The Integrity Toolkit for Palestinian Local Government Units.

Could it be used as a Two Folded Social Accountability Tool?

Ibrahim BisharatBirzeit University

November 26-29, Cairo

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Arab Governance Week Social Accountability in a

Changing Region -Actors and Mechanisms  

Social Accountability in oPtGeneral Introduction

• 1967-1995 The Civil Society was the main provider of service delivery and holding the Israeli Occupation accountable for the abuse of the human rights of the Palestinian people.

• 1995-2012 the political will for accountability was manifested by:

1. Horizontal accountability

• Legislations of Basic Law, Elections Law, Money Laundry Law, Consumers Protection Law, Anticorruption Law, Standards and Specifications Law.

• The establishment of the Human Rights Independent Commission in 1995 followed by the establishment of the State Audit and internal monitoring and complains departments in the PA institutions, and PACC in 2010 and the human rights department at the Police in 2011

2. Vertical Accountability• Holding and Monitoring PLC in 1996 and 2005, and holding

Local Elections in the West Bank in 2004/2005 and 2012

Review of the Toolkit Development

Background on the Development of the Toolkit:The toolkit was developed in 2007-2008 in full participatory approach between UNDP/PAPP , three selected municipalities, Ministry of Local Government (MoLG)and Association of Palestinian Local Authorities (APLA). It was tested and piloted in 16 municipalities in 2008 and 4 municipalities in 2010. Toolkit Purposes:1.Improving the quality of services provision of the municipalities2.Holding the municipalities accountable to their constituencies3.Increasing the role of the citizens in the policy making process of the municipalities4.Increasing the municipalities transparency 5.Increasing the integrity of the municipalities

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The Structure of the Toolkit

1. Questionnaires targeting the municipality and its employees (weight 35%),

2. Focus group discussions of citizens, civil society organizations and contractors (weight 20%),

3. Revision and verification of public documents and records (weight 20%),

4. Interviews of Municipal Officials/State Audit (weight 10%),

5. Questionnaire for citizens and public audience (weight 15%).

Review of the Toolkit Development Cont’d

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The toolkit aims at measuring the following:1.The quality of performance of the LGU with reference to integrity, transparency and accountability, as well as its relations with citizens;2.The level of responsiveness of the LGU to the needs and rights of citizens;3.The availability of procedures and mechanisms to promote integrity and fight corruption and abuse, as well as to promote transparency;4.The extent to which the public is able to question the LGU and evaluate its performance;5.The degree of the compliance by the LGU with prevailing laws and regulations.

Review of the Toolkit Development Cont’d

Review of the Toolkit Development Cont’d

The LGU’s aspects that are examined in order to measure their degree of transparency and integrity are:

1. Administrative regulations & Human Resources

2. Council (Chairman/ Mayor and Members)

3. Financial Procedures.

4. Department of Engineering & Organizing/ Management

5. Supplies & Procurement (of works, goods, and consulting services):

6. Social Involvement/Community Participation

 

Ratings

Findings of Integrity, Transparency and Accountability

Integrity Average in the majority of the LGUs is between acceptable and good

 Transparency Performance and Integrity Performance are low in particular in the LGUs relations with the community participation in 9/15 LGUs and in 8/15 LGUs respectively

Accountability is low in 11/15 LGUs in particular regarding Engineering and Planning and in 9/15LGUs regarding Administrative Systems and Human Resources

Accountability is high in 9/15 LGUs regarding the financial systems. Level of Community Participation is very low in all the LGUs.

Review of the Toolkit Development Cont’d

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The way forward:

Recommendation:

Review the toolkit and consider splitting it into two separate tools;

A horizontal one that increases the role of the state of holding its apparatuses accountable and transparent,

A vertical one that also increases the role of the civil society and the citizens in holding the municipalities accountable for their constituencies.

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Empowered lives.Resilient nations.

Prospects of a Vertical Social Accountability Tool

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Prospects of a Horizontal Social Accountability Tool

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The way forward:

The way forward:

Proposed Methodology1. Identify lessons learned in using the trial toolkit in selectd municipalities.

2. Review MoLG, PACC and the State Audit current official tools used horizontally and compare the proposed horizontal version with them and find the linkages with each’s mechanisms to hold the municipalities accountable.

3. Identify the pillars of the proposed toolkits and recommend how to approach them in developing the new version.

4. Identify civil society agents of change with focus on youth organizations and cooperate with them on the development of the vertical version.

5. Learn best practices from other Arab and international initiatives on similar service delivery experiences and recommend utilizing these experiences in developing the new versions of the toolkit.

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Questions&

Answers

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