Building an alliance for reform: the case of the Citizen Observatory for Participatory Anticorruption Initiative (IPAC)
SANTO DOMINGO, January 2012.- The Citizen Observatory –a coalition of 14 Civil Society Organizations --presented the results of the independent monitoring of the Participatory Anticorruption Initiative (IPAC) at the Third Accountability Workshop of the IPAC on October 2011.
The Government has made considerable progresses in the implementation of the 30 recommendations of the anti-corruption action plan and completed 55% of the activities while continue working on the remaining 45%. The Citizen Observatory confirmed the progresses made by the Government and highlighted the collaborative efforts and responsiveness of the government staff in charge of implementation.
There are still few key areas that are lagging behind such as the implementation of the Single Treasury Account and the Supervisory Body of the Access to Information Law. At the Final Accountability Workshop, planned for February 2012, the Observatory will present the progress made during 2011's last trimester and the action plan to continue monitoring the Government's policy reforms addressed by the IPAC.
Where IPAC is Today
The aim of the IPAC is to identify and implement a series of activities to strengthen levels of transparency and institutional integrity, reducing the risk of corruption in public institutions of the Dominican State.
The IPAC has yielded tangible results, such as (i) the publication of a web-based user-friendly tool that will provide public access to budget information fed by the Financial Management Information System (SIGEF), (ii) a web-based portal with monthly updates that will allow citizens to know the expected and actual electricity supply in each circuit, and (iii) a new performance assessment framework for civil servants that will contribute to the professionalization of the public administration. In addition, IPAC has become a new country approach to tackle corruption, it has successfully introduced administrative and institutional changes in public entities to strengthen transparency and reduce corruption, and it has enabled the creation of a civil society observatory to monitor the implementation of the recommendations.
A Little Bit of HistoryÂ
The IPAC is a broad multi-donor and multi-stakeholder participatory mechanism involving representatives from civil society, Government, the private sector, and 13 international development agencies aiming to improve transparency, strengthen institutions and fight corruption in the Dominican Republic.
Bank's coordination among donors and facilitation between civil society, donors, private sector and the Government enabled a genuine coordination platform for donors' interventions.
In response to public outcry over corruption, on July 2009, the Dominican Republic's President Leonel Fernandez called on International Development Agencies to help the country prepare an anti-corruption assessment and strategy.
IPAC was launched in 2010 by the Dominican Government in order to increase transparency and efficiency of public institutions and obtain a positive impact on the lives of Dominicans. The initiative made possible that about 200 people representing most of Dominican society worked in 10 sector tables for six weeks. Participants were to identify a number of recommendations to strengthen transparency and accountability and to lessen the risk of corruption in public institutions.
Tables were assigned topics for discussion: water, energy, health, education, infrastructure, civil service, financial management, procurement and acquisition, access to information and supreme audit institutions. The tables presented 30 specific recommendations to be implemented in the short term with support from the donors’ community.
During its year of existence IPAC established 10 working groups, developed 30 recommendations, set up milestones to mark implementation progress, named governmental focal points, and held four accountability workshops to follow up on the recommendations using a scorecard system.
Adequate and balanced participation in each sector table was guaranteed by the inclusion of different sectors of society, such as the National Council of Private Enterprises, the Dominican Electricity Corporation, the National Council for State Reforms, Citizen Participation civic movement, among others.
After six weeks the 30 recommendations of the tables were presented to the Executive during a public event and published online. The recommendations were approved by two Councils of Ministers and a Government Focal Point was appointed to ensure implementation and monitoring of each recommendation. It is hoped that through the implementation of these recommendations there is an increase in levels of transparency, accountability in public institutions and confidence on the part of Dominicans.
International agencies supporting the initiative are: the Spanish Agency for Development Cooperation (AECID), the Embassy of France, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Embassy of the United Kingdom, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Delegation of the European Union (EU), the Embassy of Canada, the Organization of American States (OAS), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Pan-American Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank (WB).
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