europe regional progress report

8/8/2019 Europe Regional Progress Report

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Regional Progress Report:

Central and Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union (CEE/FSU)

Regional Coordinator: Cathy StevulakReport last updated: 10/04/2010Reporting Period: 04/07/2010 - 08/31/2010

Overview of Report

1. Executive Summary2. Ongoing PTF Projects3. Pipeline Projects4. Completed Projects5. Regional Initiatives6. Annex 1: Ongoing Project Status Updates7. Annex 2: Completed Project Status Updates

1. Executive Summary

There are currently ten ongoing PTF projects in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and Former SovietUnion (FSU) region. Of these, five Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have worked with PTF in theeight prospective projects in the pipeline. PTF has received five Project Completions Reports (PCRs).

2. Ongoing Projects

There are currently 10 ongoing PTF projects in CEE/FSU. Out of the ten projects, five CSOs haveworked with PTF in the past and are building on prior initiatives. Out of the remaining 6 projects, thereare 2 CSOs who have not worked with PTF in the past (Croatias Partnership for Social Development and

TI-Estonia).

Table 1 provides a status overview of all ongoing projects in CEE/FSU.

Table 1: O going PTF Projects

CountryCSO &

Project titleProject Adviser

Date GrantAgreement

Signed

# ofmonthsunder

impleme-ntation

Fundsremaining to

e disbursed

1 Azerbaijan

Center for Economic and SocialDevelopment (CEDS): MonitoringTenders by State Oil Fund SOFAZ

Phase II

Knud Kjaer Nielsen 11.06.2009 10 $6,944

2 CroatiaPartnership for Social

Development: Active PolicyAdvocacy Project

Knud Kjaer Nielsen08.20.2010 1 $22,935


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Table 1: O going PTF Projects

CountryCSO &

Project titleProject Adviser

Date GrantAgreement

Signed

# ofmonthsunder

impleme-

ntation

Fundsremaining to

e disbursed

3 Estonia

Transparency International:Enhancing International

Supervision Capacity of LocalGovernments in Estonia

Michael Lippe 6.10.2010 2 $17,930

4 LatviaDelna: Monitoring of the

Construction of Phase II of theNational Library

Lars JeurlingMichael Wihen

3.08.2010 5 $20,991

5 LatviaProvidus: Election Campaign

MonitoringLars Jeurling

03.11.2010 6 $20,000

6 LithuaniaTI - Lithuania: EnhancingWhistleblower Protection

Legislation Phase IIPrem Garg 03.15.2009 17 $7,000

7 Moldova

National Institute for Women:Decreasing the level of corruption

in public health services inMoldova

Ellie Schreiber 2.28.2010 6 20,000

8 MoldovaSOARTA Community

Organization: EducationExamination Monitoring

Michael LippeCathy Stevulak

5.01.2010 3 $2,500

9 Romania Romania Academic Society: Richard Stern 2.01.2010 6 $15,400

10 Serbia

TI -Serbia: Advocacy and LegalAdvice Centre Advocacy forPublic Procurement Access to

Serbian citizens

Michael Lippe 7.01.2009 13 $5,000

Total Number of ongoing projects 10

2. Pipeline Projects

There are currently seven projects in the pipeline for CEE/FSU. Demand from this region for projectfinancing has lessened from the previous cycle. A pipeline of 15 project concepts were reviewed by theCEE-FSU Adviser team in the Spring. Of those 15 prospective projects, two (Estonia and Croatia) havesince developed proposals and commenced project implementation; four (Armenia, Azerbaijan,Montenegro and Hungary) are in advanced stages of proposal mentorship and review; one (MoldovaSoarta phase 2) is pending receipt of a new proposal; eight did not meet PTF criteria and/or were notrecommended by the Adviser Team for further development. PTF encouraged two Azerbaijan CSOs tosubmit a new proposal jointly as their original submissions were both media-related and with similar


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objectives. Only two concept notes have been received since the last reporting period (Azerbaijan andFYROM) and is pending concept revision.

Table 2: Pipeline Project

Country CSO & Project TitleProject

AdviserAmount Priority and Notes

1 MoldovaSOARTA: Monitoring of the

Examination System in DistrictSoroca, Phase II

Michael Lippe $25,000High Priority:

scaling up & sustainability

2 HungaryTI Hungary: Clean Procurements

by Integrity PactsKnud Nielsen $35,000

Medium Priority:New concept note. Knud

taking over from Jonathan tomove this project forward.

