KICK Kick Corruption Out of Kigezi
In accordance with the provision of the KICK constitution Article I, KICK is a legal entity as ratified by the General Assembly. Documentary evidence to this effect is a constitution. Its legality of existence and operations are recognised and certified by the district authorities who host the Secretariat as per registration certificate.
KICK is a membership organisation with 4 member district civil society networks covering south Western Uganda.
The whole structure is shown in graphically in form of an organogram.
In essence, it is comprised of a General Assembly comprised of 7 representatives per member district network. This is the supreme decision ratification authority which under ordinary circumstances sits once in a year. For the purpose of policy formulationand recommendations, the General Assembly elects a board called the Executive Committee which is a policy making body on which member district networks are represented by two people. It has a Secretariat based in Kabale with staff responsible for day to day implementation and coordination. The Secretariat is headed by a former vounder member of the Executive Committee who was appointed as Head of Secretariat to oversee day to day operations and ensure adherence to the formative principals of the coalition. District implementation is carried out by the district networks secretariats and the ultimate target beneficiaries are the rural population as organised in community based organisations that constitute themselves into sub-county and ultimately district civil society netwoks.
An elaborate participatory process with technical facilitation led to formulation of a 5-year Strategic Plan . Three distinct programmes will be targeted.
The KICK strategic plan has been implemented for 1 year (ending July 2008) by the KICK Secretariat through the Secretariats of the member district networks using core financial support from the Royal Netherlands Embassy and supplementary financial contributions from Anti-corruption Coalition Uganda (ACCU), OXFAM, Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI). The human resoruce contribution by VSO, technical facilitation from the various partners and the voluntary efforts of individuals in the member organisation have all contributed to the results so far realised. Here below is the description of programmes being undertaken and progress so far made.
This is the initial programme aspect in which established and recognised methods of data collection were deployed to establish the baseline levels, types, magnitude and sector-wide implecations of corruption in the project area. As a first programme to be implemented, it was completed in February 2008 after involving consultancy advice, data collection, data analysis, report writting and dissemination of findings to stakeholders. It involved a ublic Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) in which funds of the 2006/7 financial year that were disbursed to the 4 districts of the project area from the Finance Ministry were tracked down to the district treasuries and through to departmental level. The hitherto un-attempted tracking of public funds at the sub-county and community level was also surveyed. In order to verify the baseline service delivery impact, a community perceptions survey was conducted in conjunction with Anti-corruption Coalition Uganda (ACCU). The findings of the baseline survey on corruption in government service delivery to the community as well as the perception of the community on the same services were given wide publicity, first in a very well attended dissemination workshop attended by about 100 key stake holders. With the partnership collaboration of the Royal Netherlands Embassy, the same findings were presented to the Anti-corruption Donor Group who included DFID, DANIDA, USAID and World Bank. Their appreciation of our findings as innovative and revealing was communicated to KICK in writting. Persons or organisations interested in the KICK baseline survey findings can access a copy of the report on request.
KICK plans to turn rural communities into anti-corruption agents for their own benefit and poverty eradication. This is why several selected innovative approaches to community sensitisation and mobilisation have been planned for implementation in a process which has taken off. The following approaches and their implementation progress refer:
The ultimate purpose of fighting corruption is to stop drainage of resources that would otherwise be used to implement rural development programmes. KICK will therefore empower commuities to deploy monitoring teams and tools that will ensure that resources are used for development activities for which they were budgeted and released. This programme will also be implemented in partnership with national civil society networks that are reputed for having the experience in the field of implementing such activities. A significant land mark has already been reached to this effect. Following the discussions and advice that ensued from the dissemination of the results of the baseline survey, a very elaborate public expenditure tracking survey (PETS) has been conducted to cover all levels, with special emphasis on the hitherto weakly covered sub-county level. An average of 5 sub-counties for each of the districts Kabale, Kisoro, Kanungu and Rukungiri were covered after a practical training by ACCU and KICK Secretariat staff. All KICK staff are now able to proceed with the expenditure tracking process and are able to proceed training community representatives in a sustainable and effective force that will keep an eye on public funds allocations, their effective deployment for community development and with a pro-active anti-corruption impact. The document detailing the PETS process undertaken as well as our findings and recommendations can be accessed on request. In addition, a total of 62 community-sourced monitors from an average of 4 sub-counties of the Kabale, Kisoro, Kanungu and Rukungiri member districts have undertaken intensive training from the ACCU and KICK Secretariats on how to recognise community concerns of corruption, assess and prevent them where possible or report them as whistle-blowers when judged significant. It is also significant to note that the training sessions in Kabale and Rukungiri for the initial monitors was also used to develop a KICK-specific bottom-top monitoring tool which will subsquently be used in the monitoring process covering the whole region. This tool was deemed necessaty because the hitherto available top-bottom-designed tools were often times inappropriate or inapplicable under our circumstances.
