A Sourcebook - UN-Water

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5.3.1 Detecting corruption in human resources Sector practitioners can use several methods to assess corruption risk in the area of human resources. These include: • Benchmarking against other similar utilities • Reviewing available utility specific information • Externally auditing or reviewing of staff positions. Benchmarking Available international benchmarking data generally includes indicators of the efficiency with which utilities utilize expenditure on staffing, such as: • Number of staff per connection • Proportion of utility costs spent on salaries. A useful source of benchmarking data for sector practitioners is IBNET, see Box 5.6. If the utility performs poorly on either of these measures relative to other similar utilities (that is if both measures are relatively high), this can simply be due to inefficiency. However, it may be an indication of human resources corruption. 10 For example, widespread use of ghost workers would increase the number of positions on the payroll for a given level of output, thus inflating both of the above measures. Similarly, if senior officials regularly divert staff time away from utility business to their own personal or business projects, this will reduce the utility’s output for a given number of staff/salary spend. Utility specific information Sector practitioners can review actual or anecdotal information on the utility’s human resources function, to look for any evidence of corrupt activity. Box 5.6 Benchmarking Utility Efficiency as an Indicator of Possible Corruption If a water utility performs significantly worse than other similar utilities on key indicators of efficiency, this may be an indicator that corruption is pushing up costs or reducing the utility’s output. A useful source of data on relative utility performance is IBNET. IBNET is a collaboration between the UK’s DfID, the World Bank, and the <strong>Water</strong> and Sanitation Program (WSP). Is was developed from a World Bank initiative in 1996 to reduce barriers to international benchmarking in the water and sanitation sector world, and enable sector professionals to compare data on utility performance. IBNET provides a standardized set of indicators of utility performance, and a toolkit for data collection. Local “dataset owners” collect and compile data annually. IBNET’s central coordinator conducts quality checks on the data, before updating the central dataset. Partners are encouraged to share their data with peers on IBNET, including by providing benchmarking data to the WSP, (www.wsp.org). IBNET indicators include: • Staff per thousand connections • Staff per thousand population served • Total annual labor costs as a percentage of total annual operational costs • Billing and collection ratios. See the IBNET website, at www.ib-net.org for further information on the IBNET benchmarking initiative. 10 Similar utilities would be other water utilities of a similar size, in similar countries or municipalities. The comparison would need to adjust for any significant differences in population density, topography, and so on. 46
A good starting place is to review the utility’s records of current personnel. If these records appear to contain irregularities, or appear to be out of date or poorly maintained then this is a “red flag” that corruption may be occurring. Poor record keeping may be a deliberate ploy to hide human resources corruption (or may reflect incompetence). Complaints from staff or union leaders can be another useful source of information. For example, if utility managers regularly demand payments from staff to retain their job or progress within the organization, staff may seek to alert outside observers to this practice. Staff complaints could be gathered through surveys, or from some other complaints system (see also Section 9.4). Any system for reporting staff complaints must include protections from retribution by utility officers who are accused of corrupt activity. This may include procedures for maintaining staff anonymity. In using this information, practitioners must also be alert to the possibility of false complaints. Independent audits or reviews If warranted, sector practitioners can take proactive steps to detect human resources corruption, with cooperation from the utility. Options include: • A survey of staff at work in all sites of the utility, to confirm whether: • All the jobs on the payroll are filled by actual people • All the jobs on the payroll are being done by the individual recorded on the payroll, and not by somebody else, and • Jobs are actually being done in line with specification. • Introducing a requirement that all staff pick up their pay checks in person, and that staff must present identification before receiving their pay. 5.4 Company Property and Money Corruption in the use of company property and money differs from the other types of provider level corruption. In contrast to the various schemes described in Sections 5.1 to 5.3, here the individual simply steals property or other things of value directly from the utility. Under the definition of corruption this <strong>Sourcebook</strong> uses (see Section 2.1), misappropriation of property and money from a public utility for private gain is a form of corruption. The same action in a private utility would not fall within the definition of corruption, as no public funds are involved, although it would still clearly be theft and therefore illegal. 11 For the purposes of this discussion, corruption involving company property and money covers misappropriation of any asset owned by the utility, including the money in the utility’s bank accounts, the utility’s inventory and stores (including bulk water), or its vehicles and equipment. Misappropriation might include any of the following: • Fraud or embezzlement that takes money out of the utility’s bank accounts • Direct theft of property, for example theft of company stores that are then resold, diesel taken out of trucks and used for personal benefit, water, equipment, and so on • Use of utility vehicles for personal travel • Provision of utility vehicles to Ministers or other senior officials outside the utility for, their personal or business use 11 See Section 7 for further discussion of the differences in assessing corruption risk in private utilities. 47
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PREFACE In 1996, then World Bank Pr
Page 5 and 6: TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ..