3 Armenia Partnership and Teaching Jane Schubert $31,752Medium Priority:

New concept note. Finalreview of proposal underway.

4 Azerbaijan TI Azerbaijan and Internews Hans HagemanMedium Priority:

New concept note. Finalreview of proposal underway.

5 Macedonia

Council on Foreign EconomicRelations COFER: Corruption in

the educations sector inMacedonia

Ellie SchreiberMedium Priority:

New concept note. Conceptexpected mid-October.

6 Montenegro

Center for Democratic Transitionof Montenegro Raising capacities

to increase transparency inmunicipality of Ktor

Lars Jeurling

Medium Priority:New concept note receivedtransparency pact mid-august

under final review

7 Serbia

Kulturni Center Dama D: Loca

Anti-Corruption initative Lars Jeurling

Medium Priority:

New Concept.

Total Number of projects in the pipeline 7

3. Completed Projects

Five projects have recently completed. Table 3 highlights the PCRs that have been received, accepted,and/or where outstanding issues remain.

Table 3: Project Completio Reports

Country CSO & ProjectProjectAdviser

Date GrantAgreement

Signed

DateProject

Completed

Has a project

completionreport beenreceived and

accepted?

1 AlbaniaTI-Albania: Promoting

Transparency in PropertyRights

Lars Jeurling 6.13.2008 10.01.2009 Yes

2 KazakhstanAdvocacy and Legal Advice

Center (ALAC)Cathy Stevulak 4.16.2008 6.12.2009 Yes


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Table 3: Project Completio Reports

Country CSO & ProjectProjectAdviser

Date GrantAgreement

Signed

DateProject

Completed

Has a projectcompletionreport beenreceived and

accepted?

3 Lithuania

Enhancing WhistleblowersProtection Legislation in

LithuaniaPhase I

Prem Garg 07.31.2010

PCR for Phase Ias well as TILithuanias

auditedaccounts for

2009 pending.

4 MoldovaSOARTA Monitoring of the

Examination system in districtSOROCA (phase I)

Michael Lippe 2.21.2009 10.09.2009PCR received.

PCA underpreparation.

5 Moldova

Institute for Democracy:Academic Corruption at State

University of Taraklia and

Creation of Commission

Lars Jeurling

PCR received,pendingapproval.$6,529.00

remaining to bedisbursed.

4. Region Initiatives

Cathy Stevulak, the CEE/FSU Regional Coordinator will meet with the regional TI-Secretariat Team inBerlin in mid-September to discuss and review PTF support for TI-chapter projects (four current and twoprospective). TI chapter projects comprise approximately one-third of PTFs CEE-FSU regional portfolio.

In July 2010, PTF engaged a consultant to do a project completion report (PCA) of three projects inMoldova. One of the project advisors for Moldova joined the consultant for a few days at the end. ThePCA and visit uncovered problems both in the projects and the in the overall environment in Moldovawhich only became clear by visiting the country. Moldova is a poor country with intense donor activityincluding in the field of anti-corruption. The large supply of donor funds has given rise to an NGOindustry (7000-8000 NGOs in Chisinau alone) which is often more apt in securing funding than inexecuting projects The three projects covered by the PCA demonstrated the (common) problem ofdetermining impact and sustainability at project completion. This is partly because project CSOswere more focused on accomplishing specific activities than on impact but also because the project designincluded objectives such as raising awareness and changing attitudes for which impact is inherentlydifficult to measure and takes time to archive The PCA and visit raised many questions about how PTFoperates:Should PTF focus more on projects where impact is faster to materialize and easier to measure?

Should PTF allocate more resources to CSO and project selection and monitoring including partneringwith competent organizations in the field to help with project evaluation and monitoring?Should PTF be active in countries where many other donors are funding anti-corruption projects (andcompeting with each other)?"In-site Project Completion Assessments for three projects in Moldova was conducted in July 2010.


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Annex 1: Ongoing Project Status Updates in CEE/FSU

1. Azerbaijan: Monitoring Tenders by the State Oil Fund-SOFAZ Phase IIAdviser: Knud Kjaer Nielsen

Financial information: A Grant Agreement between PTF and CESD in an amount of $21,944 was signedon October 14, 2009. A first Tranche of $7,500 was disbursed on November 4, 2009, and a secondTranche in the same amount was disbursed on February 27, 2010. A final tranche of $6,944 will bedisbursed upon project completion.

