Audit offices share experiences of civic involvement in public-sector construction projects

Project description

Title: Strengthening institutions to increase transparency and civic involvement in the systems for monitoring public-sector construction projects
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) 
Countries: Peru, Chile
Lead executing agency: Peru: Peruvian International Cooperation Agency (Agencia Peruana de Cooperación Internacional, APCI); Chile: Chilean International Cooperation Agency (Agencia de Cooperación Internacional de Chile)
Overall term: 2014 to 2015

Launch of GEOCGR (Chile), December 2014 © GIZ

Context

With support from GIZ, Peru's General Comptroller’s Office has been developing and rolling out INFOBRAS, an information system on public-sector construction projects, since 2010. Citizens can use the system to obtain detailed information on all public-sector construction projects carried out by the national, regional and local governments. Since 2012, 3,000 state institutions have been required to use INFOBRAS and keep it updated with the latest relevant data. There are currently over 30,000 public-sector construction projects registered in the system, which contains a range of data on each one, including information about costs, outgoing funds, contracts, building progress, geographical location and photos. This increases transparency in government construction projects and allows them to be monitored by citizens.

At the end of 2013, Chile's General Comptroller’s Office identified INFOBRAS as a key instrument in developing GEOCGR, its system for monitoring public-sector construction projects. At the same time, the Peruvian Supreme Audit Institutions became interested in using the geographical approach of the Chilean system to help improve INFOBRAS.

This formed the basis for the cooperation project that developed between the two countries, which, with assistance from GIZ, are now sharing their experiences with their respective information systems for public-sector construction projects. They are also helping each other to develop, expand and improve the systems.

Objective

Knowledge transfer is promoted between Peru and Chile's Supreme Audit Institutions, strengthening their participatory systems for monitoring public-sector construction projects.

Approach

As part of the project, Peru and Chile's Supreme Audit Institutions are sharing their experiences of using different instruments, including:

  • Well-prepared information on planning, developing and implementing INFOBRAS
  • Model for integrating various IT systems as part of INFOBRAS
  • Model for cooperation between the different institutions helping to run INFOBRAS
  • Training model for INFOBRAS
  • Strategy for presenting INFOBRAS to public-service workers and citizens
  • Strategy for helping INFOBRAS users
  • Results and analyses of satisfaction surveys conducted among INFOBRAS users
  • Processing citizens' feedback on INFOBRAS
  • Communication strategy for the GEOCGR project
  • Strategy for implementing the geographical approach of GEOCGR within the Peruvian model.

Results

Drawing on the experience of Peru's General Comptroller’s Office, and with advice from GIZ, Chile's General Comptroller’s Office has developed and implemented GEOCGR, its system for monitoring public-sector construction projects. The system has increased transparency and civic involvement in government construction projects.

GEOCGR was officially launched on 2 December 2014 at an event attended by high-profile representatives of the Chilean and Peruvian Governments. The Chilean participants highlighted the importance of GEOCGR to their public administration and pledged their full support to the new system.

In the first half of the project term, knowledge transfer was geared to a greater extent to the development of the Chilean system, while in the second half, cooperation is focusing on further developing the Peruvian system. In this way, greater transparency and civic involvement are being introduced into public-sector construction projects in both countries.