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Rural Water Supply Corruption in Ethiopia 169
reports, and invoices. Drilling contractors should submit well completion
reports (including the GPS coordinates of completed boreholes) to
bureaus as a matter of routine and as a prerequisite for payment.
Recommendation 7: Increase the transparency of the tendering and procurement
process through a public disclosure program.
A broader point concerns transparency and access to the information
compiled on tendering and procurement. To date, efforts to curb corruption
in this area have been largely prescriptive—establishing better rules
and procedures for tendering and bid evaluation, for example. However,
steps can also be taken to increase the transparency of tendering and
procurement, creating opportunities for public scrutiny of tender documentation,
evaluation reports, overall costs, and unit rates. Experience
from other countries indicates that greater transparency and access to
information can change the behavior of public officials and private contractors,
increase the probability of detection, and generate demand for
accountability.
Information relating to the tendering process and outcomes should be
made available for public scrutiny. There are various ways of doing this,
and lessons can be learned from the experience in other countries. One
approach would be to present records online through a contracts portal
on the ministry website.
Construction, Operation, and Payment
The postconstruction technical and perception surveys conducted for this
study have proved useful in identifying corrupt practices in borehole
construction. The cost-weighted comparison of design specifications,
measured construction parameters, and invoices indicates probable corrupt
practice in 10 percent of the sample through short-drilling. A further
20 percent showed moderate variance that could be caused by deliberate
short-drilling but could also result from other factors. Most boreholes—
the remaining 70 percent of the sample—had been properly constructed
and were functioning well. Although international comparisons should be
treated with caution and data are limited, the costs of borehole construction
(albeit from a small sample) appear comparable with those found in
other African countries.
Extrapolating beyond the current survey to look at the total number
of shallow drinking-water boreholes needed to meet UAP targets, this
finding would imply that 2,000–6,000 shallow boreholes could be compromised
over the next three years. Using sample cost data, and assuming