USAID INVESTS 35 MILLION DOLLARS IN THE TRANSPARENCY OF THE PUBLIC MANAGEMENT
“The Corruption Reduces The Opportunities And Specially Affects The Poor People”

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) considers that corruption is a global problem and not only a problem of Latin America. The Director of USAID in Paraguay, John Beed, was invited to dialogue with the newspaper “Iniciativas Ciudadanas” on the advances that the strengthening of the democracy and the fight against the corruption have had in the country through programs made in alliance with the civil society like the Program to Support Citizen Initiatives (PAIC) or Threshold Program, among others.

In the last six years the government of the United States has invested around six million dollars in the fight against corruption through civil society organizations program (CSO). “There is a strong demand for changes, coming from the civil society. And without this type of commitment the governors do not have incentives to respond to the citizenship”, extended the diplomatic.

On the other hand, the direct aid to the Paraguayan Government, through the Threshold Program, will be 35 million dollars in two years. A fundamental question is the administration and control of these funds, dedicated to the projects and directed toward reaching the expected goals. “There are several ways in which we can assure this issue, we have civil employees of USAID with long experience in the handling of resources and in strengthening institutions and they have a very important role in the supervision of a program in terms on content. On the other hand, we have officials that have develop the financial guides for each area, and besides, all the organizations which work (under the program) are subjects of external audits periodically, to be transparent in their management” explained the interviewed person.

High-priority lines of work for the United States with (PAIC) made through Information center and Resources for Desarrollo (CIRD) is that USAID has been working with about 50 municipalities, with a tool denominated LETS MEASURE, that measures the performance of the municipal management, accompanying their efforts to make more transparency their administrations and to improve the quality of the services to the citizens. “There are many examples of strong changes in which the excellence in the public management and more transparency in the expenditures of the municipality have been obtained. In addition every time people has more access to what their municipalities are doing with public budgets, thanks to the access of information of the public institutions or the citizen incidence in the Judicial Power”, described the director
of the cooperation agency.

Consulted on other programs of strengthening the democracy and anticorruption that are being implemented by USAID, John Beed indicated that an important line of cooperation is the strengthening of Rule of Law, and the work to support the Supreme Court to surpass themselves in the management of resources and to be transparent on the changes at the inner of the organization; that is to say, to give more access of information to the citizenship. “Also we are supporting the Supreme Court in establishing the Code of Ethics and other initiatives promoting transparency, giving impulse to the citizen oversight over the Justice sector”, remarked.

The cooperation with the Government during the last year also had an important approach in the fight against impunity in addition to the consolidation of the economy. In that sense it also said that “the Program Threshold - that is a donation of the Millennium Challenge Corporation that benefits about 26 institutions of the Paraguayan Government improving efficiency of the State and fighting impunity”.

Support of the civil society is key
The emphasis in the participation of the CSO also takes place in the Threshold Program, by means of a Permanent Advice Board. And also, the same program has donated funding to support projects different citizens organizations, proposing concrete forms to affect the control of the public management.

Although in other countries also there is social participation, in Paraguay this one is a fundamental element of the program of fight against the corruption. “Here we are canalizing our resources and working jointly with many organizations like the CIRD, INECIP, IDEA, Alter Vida, FMB, Desdel Chaco, Moises Bertoni or WWF, among others. Many of our main partners in Paraguay are local organizatios. This is similar to what we do in the Unites sates, so we believes this is an importance step” concluded John Beed.

Source : Peridico Iniciativas Ciudadanas
Article by María Díaz de Vivar – CIRD