CRC concept helps improve municipal governance - Dr. Thampi

Disna Mudalige

The Citizen Report Card (CRC) concept has been introduced by the Asia Foundation in collaboration with local stakeholders as a pilot project, as a social accountability tool to improve municipal governance, said Asia Foundation representative Dr Gopakumar Thampi.

Dr. Thampi was addressing a training programme for media personnel on CRC at Renuka Hotel on Friday,

“It basically rates the performances of different public services based on sample surveys of the users of those services. It can be used as a tool to provide systematic feedback to public institutions about the quantitative and qualitative aspects of their performance,” he said.

The CRC surveys have been completed for Nuwara Eliya and Vauniya Municipal Councils and the findings have been presented to the respective Local Government Authorities. The Asia Foundation has facilitated these two CRCs on pilot scale in collaboration with Social Policy Analysis and Research Centre (SPARC) of Colombo University and with expertise drawn from BRAC University and Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore, India.

Dr Thampi said the CRC concept has now been implemented in about 15 countries with remarkably positive outcomes.

He said the system was introduced in 1993 in Bangalore and that it was based on the concept of ‘school report card'. It provides credible user feedback which gives an opportunity for reflection and triggers for change and improvement. He observed the CRC has the power of measurement and comparison.

Colombo University SPARC Director Prof Siri Hettige expressed the necessity to institutionalize and replicate the CRC as a social accountability tool in Sri Lanka. Asia Foundation Senior Technical Advisor on Social Accountability and Citizen Participation Sisira Kumarasiri and Colombo University Statistics Department Head Dr Dilhari Artigala also spoke.