Background and Description of Activities: The project is a continuation of an earlier PTF financed andsuccessfully completed CESD project aimed at fighting corruption in the oil sector. The objective is tolook into the tendering process when oil money is the financial source. CESD experts prepared a draft lawon the State Oil Fund of the Azerbaijan Republic. The objective of this project is to monitor tenders in theoil sector and improve government accountability in Azerbaijan. A first public discussion about the project was held on January 29, 2010 in Baku, Azerbaijan with participation of leading civil societyorganizations representatives and state officials.

Current Status: A Monitoring group continues to monitor oil tenders both in the capital city and inregions. In addition, draft reports on oil tenders are in progress. The CESD expert group and theMonitoring group have jointly produced a 50-page draft report. The plan is to translate both the draft lawand the report into English after finalizing them. This target is planned for May 2010.

2. Croatia: Partnership for Social Development (PSD), Active Policy Advocacy ProjectProject Adviser: Knud Nielsen

Financial information and timeline: A grant agreement between PSD and PTF for $29,935 was signed onAugust 20, 2010.Total budget for the project is US$ 29,935, which will be disbursed in three tranches ofUS$ 7,000, US$ 10,000 and finally US$ 12,935.

Background and description of activities: The Partnership for Social Development is a non-governmentalnot for profit civil society organization established in 1999 in Zagreb, Croatia. The main objective of thePartnership for Social Development is development of a democratic society through the suppression andcircumvention of conflicting interests, corruption and organized crime within the Republic of Croatia. Themain objective of this project is to positively impact the development of the Republic of Croatias systemof public procurement by strengthening the principle values of transparency, fairness, integrity,competitiveness and professionalism. An integral part of the project is the partnership with the Ministry ofEconomics Department of public procurement.

Over the past eight years the legal, regulatory and institutional framework of public procurement inCroatiahas been reformulated in three legislative acts in 2002, 2007, and 2008, which have changed the

methods of public procurement. The partial objective of the Partnership for Social Development in thisproject will be to gain technical and procedural knowledge of the new system of public procurement fromthe Ministry of Economics and utilize this knowledge to set up and implement a civil society mechanismfor the monitoring and oversight of the new system.

Partnership for Social Development will submit a structured monitoring tool for a peer review from theDepartment of Public Procurement and Civil Society Organizations to ensure that no obvious gaps existwithin the monitoring tool. Quarterly monitoring reports will be discussed with government andstakeholders throughout the project. The final report is expected to serve as a helpful tool for publicprocurement process in the Republic of Croatia.


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Publication will be made through press conferences and on the Partnership for Social Developments web-page. A summary version of the final report presents the outcomes of the monitoring process and thepolicy recommendation.

Current Status: Disbursement of the first tranche has been made (August 24, 2010) and the project is inthe initial stage of commencement.

Timeline and Budget: The project will commence on October1st, 2010 and to be completed after 12months.

3. Estonia: TI Estonia, Enhancing Internal Supervision Capacity of Local Governments in EstoniaAdviser: Michael Lippe

Financial information: PTF signed a grant agreement with Transparency International Estonia (TIE) inJune 2010, in the amount of $27,930. In June 2010, $10,000 was disbursed upon signature of the grant.The projects official start-date was July 1, 2010.

Background and description of activities: The proposal from TI-E is very different from the initialproposal presented to PTF in December 2009. We have gone through a step-by-step process with TI-E,which has been quite flexible and has accepted most suggestions. We believe we will be able to worksmoothly with the organization during project implementation. We have discussed the program with TI-Secretariat in Berlin, which supports the proposal and has confirmed that TI-E is a serious and competentchapter. The proposal is grounded in research that shows that there are serious shortcomings in thesupervision practices of local governments in Estonia, and that these shortcomings are likely to provemore serious as Estonias participation in the EU increases. The original proposal called for activities inall 228 local governments. We have reached agreement that the activities will be limited to six localgovernments initially, the city of Tartu and five adjacent, smaller municipalities, to be followed by a roll-out to all local governments through a series of regional workshops.The proposal presents a logical approach to introducing and implementing improvements to supervisionpractices. In order to ensure that the changes that will be proposed and implemented are sensible andpractical in the Estonian setting, PTF suggested and TI-E accepted a number of measures. These include:(1) the setting up of an ad hoc group of experts to monitor the changes proposed; (2) the commissioningof two surveys, before and after activities in each municipality, that will gauge perceptions of corruptionand effectiveness of new measures by groups of participants from within each municipality and from keypersons in each town, who are familiar with corruption issues; and (3), the involvement of the associationof local governments to monitor results and assist in fostering the spread of the new supervisiontechniques to other municipalities within Estonia.

