The Participation and Civic Engagement Team works to promote poverty reduction and sustainable development by empowering the poor to set their own priorities, control resources and influence the government, market and civil society institutions; and influencing governmental and private institutions to be responsive, inclusive, and accountable. Note No. 70 March 2003 Case Study 1 - Bangalore, India: Participatory Approaches in Budgeting and Public Expenditure Management India: Report Cards on Public Services in quality, efficiency, and adequacy of the various Bangalore1 services were aggregated to create a `report card' that rated the performance of all major service providers in the city. The findings presented a Background quantitative measure of satisfaction and perceived levels of corruption, which, following Inspired by a private sector practice of coverage in the media, not only mobilized citizen conducting client satisfaction surveys, a small and government support for reform, but also group of people in Bangalore2, concerned about prompted the rated agencies themselves to the city' deteriorating standards of public respond positively to civic calls for improvement services3, initiated an exercise in 1993 to collect in services. This exercise was repeated in 1999, feedback from users. User perceptions on the and has been replicated in at least five other Indian cities, as well as the State of Karnataka in 1Heavily draws on Paul, S. and S. Sekhar, "Benchmarking Urban the interim. By systematically gathering and Services: the Second Report Card on Bangalore", Public Affairs disseminating public feedback, report cards may Center, Bangalore, June 2000; Gopakumar, K. "Citizen Feedback Surveys to Highlight Corruption in Public Services: the Experience serve as a "surrogate for competition" for of PAC, Bangalore", Transparency International Working Paper, monopolies ­ usually government owned ­ that September 1998; Paul, S. "Strengthening Public Accountability: lack the incentive to be as responsive as the New Approaches and Mechanisms", Public Affairs Center, Bangalore, 1995; Paul, S. "Making Voices Work", World Bank private enterprises to their client's needs. They funded paper, unpublished; Paul, S. "Nudging the State to Act", are a useful medium through which citizens can unpublished. 2Capital city of the southern state of Karnataka with an approximate credibly and collectively `signal' to agencies population of 5 million, and a major center for software and about their performance and pressure for change. industrial output. Process 3Water supply, sewerage, electricity, garbage disposal, telephones, banks, hospitals, buses, ration shops, police, city development authority, etc. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ This note was prepared by Swarnim Wagle and Parmesh Shah of the Participation and Civic Engagement Group in The World Bank as a case study input on "Participatory Approaches in Budgeting and Public Expenditure Management" for the Action Learning Program on "Participatory approaches at the Macro Level". Further details and documents related to this Action Learning Program are available at www.worldbank.org/participation The views expressed in this note are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the World Bank. Supported by a small advisory group of local what percentage of the people were either leaders and funded through local donations, Dr. completely dissatisfied or completely satisfied Samuel Paul with the help of a market research with particular service providers. The list of the agency called Marketing and Business Associates agencies had not been pre-determined, that is, (MBA) Ltd. first planned the initiative in 1993 to people were not asked what they thought of seek answers to three main questions, i) how agency A, but were rather questioned about satisfactory are the public services, ii) what whichever services they had availed of in the past aspects of the service are satisfactory and what 6 months. Overall, the methodology employed are not, iii) what are the direct and indirect costs was what has been described as a merger of of acquiring these services? This informal statistically valid techniques with qualitative exercise has since been institutionalized as one of participant observation5. When the exercise was the core functions of the Public Affairs Center, a repeated in 1999, there was some attempt to use non-profit society established in 1994 in the 1994 results as a benchmark by using similar Bangalore, with a goal of "improving governance scales for some questions, although sample size in India by strengthening civil society institutions was increased this time to 1339 from the middle in their interactions with the state"4. Principally, income category and 839 from the slums using a PAC has focused its past six years on combining `multi-stage stratified sampling plan'. The way research with action, by supporting networking respondents were selected was quite elaborate and capacity building of citizen initiatives to too. A list of all polling booths for local assembly respond to knowledge revealed through elections in 14 constituencies of the city was systematic research on public policies and obtained from which 90 were randomly selected services. to serve as `starting points' for investigators