In the elaborage Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) conducted, completed and reported, our broad finding is that there is no significant corruption in the delivery of public funds from the Ministry of Finance down to the Authorised Budget Conversion (ABC) points, which points may be at the ministry, district, department or sub-county level. It is important to note that this conclusion by KICK is only specific to the key PAF sectors (agriculture, UPE, public health, feeder roads and water/sanitation) which were surveyed. Given the previous community perceptions survey in which overwhelming public out-cry about corruption in service delivery was captured, we are curious to establish - where is the rampant corruption in service delivery to the community focused? This compels us to survey the last and most important phase of service delivery - procurement, implementation and distribution. Our second year implementation plan therefore plans to carry out a VALUE FOR MONEY SURVEY in which corruption at rural development level will be surveyed for magnitude, concentration, types, quantity and culprits. In the survey of capital budget expenditure, professional valuers will be deployed to compare capital expenditure rekeased with capital assets value received by beneficiaries. In the survey for non-wage budgets, the KICK Secretariat, the district networks Secretariats and the networks of trained community monitors will work together to produce a report that should form the backbone of our anti-corruption strategies. The findings of this survey should be of interest to all rural development stakeholders.
In the interest of a sustainable high moral ground for holding others to account in terms of transparency and good governance, accounting policy and procedures have been set
We know that corruption has such complications and ramifications that we cannot fight it on our own singlehandedly. This is why we, as a matter of policy, have started and will continue to expand and strengthen partnerships with all other stakeholders with whom we share goals and objectives in the anti-corruption struggle. As this is a continuous process, we can only shed light on the current status of partnerships established in line with the KICK policy.
These provided core financial support for the preiod July 2007 to July 2008. In July 2007, an agreement was signed in which the RNE provided financial support to the KICK implementation of its strategic plan for the first year up to July 2008. When the six months implementation was done and KICK submitted its half year report and accountability as agreed, RNE recognised them in writting as being exemplary and worth emulating.
Linkage mode: Technical support * Availed a volunteer expert - Arjan de Bont - who provided tremendous 9 months (Sep 2005-Jul 2006) support in formative participatory planning, structure formation, organisation development and partnership initiation * Availed a volunteer expert - Liz Willoughby - who provided 1 and a half years (Jul 2006 to Feb 2008) advisory support in the systems development and implementation process * Availed a volunteer expert - Girei Emanuela - who is currently providing a 2 years (from Mar 2008) support in structural and partnership strengthening as well as implementation.
Linkage mode: Membership * KICK is an actuve member of the national anti-corruption networking fraternity in the ACCU family. * KICK as a member of ACCU receives funding and implements activities as planned and agreed. Special reference is made to the annual anti-corruption weeks 2006 and 2007 as well as the monitoring in the water sector with funding from Stockholm International Water Institute. * ACCU has provided significant technical support in the KICK implementation process. Reference is made to the baseline survey conducted in Sep 2007 to Feb 2008 and the training of monitors in Jun 2008 * ACCU is involved in partnership strengthening and soliciting for support on behalf of KICK * The KICK Head of Secretariat was ACCU board member for 6 months in the capacity of Vice Chairman and Acting Chairman
They provided supplementary funding.KICK is a member of the Active Citizens Club (Uganda) a group of selected civil society organisations from all over the country whose common objective is community empowerment to enable citizens participate effectively in good governance practices. The club operates under the auspices of OXFAM's organisation structure and support through which KICK public information programme received funding to enhance its outreach capacity through the local FM radios by using the planned KICK innovative approaches.
Efforts are underway to form and strenthen partnership with a new Deepening Democracy Programme (DDP) and with other support organisations which have anti-corruption agenda eg MS UGANDA and others.
Linkage mode: Organisation development support
Linkage mode: Networking
Linkage mode: Public Private Partnership (PPP)
Linkage mode is by parnership
Linkage mode: Planning and information exchange
Linkage mode: Target beneficiaries for capacity building, monitoring and advocacy
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