Session 2 Engaging citizens to counter corruption: scope of analysis and rationale

1. Engaging Citizens to Counter Corruption for Better Public Service Delivery and Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals Session 2 Engaging citizens to counter corruption: scope of analysis and rationale Enrique Peruzzotti Di Tella University and CONICET - Argentina peruzzot@utdt.edu

2. Dimensions of the concept of accountability TRANSPARENCY access to relevant and reliable information . ANSWERABILITY obligation of public officials to inform about their activities and justify their decisions ENFORCEMENT The authority to impose sanctions to those public officials who have violated the law or who have not fulfilled their obligations or to rectify policies

3. Traditional approach: arenas and agents of accountability Auditors Comptroller General Prosecutor General Horizontal mechanisms Executive Legislative Judiciary Elections Public Sphere I Civil Society Media Individual Citizens Vertical Mechanisms

4. New developments: creation of new agencies & mechanisms and emergence of social accountability politics .

5. New developments in democratic accountability Auditors Ombudsman Comptroller General HR Commissions Prosecutor General Anti-corruption agencies Executive Legislative Judiciary Citizen Complaint Systems & Score Cards Policy Councils Articulated Oversight Right to information campaigns Exposes of corruption & illegal encroachments Judicialization Lobbying Social accountability politics I Civil Society Media Individual Citizens

6. Public strategies to enhance accountability and challenge corruption in the provision of public services Bad policies prevent efficient or equitable distribution of public services Corruption (abuse of entrusted power for private gain) Poorly designed/implemented public policies Accountability not just as mechanisms for preventing/ sanctioning wrongdoing (logic of procedures) but also mechanisms to improve information, deliberation to enhance the quality of public policies or service delivery (logic of consequence)

7. Enhancing Accountability in Public Service Provision Development of different sort of top down and bottom up oversight mechanisms to prevent corruption Accountability In Public Services . Control of procedures More, direct, public and inclusive inter-phases between service providers, citizens and public officials Influence outcomes

8. Citizen participation and governmental accountability Citizen Engagement To enhance the responsiveness and effectiveness of service providers To expand the system of formal oversight agencies to prevent corruption and other forms of official wrongdoing

9. TransparencyThe provision of information is not enough: it also matters the quality of such information “Opaque” transparency policies • Disclosure of irrelevant data • Information presented in a format that makes it difficult for ordinary citizens to comprehend it • Disclosure of unreliable data • Information Politics • Generation of alternative and independent sources • of information • Filling out information deficits or challenging official data • Translation and dissemination • Right to Access to Information Initiatives • Improving signaling systems

10. Citizen struggles for right to information in India National campaign by the MKSS (workers and farmers power association) in the state of Rajasthan Right to information act (2002) Creation of a statutory right to government-held information . Access to financial records of state agencies to monitor ground-level public expenditure activity (paper audit) Social audits (direct on the ground audit) MKSS team of activist auditors that engage in meticulous research including interviews with workers and contractors of public works, villages who observe the quality work or its absence, etc.

11. Answerability Creation of adequate channels of feedback between service providers and citizens (mutual learning) . Participatory institutions (social audits, participatory budgeting, health and educational councils, etc.) Input dimension Better signaling of needs Voice to previously marginalized groups (+ equity) More public and deliberative channels (vs. clientelism) Increased ownership of the governance process Output dimension More efficient use of existing resources More equitable distribution of public goods Reduces discretion, improves oversight Increased legitimacy of policies

12. Brazilian Health CouncilsCreation of mandatory policy councils Improvement in access to health services by the poor(health appointments x capita, number of hospital beds, money spent per appointment, infant mortality)

13. Social demands for enforcement:officials can be called into question by informal social mechanisms . Social accountability politics Social and media exposes of governmental wrongdoings Whistle blowing by permanent social watchdogs organizations Activation of Horizontal Mechanisms of Control To increase reputational costs for corrupt behaviors/ lower the social tolerance threshold Articulated Oversight Ombudsmen Courts Consumer Protection Agencies Public Service Regulatory Bodies Anti-corruption Offices

14. Articulated oversight to enforce the execution of the master plan for Matanza / Riachuelo basin Federal Court Execution of a master plan to provide basic urban services to the population living in the basin (sewage, water, roads, housing, environmental clean up, etc.

15. Variety of mechanisms of citizen engagement to enhance governmental accountability