Participation and integrity in local budgets 2004

 

The project aimed to increase transparency and integrity in public budget design and implementation, and to encourage participation of local civil society in community issues.

TI Romania delivered training to local civil society organizations, evaluated community priorities in regard to the local budget, evaluated the relationship between the local civilian and business communities and the administration, wrote the good practices guide and organized round tables with all stakeholders to debate on the negative and positive aspects of the situation and incorporated observations and suggestions for improving the way in which the administration-citizens relationship functions.

Outcomes

  • Training instruments for civil society organizations;
  • Guide to monitoring public budget implementation;
  • Evaluations of transparency and integrity focusing on public acquisitions and mechanisms to grant authorizations/licenses for business activities;
  • Good practices guide containing recommendations on how to address deficiencies noted during the project.
Budget:

            £ 73,944

Cooperation for Development

The goal of this project was to support the establishment of transparent and efficient procedures in everyday work of local government units, strengthen human capacities and support citizen involvement in public decision making. Target group: Local councilors, district administration office, the general public.

Transparency of local governments’ budgets

The project’s main aim was to increase local government budget transparency and accountability to local community leaders, to promote public participation in important decision-making of the municipality, to promote the role of non-governmental organizations in planning and control of local government budget; to expose Delna to local government budget analysis; to introduction disclosure rules. The project brought together four Latvian municipalities – Balvi, Bauska, Tukums, Cesis, thus representing all Latvian regions. Delna in collaboration with local government representatives took the draft budget for public consultation, and prepared an educational material “How to understand your local government’s budget?””.”

The Initiative for Clean Justice

The Clean Justice Initiative represents a work group that will periodically inform public opinion in a correct and consistent manner in respect to the quality of the activity of the judicial branch activity, by monitoring the process of reform and by evaluating governmental decisions and actions in the field.
The Clean Justice Initiative aims to : monitor the legislative process and the approval of draft law by the Government, especially in the case of emergency ordinances; monitor and evaluate the management of human, material and informational resources in the judicial and penitentiary system; to evaluate the quality of internal procedures and management from the Ministry of Justice and National Administration of Penitentiaries; to evalute judicial practice in cases of corruption; to evaluate the legislative process concerning the structures involved in fighting corruption and organised crime; to issue reports, recommendations and alternative policies on the above mentioned subjects.
Member organizations: The Academy for Advocacy, Civic Alliance, “Society for Justice -SoJust”” Association, Freedom House Rom”

Efficiency evaluation of the state budgetary process and its economic consequences

The project main objective is to make an evaluation of the procedures, related to the drawing up and spending the state budget and budget surplus, and to work out recommendations for enhanced transparency and efficiency of the budgetary process. Project implementation tools include: 1. expert studying of the budgetary process; 2. legal framework analysis; 3. of the practices for the last three years; 4. identification of strengths and weaknesses, threats and opportunities (SWOT analysis); 5. focus group, consisting of representatives of the executive power (Ministry of Finance, a Ministry, Agency for Economic Analysis and Forecasting, National Audit Office, a member of parliament); 6. drawing up recommendations for: legislative changes; improvement of the institutional coordination within the process; 7. conference presenting the results of the study and the recommendations on the budgetary process to interested persons and institutions.

Building capacity of the National Prosecution Office in the context of curbing corruption

The project aimed to support the National Prosecution Office when identifying the actual problems in the fight against corruption in view of improving the existing procedural rules, and identifying an effective model for increasing the transparency and efficiency in the investigation of cases of corruption. The main project objectives were: 1. to identify the actual problems of the Prosecution office which hinder it from successful counteraction of corruption; 2. to provide analytical (legal and sociological) research on the matter; 3. to initiate an on-going debate in order to make the prosecutors speak about their actual problems; 4. to suggest working mechanisms for effective implementation of the anti-corruption legislation when prosecuting crimes of bribery, trading in influence, bribery in the private sector or bribing of foreign officials; 5. to introduce foreign experience in achieving transparency in the Prosecution Office’s work and to increase the level of efficiency in investigating corruption; 6. to encourage the cooperation between the National Prosecution Office, on the one hand, and civil society and the media on the other.

