condition of hospitals and long-term care facilities
_ condition of school buildings and schoolrooms
_ cleanliness and sanitary condition of streets and neighborhoods
_ presence of rats and insects
_ exterior condition of homes
To make these measurements, the agency needs to develop a well-defined rating
scale, one that identifies in specific terms each rating category for each
condition that the agency wants to monitor.A number of agencies have used
rating scales that use photographs to represent different levels of road conditions,
street cleanliness, and schoolroom and housing conditions.To develop
a photographic rating scale, the agency would
_ take many photographs of a variety of conditions of the facilities that it
wants to assess
_ select photos that represent each of perhaps three, four, or five rating categories
(using a scale that rates conditions, such as from “excellent” to
“poor”)
_ test the procedures with personnel who are likely to do the ratings
Trained observer ratings can usually be done by low-cost personnel. These
personnel might be permanent staffmembers, temporary employees, contract
personnel, or volunteers.The agency needs to provide adequate training in the
use of the rating scale to each person who is to make the observations.
The data from the ratings of all, or a sample of, facilities are then aggregated
to provide overall totals. This procedure also provides reasonably reliable
outcome measurements on the condition of individual facilities. Thus,
the procedure can be used to identify where to best allocate limited resources
(such as to facilities where the need seems to be greatest and the greatest payoff
in the use of scarce resources can be obtained).
The feasibility of this procedure in a developing country depends on the
extent to which low-cost personnel are available to do the ratings. This is not
a sophisticated procedure. The tabulations of the information can be done
manually, but with less accuracy than if the public agency is able to use automated
programs. Annex 4.B provides more detail on the procedures for
trained observer assessments.
Measurements of Extent of Corruption
Corruption in the delivery of public services is a major concern today for
many countries and donors.Wherever money is involved, some corruption
will likely occur.Governments need to take steps to reduce it to the extent possible.
To track the success of anticorruption efforts, governments (through
their anticorruption agencies) need to track the extent to which corruption is
occurring. Thus, indicators of the extent of corruption at particular points in
time should be part of performance measurement systems in developing
countries.
Annex 4.C is a sample set of indicators that appears appropriate for an
anticorruption agency to track on a regular, annual basis. Such measurement
is most likely to be feasible in countries whose leaders are actively
pressing for corruption reduction and that have an independent audit or
inspector-general office. The data for many of these indicators would come
from anticorruption agency records. Each government will need to establish
procedures for recording the needed data. Few of these indicators are
likely to be costly to collect.However, because of their sensitivity, some are
likely to be controversial.
Obtaining data on this last group of indicators in annex 4.C (19–22)
requires surveys of household and businesses. The questionnaire shown in
annex 4.A includes questions that ask respondents about their personal experiences
with corruption, thus providing data for indicators 19–22 in annex
4.C.As discussed earlier, citizen surveys require special resources. In that discussion,
we noted ways to keep costs to a low level. Surveys covering corruption
issues probably have a greater need to be undertaken by a professional
organization outside the government, to provide credibility. The government
can fund the survey as long as it does not impose undue constraints on it.
Funds might also come from donor agencies. As noted earlier, the World
Bank has sponsored a number of these. Also, as noted earlier, an NGO might
be willing to sponsor the survey effort.
These surveys should be of a representative sample of households. A
separate survey can be done of a representative sample of businesses. Businesses
themselves sometimes cause the corruption; therefore, some responses
from businesses would be expected to be dishonest. Nevertheless,
governments can probably learn much from the overall responses. The
assumption here is that most businesses would prefer not to be involved with
corruption activities.An important element of surveys that ask respondents
about their experiences with corruption is to ensure the confidentiality of
responses. This may be difficult in some countries if the survey sponsors are
not able to use a credible and professional survey organization.
These surveys do not capture all