to go to and ask between 5 and 10 people about the Specifically on the 1993 initiative, after services that they have encountered. Similarly for undertaking mini case-studies on some key urban the urban poor, 80 starting points were identified problems, focus group discussions were held from four different categories of slums6. The with two different sets of households ­ middle collection of responses was then entered into a income (called general) and lower income computer and analyzed using a software package. (largely slum dwellers) to draft and finalize respective questionnaires. These were then pre- On dissemination, unlike in 1994, when all key tested. The city was divided into six regions, and findings were flashed through the media, in 1999, from each region, a random sample of the Public Affairs Center decided to first present households that had interacted with at least one mini report cards to four of the key service of the service providers in the past six months providers (telephone, water, electricity and the was chosen. Around 480 households were drawn municipality) to solicit their initial reaction. In from a pool of middle and upper income groups the interactions, the agencies did not dispute the and around 330 households representing the slum findings at all, and instead felt the pressure to be dwellers. Selected interviewees (men to women defensive about their performance by presenting ratio was 7:3) were then asked by trained constraints they had to work with. After these investigators to rate their level of satisfaction selective meetings, the 1999 report was with a particular service provider's overall circulated to all public agencies and senior state performance as well as allied dimensions such as, government officials. This was followed by a i) staff behavior, ii) number of visits required to launch ceremony for the press ­ a crucial ally in complete a task, and iii) frequency of problem the process. After letting the findings sink in resolution. People were asked to assign a rank through a heavy media coverage, a two-part from a scale of 1 to 7 (very dissatisfied to very workshop was organized involving senior satisfied). These were then aggregated to compute averages for overall perception of the 5Gopalakumar, K. "Citizen Feedback Surveys to Highlight quality of service. The extreme scores indicated Corruption in Public Services", Transparency International Working Paper, Sept. 1998. 6Slums on municipal land, government land, private land and on 4www. pacindia.org. land owned by the Bangalore development authority. officials from the agencies and the public. The because of low expectations, they seemed more first part allowed the agency officials to interact satisfied with the same services than people with and learn from each other on what some of the higher incomes. The proportion of people who more responsive agencies7 were doing to best were made to pay a bribe in order to access the address the criticisms. The second part involved services was also higher for the poor than the the head of the agencies answering questions middle-income group: in 1993, a third of the from assembled citizens on what steps were urban poor (surveyed) said they had paid a bribe. being proposed to improve the quality, efficiency While this ratio dropped to 25% five years later, and adequacy of their services. average amount paid had increased three-fold to Rs. 1245 per case, largely to the police. Findings8 The report cards indicate that there is a clear link Over the 5 years between the first and the second between petty corruption and inefficiency of report card initiatives, partial improvement in service providers that have non-transparent services such as the telephones and the hospitals procedures, and arbitrary decision making were noted9. However, overall citizen satisfaction powers vested in officials. A better access to remained low (with even the better performers information, clear specification of service scoring less than 50% satisfaction rating). People standards and customer rights, and sustained seemed even less satisfied with the way staff public scrutiny and monitoring of performance interacted with the clients. Bangalore Telecoms, through institutionalized report card initiatives for instance, had the highest overall satisfaction has been suggested to be helpful in curbing both rating of 67%, but this dropped sharply to only the vices by shaming the `baddies' and creating 30% among a sub-sample of people who public awareness and building up pressure. interfaced with the agency personnel to solve a specific problem. The scale of corruption was Results perceived to have grown with both the number of people paying bribes and the amount they were The report cards have forced the hitherto paying increasing. 