Project Goal:Enhanced internal supervision capacity of local governments in Estonia

Project Objectives:

1. Changing Supervision Practices in 6 Participating Municipalities.

2. Replication Nationwide of Improved Supervision Practices

Project Activities:To attain the project objectives listed above, the following activities are proposed:

Changing Supervision Practices in 6 Participating Municipalities


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1. Conduct analysis of internal supervision systems of local municipalities in Estonia and prepare draftmanual and checklist.2. Conduct baseline perceptions survey in 6 municipalities.3. Consultations with municipalities.4. Development of proposals and implementation plan4. Implementation and assessment of changes in 6 municipalities

5. Second survey conducted in same 6 municipalities.

Replication Nationwide of Improved Supervision Practices

1. Preparation of Final Manual and Checklist2. Media coverage is organized to Support Acceptance and Replication of Improved Practices3. 5 Regional Workshops are carried out4. Provision of Assistance to Additional Municipalities to begin process of improving supervision.5. Legislation is prepared to establish new standards of internal supervision practices in all Estonianmunicipalities.

Current status: The project began on July 1, 2010. A project manager has been hired and we expect toreceive the first quarterly report at the end of September, 2010.

4. Latvia: DELNA Monitoring of the Construction Phase of the National Library(Phase II: Strengthening technical expertise)

Advisers: Lars Jeurling, Michael Wiehen

Financial information: A Grant Agreement between PTF and Delna Latvia for Phase II of the NationalLibrary Construction Project in an amount of $34,991 was signed on March 8, 2010. Release of the firsttranche of $14,000 was approved on March 25, 2010.

Transition between Phase I and Phase II: The main lesson from Phase I was, that the monitoring ofcorruption in construction of large public works requires solid technical expertise. Therefore, the Phase II project includes procurement and construction supervision technical resources. For instance, as a firstactivity under Phase II, procurement expert David Cook has visited Latvia to assess a number of technicalissues, with the following specific terms of reference:

Hold discussions with Delna officials and other relevant stakeholders, and representatives of the Ministryof Culture (MoC), concerning the situation in regard to the construction of the National Library, payingparticular attention to the transparency and possible corruption aspects; Review any relevant (English)reports by DELNA, HI and MoC; Obtain an English version of the Construction Contract and reviewamongst other things the clauses referring to the Engineer; sub-contracts; variation orders;contingencies; Provisional sums; and methods of measurement and payment; Obtain and review withDELNA, copies of any Minutes arising from meetings held between MoC; the contractors (NACC) andHI relating to: (i) possible contract cancellation and/or re-negotiation; (ii) the revised phasing and fundingand its impact on final estimated costs; (iii) unpaid contractual claims and (iv) designs and cost estimatesfor the proposed Technical Building, external works and infrastructure; Review with DELNA any

problems or resistance in seeking transparency; ascertain whether any situations have been identified orsuspected where there is a risk; likelihood or opportunity for corruption to take place;Discuss and comment upon DELNAs ongoing and future Work Programme.

Progress so far: The Latvian government has decided not to renegotiate the construction contract andagreed with the contractor on a completion date of 2012. IMF and the European Union have given theirconsent as long as the agreed budget framework is respected. This means that a number of transparencyissues will remain unsolved. Nevertheless, some measures to improve transparency and efficiency, suchas the concept of value engineering recommended by DELNA and PTF, have been agreed by thecontractor. The Latvian government, as advised by DELNA and the PTF advisor, has taken steps to


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improve the capacity of the Ministry of Culture to supervise the implementation of the Library project.However the oversight remains inadequate. The project is vulnerable to changes in the government bothin terms of general execution and corruption.

