Combating Corruption in 14 Herat Local Government Offices Success Story

Before this project in 14 government offices that are most services delivery entities in Herat, services did not provide to citizens in a transparent manner. People were saying that corruption permeated nearly every aspect of the public administration and people known the government entities for harassing people and extorting bribes.

The result of research indicated that bribes were needed to get a passport, register property, start a business, obtain a construction permit, to get the job into government offices, Corruption in the tax administration was widespread and decimated revenue collection and less revenue collection. Many corrupt government officials had been enriching themselves for years.

The WISE team conducted five “Summit of Survey reporting (Analysis of Corruption in Government Service-Provider Offices in Herat) and Advocacy” in the WISE conference hall and nine external summits with nice entities in their offices with a member of the network and advocated. The advocacy process was comprehensive and targeted to the core function of the public sector as follows. Refugees and Repatriations, Labor and Social Affairs, Municipality, Breshna – Herat, Education Department, Population Registration Department, Traffic Department, Finance Department, Women Affairs, Public Health, Administrative Reforms, Passport Department, Chamber of Commerce. Transport Department.

In January WISE team had an impact evaluation from 14 entities, fortunately, the weakness that was highlighted in the research was improved. The information unit was established in most departments and a new service culture was introduced. Employees coming on time, some reform was brought to the finance department and irregularities regarding citizens have resolved. Although the finance department has strengthened its system, some irregularities remain to be corrected. The Breshna department services tripled and power service sustain. The advocacy results are that service delivery has improved significantly, the head of each department improved their work and has control of each section, and the community enjoyed major success in terms of improving service delivery. In spite of this progress, In particular, vertical accountability between government and citizens needs to be strengthened, especially about transparency, participatory processes such as budgeting, planning, and monitoring.