Reducing corruption: lessons from Venezuela

A recent World Bank programme in Campo Elias, Venezuela, used an innovative and effective approach to build participatory institutional frameworks and to apply best practices in public policy making. As a result, corruption has fallen and services are delivered more efficiently. The programme, which involved the World Bank Institute, the municipal government, and civil society, started with a survey of customer perceptions, which concluded that the two main factors affecting perceptions of corruption were: inefficient, excessively complex, and unpredictable administrative procedures and lack of public information and accountability. The results of the survey were then presented and discussed at a workshop, which helped identify barriers to reform as well as available resources for curbing corruption. On this basis, internal monitoring techniques were introduced, including public budget hearings, a computerised public works monitoring system, and local workshops. The author concludes on the importance of participatory methodology to increase transparency, credibility and capacity to address municipal problems.