Lessons learned: Phase I of this project revealed three main lessons: First: it is extremely important tomonitor high profile and expensive projects that are paid from public funds, because there is a large scope

for corruption. Second, this type of project requires sustained efforts, and therefore sustained funding,over a long period of time. Third, CSOs engaged in this type of project need to be able to draw on solidtechnical expertise.

5. Latvia: PROVIDUS, Election Campaign MonitoringAdviser: Lars Jeurling

Financial Information: A Grant Agreement was signed on March 11, 2010 between PTF and PROVIDUS,Latvia in an amount of $30,000 and the first first tranche of $10,000 has been released. A request toreallocate savings from lower than expected contracting costs has been approved. The reallocation isexpected to enhance the ability of the project to reach its objectives.

Background information: PROVIDUS mission is to facilitate comprehensive policy change in areas

important for Latvias development. PROVIDUS provides expertise to other countries undergoingdemocratic transition as well.

Objectives and proposed activities: In January 2009 the parliament of Latvia adopted major amendmentsto existing electoral campaign regulations. Campaign finance monitoring by PROVIDUS showed that thenew amendments preventedblatant violations of campaign finance law during the June 2009 elections,although several alarming trends were discovered as well. The overall objective of the project is toprovide voters and state agencies with impartial information about political parties compliance with thecampaign funding law and its various details.

Expected project products and outcomes: The project intends to achieve three outcomes:

Identification of shortcomings of the present campaign finance regulations in order to advocatefor its adjustment for the next elections

Strengthening the capacity of relevant state institutions (Corruption Prevention and CombattingBureau; National Broadcasting Council) to identify the violations of campaign financing andreporting laws

Inciting a discussion in Latvias journalist community on the good and bad practices of electioncampaign reporting.

Current Status: PROVIDUS will draw extensively on data gathered in previous initiatives related to the2005, 2006, and 2009 elections. Implementation of the current project has j started and contracts havebeen signed to gather new data and perform analysis..

6. Lithuania: Enhancing Whistleblowers Protection in Lithuania (EWPL) Phase II

Project Adviser: Prem Garg

CSO and Financial Information for Phase I and II: Transparency International Lithuanian Chapter (TILithuania), Didioji st. 5-402, 01128 Vilnius, Lithuania. Contact person: Sergejus Muravjov, ExecutiveDirector, [email protected] . A grant agreement was signed between PTF and TransparencyInternational Lithuania in an amount of $35,000. A first tranche of $14,000 was sent on March 30, 2009.A second tranche in the same amount was sent on August 11, 2009. The final tranche of $7,000 isexpected to be released in early October following receipt of the Project Completion Report for Phase I aswell as TI Lithuanias audited accounts for 2009.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Financial Information for Phase Ii: A second Grant Agreement between PTF and TI Lithuania was signedon January 28, 2010 but the project launch was delayed to August 1 due to extension of the closing datefor Phase I to July 31, 2010. A first tranche of $12,000 is expected to be released in early October 2010following receipt of the audited accounts for 2009 and the Project completion report for the first Phase..

Backgroundand Description of Activities: The situation in Lithuania today is rather hostile to whistle-

blowers. There is no accepted definition or protection and encouragement of whistle blowing. The issueof whistle-blowing remains culturally ambiguous and is often equated to the Soviet-style maliciouscomplaining. Many continue to regard whistleblowers as wrong doers and those breaching a gentlemensagreement. Thus, there is a clear need for a mechanism that encourages genuine whistleblowers, whileseparating them from those aiming to settle scores or malignantly abuse the whistle blowing system. Theapparent willingness of the new Government to tackle corruption provides a promising opening for TILithuania to develop and promote whistle blowing to combat corruption.

Project Objectives and Activities:The Phase I project had three main objectives. First of all, the projectaimed to analyze the prevailing reporting and whistle blowing framework and practices in Lithuania andthe institutional capacity of various institutions involved to address such claims. Secondly, the project wasto develop proposals to address the issue of whistle blower protection and encouragement by producing adraft law and design a suitable institutional framework. Finally, TI Lithuania was to seek adoption of

necessary whistle blower protection documents by the Parliament and relevant institutions. The projectwere to draw from the synergy with the regional TI initiative and relevant experience of other national TIchapters, and consequently contribute to the content and effect of the locally implemented whistleblowerprojects. Assuming passage of the legislation by the parliament, the Phase II project was then to promoteimplementation of the legislation through advocacy and monitoring activities.