Page 7 and 8: Tables Table 1.1: How to Use the So
Page 9: Box 11.1: Five Key Elements of an A
Page 12 and 13: In each section, corruption and gov
Page 14 and 15: 2 UNDERSTANDING CORRUPTION AND GOVE
Page 16 and 17: Box 2.2 Governance in the Literatur
Page 18 and 19: Corruption often involves a “mora
Page 20 and 21: When these conditions hold, a virtu
Page 22 and 23: This suggests that sector practitio
Page 24 and 25: spur increased local demand for acc
Page 26 and 27: Source List 2.1 Framework for Think
Page 28 and 29: • P rovider - Section 5 discusses
Page 30 and 31: That said, the interpretation of na
Page 32 and 33: Source List 3.1 Country Level Gover
Page 34 and 35: 4 SECTOR ASSESSMENT This section in
Page 36 and 37: 4.3 Informal Service Provision In m
Page 38 and 39: Media coverage of corruption can se
Page 40 and 41: Opportunities for corruption arise
Page 42 and 43: Table 4.2 Some Corruption and Poor
Page 44 and 45: Source List 4.1 Sector Assessment S
Page 46 and 47: Source List 4.1 Sector Assessment (
Page 48 and 49: Source List 4.1 Sector Assessment (
Page 50 and 51: Figure 5.1 Corruption in Procuring
Page 52 and 53: 5.1.3 Problems with quality As disc
Page 54 and 55: • Utility unable to link billing
Page 58 and 59: • Travel by utility staff at the
Page 60 and 61: 6 PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING CAPITAL
Page 62 and 63: transferred from the government or
Page 64 and 65: sector staff might schedule mainten
Page 66 and 67: Practitioners can detect corruption
Page 68 and 69: • Increase the price of the contr
Page 70 and 71: 7 IMPLICATIONS OF DIFFERENT SECTOR
Page 72 and 73: Table 7.1 Five Variants of Private
Page 74 and 75: Box 7.2 An Example of Related Party
Page 76 and 77: • A reputation for corruption in
Page 78 and 79: Indicators of corruption risk in co
Page 80 and 81: • Management processes, for examp
Page 82 and 83: PART II INCREASING PROBITY AND IMPR
Page 84 and 85: Box 8.1 Improving Probity in Capita
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Page 88 and 89: sors and auditors can be appointed
Page 90 and 91: Box 8.6 Procurement Outsourcing to
Page 92 and 93: fective deterrents include debarrin
Page 94 and 95: Source List 8.1 Improving Project P
Page 100 and 101: 9 INCREASING PROBITY AT THE PROVIDE
Page 102 and 103: Linking management controls to corr
Page 104 and 105: Box 9.2 Performance Incentives for
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Box 9.5 Performance Evaluation in a
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Source List 9.1 Improving Provider
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10 STRENGTHENING WATER SECTOR GOVER
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Government responses to citizen dem
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Methods for increasing information
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can at any time direct that provide
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Box 10.3 Internally Delegated Manag
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To overcome some of these constrain
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vider from the political directorat
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Box 10.7 Cooperative Management of
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Source List 10.1 Reforming Water Se
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technology in selected areas”, bu
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mission (the CRA) sets out rules fo
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surrounding area, to small schemes
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works and planning in public agenci
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11.2 Second Best Options for Improv
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Table 11.1 Summary of “Second-Bes
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good strategy. One way to identify
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Example of a simple, narrow approac
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lustration, a practitioner with som
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Source List 11.1 Improving Probity
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Source List 11.1 Improving Probity
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12 REVIEWING PROGRESS Monitoring an
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• Indicators chosen should relate
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Box 12.2 Using Objective Cost Measu
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on the program’s success had been
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Source List 12.1 Reviewing Progress
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threats). Competitive bidding proce
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Other Water Working Notes Water Wor
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