Transparent Health Service

The health service is prone to corruption due to combination of uncertainty, informative asymmetry, and sheer quantity of participants (interests). The specific project aims were: to analyze the health service system from the perspective of transparency and corruption risks, to identify and name shortcomings and their consequences for the quality of health care in the Czech Republic; to increase public awareness and knowledge of the functions of the system and its procedures, its participants, rights, and obligations; to propose procedures and specify instruments to lead to an increase in the transparency, responsibility, and credibility of the system.

Regional initiative for an integrity-related message

This regional project aimed to acknowledge the value of efforts made by caricaturists and investigative journalists in promoting a public integrity (anti-corruption) message in South-Eastern European countries. The project involves investigative journalists and caricaturists from Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, Macedonia, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Moldova and Romania. The locales of the projects were Busteni and Bucharest, Romania. The following were partners in the project: Media Monitoring Agency – Catavencu Academy, Cartoonist Network Rights – Romania, Goethe Institute Bucharest.

Hypocrisy

The goal of the project was to exert pressure on parliamentary parties to arrive at a consensus on the need for and contours of reform in party- and campaign financing. It advocates for: (1) Introduction of a designated campaign account; (2) increased ceiling for campaign spending; (3) shortened campaign period; (4) strengthened oversight of campaigns.

Active citizens – transparent local authority

The project aimed to establish a partnership between the structures of the civil society and the local authorities for increasing the public opinion towards the municipal administration in the city of Lovech through more transparent and eased access to information. The major goal was to develop a mechanism for public control. The project included: 1. assessments and evaluation of: the legal framework related to the internal organization of the administration; the mechanisms for monitoring and control; the transparency and the potential risks for corruption (potential risk points and practices); the effectiveness of the local councils for their cooperation with the municipal administration;2. formulation of recommendations and best practices; 3. precise proposals for the municipality of Lovech on how to improve its methodology for service delivery in order to be more transparent and accessible; 4. realization of educational seminars for representatives from the civil society sector; 5. improvement of the web site of the administration; 6. activities for information and publicity (media publications, information brochures etc.)

Monitoring of the activity of Sofia city council and public register of the municipal property transactions

The project objectives are: Raising the level of transparency at Sofia Municipality and guaranteeing the public character of decision-making through development of a public register of the municipal property transactions and monitoring the activities, related to: economic policy and municipal property; municipal budget; urban planning, architecture and construction; ecology and land use.

Anti-corruption education and civic action against corruption in the Sofia University

The project aimed to encourage the dialogue between teachers, student’s organizations and students and engage potential participants in the process in the fight against corruption. Some of the project’s main activities include: 1. introduction of anti-corruption education courses for students in their second and third year of study at the Sofia university – around 150 students from various pedagogical departments; 2. elaboration of anti-corruption educational programs and courses in anti-corruption behavior and corruption fighting in the universities (15 teaching weeks); 3. establishment of an university ombudsman; 4. sociological survey among students and university professors and analytical reports preparation; 5. Round table about the anti-corruption education.

Center for legal advice for victims of corruption

The creation of the Center for Advocacy and Legal Advice addressed the need to raise the public awareness of the challenges confronting the Bulgarian society in fighting corruption and to provoke public interest in the ways and mechanisms of fighting the phenomenon. The purpose of the Center was and still is to allow citizens to play an active role in fighting corruption by providing them with free legal assistance in their efforts to deal with corruption-related crimes by public institutions and civil servants. The Center also aims to raise the capacity and readiness of state institutions to work with citizens regarding corruption complaints.

Transparent State Budget

Within the project a study dedicated to a general definition of the term and historical context, description of the budgetary process – its creation and its shortcomings, and control and checks was elaborated. The study contains recommendations for increasing transparency of the budgetary process.

Improving the policy making capacity of the Bulgarian Judicial system

The goal of the project was to examine the practices of data-collection, reporting, and analysis of performance data in the Bulgarian judicial system. Since by that moment there was no systemic analysis of the operation of the judiciary as a whole, the idea behind the project was to introduce a list of key indicators which will track its performance, and will both make its functioning more transparent to the public, and provide a more precise policy-making instrument to the Supreme Judicial Council.

Power to powerless

The goal of the project was to involve the socially vulnerable part of the population in the local decision making process and tomcreate legal guarantees for their participation. Target group: vulnerable people, mayors, elected officials.