Progress and current status: All activities scheduled under Phase I, including drafting of the legislationwere completed by January 2010. However, presentation of the legislation to the parliament has beendelayed due to unanticipated disagreements about its content with the Special Investigation Service, themain counterpart agency in the government. As a result, the completion of Phase I project had to berevised with added attention to advocacy and public awareness raising activities while continuing thedialogue with the government counterparts. The Phase I project was formally closed n July 31 and PhaseII project launched on August 1, to continue the advocacy, networking and awareness raising campaign topromote adoption of the legislation. TIL expects that since the adoption of the law is included in theGovernments working plan, it would have to be passed by the second quarter of 2011 at the latest. TheProject completion report on the Phase I project is under preparation and should be available before end-Sept.

Lessons Learned:

Main lessons learnt include the need for greater realism in assessing time needed for parliamentaryapprovals as well as the fact that positions declared by public officals/politicians do not always tranlateinto real action. Need for better stakeholder analysis as well as greater efforts at raising public awarenessof the issues are other important lessons from the Phase I experience. The project completion report willelaborate on these in more detail.

7. Moldova: Decreasing the Level of Corruption in Public Health Services in MoldovaAdviser: Ellie Schreiber

Financial information: A Grant Agreement was signed on March 1st, 2010 between PTF and the NationalInstitute for Women of Moldova Equality for an amount of $27,000. A first tranche of $9,000 wasreleased on March 2, 2010 and the second in July 2010.


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Project Objectives: The project aims to raise the level of intolerance for corruption in provision of healthservices in the Ministry of Home Affairs Polyclinic; enhance patients awareness of rights in gainingaccess to services; and introduce anticorruption mechanisms in the Polyclinic.Activities: Specific activities to be undertaken under this project are as follows: Conduct a background and follow-up survey on main problems of corruption in public health inMoldova.

Establish an Anti-Corruption Commission. Place an anti-corruption box in the Polyclinic of the Ministry of Home Affairs for use by stakeholders Develop and adopt a Code of Ethics for the Polyclinic. Conduct various seminars and provide written materials on anticorruption and patients rights.Current status: Implementation of the project began formally in March 2010 and has proceeded asscheduled and planned. Early lessons, gleaned from a July 2010 meeting during a visit by PTF, suggestthat implementation has been heavily process-oriented, a characteristic shared by projects in other sectorsin Moldova. Possibilities for strengthening outcomes will be considered prior to release of the finaltranche.Expected project completion date: The project completion date is projected in the Grant Agreement forApril 30, 2011

8. Moldova: Monitoring the Examination System in Rayon Soroca ProjectProject Adviser: Michael Lippe

Budget and Timeline: PTF signed a grant agreement for $25,000 with the Soarta Community Associationin Moldova on February 21, 2009 with the purpose of improving transparency and curb corrupt practicesin the secondary education system in the Soroca District in Moldova. A first tranche of $11,250 wasdisbursed on February 23, 2009. A second tranche in the same amount was released on October 10, 2009.Because of delays beyond the control of Soarta, PTF agreed to extend the project to the end of June 2010,and to add $5,300 to the overall grant amount, making a total of $30,300. A letter agreement to this effectwas signed in May 2010, and the additional funds were disbursed. The project is now complete, with onlythe final PCR remaining to be submitted. Background and Project Objectives: The Soarta Community Association is a non-governmentalorganization founded in 2002 with a vision to improve the quality of disadvantaged people through social,educational, cultural and anti-trafficking programs. PTF is supporting a project with Soarta that aims toeliminate corruption in the education examination system of all 12 lyceums in Rayon/district Soroca ofMoldova by promoting ethical conduct and institutional reforms. Specific objectives are to raiseawareness of pupils, teachers, parents, school administrators, state officials and the public of theeducational corruption and its negative effects, and of the Education System Law; to build capacity tomonitor the examination process; to establish institutional and behavioral changes for disciplinary actionfor bribe-taking and bribe-giving. The Soroca District Council and Educational Directorate are supportingthis project.