92% of the respondents said apathetic public agencies to, at least, listen and they visited the agencies in person to solve a react to citizen concerns. While anecdotal problem and two-thirds of the time, they needed evidences on the incompetence of public to make two or more such visits. Over half the agencies have always existed in plenty, cases involving bribes were extortionate in quantification of perceptions has brought with it nature, while a third had been voluntary `speed' a credible indicator that lays down the extent of payments. (dis)satisfaction and allows inter-agency comparison, triggering internal reforms. A separate report card on the slum dwellers in Although no dramatic improvement in quality of 1999 also found that they were more happy with service was witnessed between 1994 and 1999, of services such as transport, schools, electricity the 8 agencies covered in the report card in 1993, and hospitals than with the police, water supply four did make attempts to respond to public dis- and garbage clearance. The urban poor had to satisfaction. The worst rated agency ­ the visit the agencies more often than the middle Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) ­ class to solve a similar problem, and had lower reviewed its internal systems for service delivery, problem resolution rates, although, probably introduced training for junior staff, and along with the Bangalore Municipal Corporation, began to host a joint forum of NGOs and public 7 The utilities were better, having introduced a system to register agencies to consult on solving high-priority breakdowns, streamlined bill collection, etc. problems such as waste management. The 8 Please refer to Paul and Sekhar (2000) for detailed finidngs. 9 Karnataka Electricity Board, too, formalized The Bangalore development authority, the regional and city transport offices, the police and the municipal office were deemed periodic dialogues with resident associations to the most corrupt and inefficient, with ration shops (food garner feedback from users. Two others tried to distribution), water and electricity utilities judged in between the two extremes. strengthen their grievance redressal systems. However, the remaining four stayed indifferent to The fact that the report card exercise has been the results demonstrating how public outcry replicated not only in other Indian cities, but also alone is not adequately strong to overcome internationally in countries like the Philippines bureaucratic inertia. It is quite clear that report and Ukraine, and cities like Washington D.C., card initiatives will need to be complemented by endorses the usefulness of the `model' in politically-driven systemic reforms from the exacting accountability from public enterprises. inside for optimal results. Inspired by the pioneering initiative in its own capital, the State of Karnataka's Health Public awareness on issues of quality service Department introduced a simple form seeking delivery and corruption has substantially feedback from patients on the quality of services heightened following heavy coverage of the received at its primary health facilities. That a report findings in the mainstream media. In 1994, model tested at a municipal level was adapted for the country's premier daily, The Times of India, use at the state level shows the versatile for instance, ran a weekly feature for two months applicability of the idea of report cards. focusing on one interesting finding at a time. However, the legitimacy of the findings vis-à-vis Civil society groups are increasingly realizing the domain of exercise is important ­ one that their collective pressure has enough power to especially needs to watch out for caveats such as usher in change. Instead of remaining passive using nation-wide data to infer solutions for local individual receivers of inefficient services, the problems, or vice versa. report card initiative has, for example, inspired the undertaking of a unique state-citizen Concerns Swabhimana Initiative in Bangalore to improve quality of city life through innovative solutions to Unlike opinion polls, report cards necessarily old problems. By the time the second report card present views of people on issues that have was released, the new Chief Minister of actually been experienced first-hand by the Karnataka formed the `Bangalore Agenda Task interviewee. This is a useful merit, but because Force' (BATF) consisting of prominent city people's expectations of the standards of service residents to come up with suggestions to improve vary across regions of residence (urban, rural), the city's quality of services and infrastructure, income groups, and education levels, among and thus, `rejuvenate' the city. This was the first others, aggregation of `subjective' satisfaction time a chief minister was responding to persistent ratings of different people to compute an citizen demands, expressed through the report `objective' indicator of a quality of service is cards, the media and the NGOs, to make service theoretically problematic11. At a practical level providers perform better (more efficiency, less though, if a sample is dis-aggregated well to corruption) and be more accountable (through reflect fairly homogenous socio-economic citizen charters). One immediate result of this characteristics such as income levels, this initiative has been the introduction of a system to methodological flaw can be minimized, and self-assess property taxes. This has brought in useful insights can still be extracted on the transparency, speed and simplicity to an general perception of a group of `similar' people. otherwise corrupt and arbitrary process10. The Report cards to date have also concentrated more report cards also have stimulated the growth of on the quality of service offered. The scope of civil society activism in Bangalore. From about inquiry was broadened where the surveys 30 such groups in 1993, there are now over 200, covered rural areas where issues surrounding all of which are interested in citizen monitoring. access remain a big problem. The slum dwellers In addition, BATF has now produced its own survey asked questions about access to services, report card on the city's public agencies. as access is an issue for the poor. The five service survey also probes access. 