative and
judicial structures run by the State. Make a two page analysis of the
jurisdictional limits of the claims review committee and their relationship with
the formal institutions. Write an introduction
setting out the legal issues in question. Then write a short analysis of the
laws and regulations in your country which allow individuals and groups to
exclude initial recourse to formal jurisdictions. Some examples might be
internal regulations of clubs and associations and arbitration clauses. Then,
try to distinguish between claims linked with the local money system set up in
each project area and those linked with formal money transactions. Draw your conclusions.
◄ Fifth block : Section 6: Corruption.
◄ Fifth
block : How fourth block structures solve specific problems.
◄ Main index for the Diploma in Integrated Development (Dip.Int Dev.).
