IMPLEMENTING PARTNER: CLARION
YEARS: 2011-2012
GRANT AMOUNT: $35,000
THEME: Local Governance
This project sought to address the problem of corruption in Vihiga Municipal Council in Kenya. The existence of corruption in Kenya and especially in most of the country’s institutions of governance has over the years led to great loss of the country’s revenues and other useful resources and has also resulted in citizens being denied of some of their basic rights. The vice has been known to take many shapes in these institutions and in local authorities it exists in the form of revenue leakages through faulty revenue collection systems, manipulation of procurement processes and obvious non-delivery of procured items which leads to non-completion of projects financed by local authority resources.
Evidence from Vihiga Municipal Council in western Kenya indicates gross abuse of local authority resources e.g. up to the tune of over Ksh. 30 million between 2008/09 and 2009/10 financial years. It is this abuse that led CLARION to intervene, with the aim of contributing to improved accountability and management of public funds. The organization therefore designed the Partnership for Budget Accountability in Local Authorities (PABALA) project which has been implemented in Vihiga Municipal Council in partnership with a local Non Governmental Organization (NGO) known as Community Engagement for Peace and Development (CEPED).
PABALA proposes a partnership with local communities and community groups as well as the Municipal Council of Vihiga to trace and account for missing resources that could have otherwise met the needs of local taxpayers.
We believe that the objective of the project, which was to enhance community participation in monitoring the implementation of devolved funds projects implemented by Vihiga Municipality, was achieved to a great extent. This is evidenced by the vibrant participation of the community in carrying out the social audits and their involvement in the advocacy processes that were undertaken like the public accountability forums and the follow-up meetings with council officials as well as the continuous physical monitoring of projects that were being implemented using devolved funds.
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