11This is quite similar to the idea of `inter-personal comparability of utilities', a controversial topic in the economics literature with 10Noted by Samuel Paul in a personal communication, dated 29 strong arguments against its prevalent use by Lionel Robbins (1938) June 2000, to Parmesh Shah at the World Bank. and Amartya Sen (1973), among others. Although report cards are a seemingly watch dog function is also important. It uncomplicated method of channeling citizen contributes to the creation of social capital, a feedback, they require a competent intermediary foundation for future impact even if immediate that is technically versed to pilot and administer a reforms are slow in coming. survey methodology, like PAC. By being dependent on intermediaries with sophisticated Annex: The PAC Model on Report Cards skills, the process, by extension, requires Phase I: Planning and Preparation adequate financing, time commitment, and Mini case studies and focus group discussions interest on the part of local residents to sustain with service users, citizens, clients the exercise from formulation through Identification of a representative sample of monitoring year on year, in addition to a households, possibly dis-aggregated along conducive socio-political climate on site (in non- important categories, such as place of residence, democratic countries without a vocal free press income group, gender, ethnicity, education level and civic activism, this exercise will need to be Pre-testing to revise and finalize questionnaires done differently). These are all demanding on aspects of service delivery requirements, and simpler ways will have to be sought if `indigenization' of the exercise in Phase II: Statistical and Analytical Groundwork developing countries means making the exercise Questioning of individuals by using `ranking' cost-effective and easily manageable. This, methodology however, entails tradeoffs. The benefit of making Computation of aggregated satisfaction ratings the process manageable by limiting the exercise for each agency and for each category of issues, through a small sample size, for instance, must be e.g., corruption weighed against costs of non-representativeness Compilation of overall, as well as mini report and inapplicability of findings on a broader plane cards, with analysis accompanying statistical (e.g., it is difficult to make the sample size of presentation 2000 representative of the 5 million residents in Preparation of supplemental material: press Bangalore). Relaxing of difficult constraints can releases, media kits, briefing notes in accessible thus compromise the credibility of the report, language for lay people making it easier for the government to ignore the findings at the time of dissemination. However, Phase III: Dissemination standard errors cam be estimated so that people Pre-launch presentation of mini-report cards to are aware of the limitations of the samples used. relevant authorities Press conference to disseminate and launch It seems that one of the biggest challenges for findings to the public initiatives like the report cards is to ensure an Two-stage town-hall style meetings among the operational link between information and action. authorities of agencies surveyed to allow inter- Unless implementation is not followed through agency learning, followed by that between through a sustained movement of action and citizens and the authorities for direct exaction of research, probably along the lines of the PAC accountability model, report card initiatives, especially those that arrive as one-off experiments will serve little Phase IV: Advocacy and Monitoring long-term purpose. How these efforts are to be Facilitation of a sustained coverage of report card institutionalized at non-governmental levels, findings in the media possibly involving a coalition of grassroots, Monthly or quarterly monitoring of progress research, advocacy and media organizations, made to redress highlighted anomalies by the should thus be a concern warranting some agencies under surveillance; direct follow up thought right from the outset. The role of report accompanied by indirect pressure creation cards in energizing civil society monitoring and through the media and citizen lobbying groups Prepare for a sequel report card initiative after a spell of 1to 2 years by addressing methodological flaws, identifying benchmarks using either identical or similar households, considering new areas of probing, etc. "Social Development Notes" are published informally by the Social Development Family in the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Network of the World Bank. For additional copies, contact Social Development Publications, World Bank, 1818 H Street, NW, MSN MC5-507, Washington, DC 20433, USA, Fax: 202-522-3247, E-mail: sdpublications@worldbank.org. Printed on Recycled Paper