Activities, Progress, and Lessons Learned: The project focuses on lyceums, the education level fromwhich students can enter University. Activities, including surveys, a complaint hotline, public forums,

workshops and news articles propose to lead to determination of the perception of levels of corruption ineducation, development of a code of ethics for teachers and of rules to prohibit bribes, greater publicawareness of how to combat corruption and establishment of a longer term anti-corruption strategy.Soarta, in cooperation with other stakeholders, will develop recommendations for the EducationalDirectorate and will monitor how these are implemented.Survey analysis indicated that pupils are aware of corruption consequences but bribe for exam results.The project conducted anti-corruption awareness activities with parents and pupils associations. Parentgroups, Ministry personnel and project experts monitored and observed the examinations. The projectmade students aware of appeals procedures and an increased number of pupils contested exam results.Education authorities attended public meetings to analyze survey and examination results. Stakeholders


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created codes of ethics for parents, pupils and teachers and Soarta sent a first set of recommendations tothe Educational Directorate. The Education Directorate approved the draftrs and they were subsequentlysent to the Ministry of Educatio which, after some delay, and some follow-up by Soarta, agreed that thecodes could be implemented in Soroca district.

Current Status: The project was completed at the end of June 2010. A PCR has been submitted and isunder review. A PCA was also carried out by an external consultant. The results are considered generallyfavorable, and will be reported on at the next meeting.

9. Romania: Romanian Academic Society. Citizens for EnergyProject Adviser: Richard Stern

Financial Information: A Grant Agreement was signed between PTF and the Romanian Academic Societyon January 22, 2010 in an amount of $27,900. A first tranche of $12,500 was disbursed on February 12,2010.Project objective: To monitor independently (watchdog) a regulatory agency: ANRE (energy), in order toimprove its performance and accountability to the citizens. The project provides independent oversight ofa government activity, and promotes the active participation of citizens in the supervision.Corruption problem: The Romanian energy sector is notoriously exposed to high risks of corruption. Inenergy, in 2008, 27 % of electricity sales from state-owned generators to private sector were concludedoutside the competitive market, at below market prices, on contracts that are extended annually.In addition, a major restructuring in the energy sector is envisaged to take place in the next months, withthe creation of two large state-owned companies that include electricity, gas and mining. The publicdebate in the media is of a very low quality and does not focus on future sectorial issues and regulatorychallenges. Among specialists, there are concerns that the real rationale for the restructuring is to concealhidden subsidies to the mining sector (about 3 bn. USD) and reduce the transparency of the energytransactions. The concerns are shared by the Romanian Competition Council, which is delaying itsapproval of the restructuring until key aspects are clarified. If the restructuring takes place, the public

must know how to hold accountable the energy regulator so that the companies act in the interest of thecitizen, and not of pressure groups.Project components: Under the pilot, SAR will monitor and raise public awareness about the activities ofANRE (energy regulator), with the possibility to scale up the operations in the future based on the resultsof the pilot. The agency was selected to achieve synergies with our advocacy campaign on increasingtransparency in the energy sector, also in connection with the recent Government plan to create twointegrated energy companies.Proposed Activities and current status: 1) Assessment of the legislation on ANRE (responsibilities,existing oversight mechanisms of the agency operations), comparing the institutional framework with bestpractices. This would identify gaps in the legislative framework, which were found acceptable by EU,IMF and WB at the time when the agency was established, but which could lead to dysfunctions in the

future; 2) Monitoring of the activity of ANRE and ANRMAP, for a period of one year, with the possibilityof extension; and 3) Dissemination of the findings to the public through reports containing majordevelopments in the period of reporting and information for citizens on their rights. The reports will beissued every 6 months, disseminated through media and public events with wide participation from theagencies, Parliament commissions involved in oversight of the regulatory agencies, government,regulated industry and citizens.


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Expected Outcomes: 1) methodology for watchdog to be used in other public institutions / precedent; 2)identified weaknesses in structures and practices of the regulatory agency, proposed improvements andpolicy measures; 3) improved public discourse on one sector policy (energy).Current Status: The project is proceeding as anticipated and on schedule. A comprehensive and thoroughreview of the transparency of ANRE, reflecting global best practice and monitoring (less than expected),

has been completed. The SAR findings will be discussed at a local workshop to be convened shortly.The impact of the project will be critically dependent on the outcome of the workshop, including thereactions of ANRE, the government and key energy stakeholders. The sustainability of SARs work isalso an issue. If its monitoring work can henceforth be carried out on a regular basis ANRE will becomesubject to continuous domestic third party review. SAR is seeking ways to engage other stakeholders andsecure a commitment to such an endeavor.

