The Government of Bangladesh (GoB) has been making sustained efforts over the years to bring about a systemic change in the public procurement system. As a continuation of such efforts, the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) under the Implementation Monitoring & Evaluation Division (IMED) of the Ministry of Planning (MoP) is implementing a World Bank-financed project titled: “Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPPP).” The aim of the project is to promote transparency, accountability, and efficiency in public procurement by enabling multi-stakeholders’ engagement. BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) is responsible for implementing citizen monitoring of public procurement at the local level under DIMAPPP. Site-specific Citizen Monitoring (SSCE) activity at the local level has predominantly been used to monitor the implementation of procurement contracts in government development projects. This has involved direct beneficiaries with the objective of ensuring quality and reducing opportunities for fraud and corruption at the Upazila (sub-district) level. The current monitoring projects/contracts are construction of rural roads, construction/extension/repairing of school buildings and cyclone centres. The current research/study aims to understand the process of existing practices of citizen engagement model at the local level and highlight the challenges from the field and provide recommendations for improvement.
Researchers: Dr Munshi Sulaiman; Dr Mirza M. Hassan; Syeda Salina Aziz
Partners: Community Development Program (CEP); Central Procurement Training Unit (CPTU); World Bank
Timeline: 2018-2022
Status: Completed
Contact: Syeda Salina Aziz
salina@bracu.ac.bd
Publication:
Blog:
Context
Public procurement affects virtually all aspects of our lives—health, education, economic opportunities, and the overall quality of life. About a third of government budget and 70% of the developmental budget is spent on public procurement. So, efficient, effective, and economical (3Es) public procurement is instrumental in building a prosperous and equitable society. The government of Bangladesh has been working relentlessly over the last two decades to bring a systemic change in the public procurement system. The aim is to achieve the 3Es with CPTU in-charge of this reform process. BIGD has been working with CPTU since 2009 to develop and test a model of participatory governance, in the form of citizen engagement in the monitoring of public work projects. BIGD’s effort resulted in the integration of a citizen engagement component in the government’s Public Procurement Reform Project (PPRP)-II and subsequently, in DIMAPPP, both financed by the World Bank. Based on the lessons learned from the pilots implemented under PPRP-II, BIGD developed a low-cost and politically feasible strategy of citizen engagement, which has been integrated with DIMAPPP. The project is being implemented in 12 Upazilas and will be scaled up in another 36 Upazilas by 2020. BRAC’s Community Empowerment Program is assisting BIGD at the field-level implementation of the citizen engagement component. BIGD is conducting a large-scale randomized control trial (RCT) to measure its impact along with qualitative research to understand the socio-political dynamics of the intervention.
Intervention
Based on the lesson learned, BIGD developed the Site-specific Organized Citizen Engagement (SOCE) model. In SOCE, the partner non-government organization (NGO) forms a group in each project site; group members are selected using specific criteria. The group is responsible for overseeing the project implementation and reporting to the Upazila Implementing Agencies (UIA), NGO, and CPTU in case of irregularities. We are also interested to find whether a lighter-touch, thus more scalable, citizen engagement strategy can be effective. So, we also designed a Site-specific General Citizen Engagement (SGCE) model, which allows citizens to engage in the monitoring process without forming a group. Citizens receive information about projects, implementation monitoring process, contact details, etc. from the UIA and NGO at the site meetings open to all. Citizens are expected to voluntarily monitor projects and report irregularities. Implementing partner NGO is responsible for citizen group formation, orientation; site meeting arrangement and establishment of signboard installation for every site.
Objectives
Through the RCT, the study aims to assess the impact of citizen engagement on:
How citizen engagement leads to positive impact may not have a straightforward answer. For example, from the pilot, we know that absence of commitment from authorities and citizens and lack of capacities, citizen engagement may turn into a “tick the box” type exercise. Using a combination of qualitative methods, the study aims to understand:
Methodology
The interventions are taking place in 16 Upazilas during the first year (2019). Based on the experience in year 1, BIGD may modify the strategies for the remaining intervention period. From year 2 onwards, the interventions will take place in all 48 Upazilas. Thirty-six out of the 48 Upazilas have been randomly selected to receive SOCE and the rest (12) would receive SGCE. The figure below shows the design of the RCT:
BIGD has successfully conducted a baseline survey among 1,600 citizens and 320 contractors in 80 unions of 16 upazilas. BIGD will also conduct an endline survey at 48 Upazilas in treatment and control unions. BIGD’s qualitative research team is exploring context-specific factors affecting citizen engagement using methods such as focus ethnography, key-informant interview (KII), and focus group discussion (FGD). Sylhet division was chosen for the qualitative study. Twenty-eight KIIs and six FGDs were conducted with citizens, citizen monitoring group members, local contractors, government officials, Union Parishad (UP) representatives, and civil society members. Data have also been collected from other divisions to support our findings. BIGD is also conducting a systematic process documentation research to capture daily project implementation challenges and responses, which also enrich research.
Findings and Recommendations
From our qualitative work, process documentation, and motoring data, we find a significant increase in awareness and monitoring within this short time. Citizens consider the engagement process as a very good initiative for bringing transparency in public procurement. There is a sense of ownership among the work that directly affects their lives as well as the lives of their children/grandchildren. In fact, the level of monitoring by citizens in both types of interventions depends on the degree to which they believe in the relevance of the construction project to them or their future generation. Female participation was low in areas where social and religious norms prevent women from engaging in activities that require them to leave the house or interact with other men in the community. In the case of organized citizen engagement, the ability of field officers to identify the ideal candidate for the groups as well as their capacity to mobilize and build relations affects the level of participation of citizens. The timing, duration, and area covered by the loudspeaker announcement and the timing of the site meeting have an effect on the level of participation in site meetings.
Based on these findings, we recommend:
