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| Public Record of Operations and Finance (PROOF) |
| | April 5, 2004 | |
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The Idea |
City bodies should report and discuss their quarterly performance with the citizens – akin to the private sector. This can be done if the back end accounting systems (like a fund based accounting system) are in place |
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The Rationale |
Citizens are the ‘shareholders’ in the civic system. They have a right to information from the civic bodies. An institutional mechanism to generate the required information and a willingness to share it with citizens on a periodic basis can build confidence with government functioning on the ground |
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An Approach |
 | The civic body will need a robust accounting system akin to a fund based accounting system
| | Since such systems are built from the lowest unit of measure, compilations can be done as required – for instance it could be city wide or done at just a ward level or restricted to say the education module
| | At the end of each quarter, the financial outputs could be made available to citizens for study. They need to be trained to analyse the numbers
| | This could be followed by a public meeting between the government body CEO, the elected reps and the interested citizens.
| | Over time, the quality of public debate based on data driven analysis will improve |
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Potential Partnerships |
Government and citizens. An acceptance by government that the best way forward for greater accountability is transparency in information sharing with its citizen constituency. |
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The Benefits |
| Availability of financial information
| | Forum for raising data driven queries on the financial statements
| | Builds confidence on government spending – will create a climate for citizens to truthfully report and pay taxes |
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