10. Serbia: Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre (ALAC),Advocacy for Public Procurement Access to Serbian citizens

Project Adviser: Michael Lippe

Financial Information: A Grant Agreement was signed between PTF and Transparency International

Serbia in an amount of $31,000. A first tranche of $10,000 was released on July 2, 2009. The second andthird tranches, totaling $16,000, were disbursed earlier this month, September 2010. A no-cost projectextension was approved until November, 2010. $5,000 remains to be disbursed as a final tranche.

Objectives and Progress made so far: The project has three objectives:1) Help the ALAC better realize its role as an advocacy organization. Specifically: to formulate andimplement an advocacy strategy on procurement issues in Serbia that will establish a working coalition/network of organizations to address important corruption issues; 2) Establish effective legal mechanismsto protect the public interest in public procurement processes. Specifically: a) to have public interestprotection regulated in the Law on Public Procurement in effective ways, b) to have regulated reportingmechanism and insider protection in a future Law on Anti-Corruption Agency and in amended FOIA, c)to have liability established for authorities not acting upon complaints and reports through changes incriminal legislation; and 3) Establish an oversight system for procurement monitoring and planning, andexecution of contracts. Specifically: encourage public procurement planning and execution to bemonitored by the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI)

Results: ALAC made a good start on this project, although progress has subsequently slowed. Activitiesduring the first 3 months closely tracked the Action Plan set forth in the TS proposal. The major outputcategories; Legal Problem Definition, Preliminary Stakeholder Analysis (in-house), and StakeholderAnalysis (with allies), are well underway. TS also formally approached the Serbian Constitutional Courtto clarify certain interpretations that the government has made concerning implementation of the newProcurement legislation, which TS believes are incorrect.

Development of the advocacy strategy began early and continued until the final iteration in July 2010.

PTF was solicited for comment and discussion on a number of occasions and our comment andsuggestions were mostly agreed. Two roundtables, as proposed in the project documents were held. Anumber of separate initiatives, sixteen in all, came out of these roundtables, which were attended by awide cross-section of the Serbian community interested in the subject of public procurement, includingrepresentatives from the government.

Current status: Progress was slower than forecast. The Advocacy Strategy, expected in November 2009,was only finalized in July 2010. A number of the initiatives that were proposed and implemented, havenot yet borne fruit. As a result, TS requested and received a no-cost extension of the project untilNovember 2010. Soon after this extension was agreed, TS requested disbursement of the second and third


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tranches, because the conditions for disbursement under the agreement had been fulfilled. We now awaitfurther progress on the various initiatives.


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Annex 2: Recently Completed Project Status Update

Moldova: Institute for Democracy, Academic Corruption at State Universityof Taraklia and Creation of Commission

ProjectAdviser: Lars Jeurling

Financial Information: PTF signed a Grant Agreement on May 10, 2009 for $24,529 with the Institutefor Democracy to fight corruption and improve transparency in processes going on at Taraklia Universityin Moldova. A first tranche of $9,000 was disbursed on June 26, 2009, and a second tranche of the sameamount was disbursed on January 4, 2010. The target date for project completion and release of a finaltranche of $6,529 has been set for June 30, 2010.

Background and Progress so far: This project was based on an earlier PTF-funded initiative under theMoldova Institute for Democracy, which focused on the State University of Tiraspol. That project is nowcompleted (Please see description above) and the results were deemed successful enough to serve as anexample of opportunities for replicating similar experiences elsewhere in Moldova.

Current Status, and the Movement towards a Moldova Country Program: The first report ofaccomplishments was received on November 15, 2009. A second progress report was received on January10, 2010 and a third progress report was received on June 9. A completion report is now beingprepared.The PCA mentioned above also covered this project and also noted concerns about impact andsustainability. I. Two main lessons have been learned in projects in Moldova: 1) in a country overrun byforeign assistance NGOs easily become experts on fundraising rather than designing and implementingsound projects. 2) In less developed countries with severe governance problems such as Moldova PTFneeds to physically visit or otherwise have a presence on the ground in order to secure successfuloutcomes.

europe regional progress report

Documents