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Partnership for Transparency Fund
...providing small grants to CSOs in developing countries to fight corruption
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Press Release
ptf@partnershipfortransparency.info
http://www.partnershipfortransparency.info
Partnership for Transparency Fund Awards Over
US$ 500,000 in Anti-Corruption Grants to NGOS
Johannesburg, London, Washington DC, October 28, 2004:- The Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF), announced today that it has made more than US$ 500,000 in small grants in support of thirty-three anti-corruption projects to non-governmental organizations in the developing world and in Eastern Europe.
In Johannesburg, PTF Chairman Kumi Naidoo said, "Corruption is the single greatest obstacle to development and tens of billions of dollars of public procurement funds are going each year into the pockets of officials who should be serving the public interest. PTF is just four years old and yet it is already clearly demonstrating that micro-projects, involving no more than between US$5,000 and US$25,000, can have a substantial impact on curbing corruption when managed by effective NGOs. PTF has already supported NGOs from Nicaragua to Bulgaria, and from Tanzania to Pakistan."
PTF President Pierre Landell-Mills stated in the UK that, "We have just made a grant to an NGO in Argentina to fight corruption there and this takes our total of grant awards to more than the one-half million dollar level. We are demonstrating through completed projects that small anti-corruption projects initiated by civil society can be highly effective."
Landell-Mills noted that, "We are seeing rising support from official aid agencies who recognize the value of partnering with civil society organisations through PTF. Key support for PTF has come from Swedish and German official agencies, from the World Bank, the UNDP and the Inter-American Development Bank. We have also attracted private funding and as we move ahead we believe that rising numbers of wealthy individuals, foundations and official agencies will recognize that we have pioneered a uniquely effective ant-bribery approach that stimulates the work of exceptional NGOs across the globe."
PTF-funded projects can have a direct impact on specific public sector projects, while also serving to build capacity within civil society, establishing the right of NGOs to be valid partners of the public sector in improving governance, and increasing public awareness of practical measures that can improve the management of public resources.
ptf@partnershipfortransparency.info
http://www.partnershipfortransparency.info
Partnership for Transparency Fund Awards Over
US$ 500,000 in Anti-Corruption Grants to NGOS
Johannesburg, London, Washington DC, October 28, 2004:- The Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF), announced today that it has made more than US$ 500,000 in small grants in support of thirty-three anti-corruption projects to non-governmental organizations in the developing world and in Eastern Europe.
In Johannesburg, PTF Chairman Kumi Naidoo said, "Corruption is the single greatest obstacle to development and tens of billions of dollars of public procurement funds are going each year into the pockets of officials who should be serving the public interest. PTF is just four years old and yet it is already clearly demonstrating that micro-projects, involving no more than between US$5,000 and US$25,000, can have a substantial impact on curbing corruption when managed by effective NGOs. PTF has already supported NGOs from Nicaragua to Bulgaria, and from Tanzania to Pakistan."
PTF President Pierre Landell-Mills stated in the UK that, "We have just made a grant to an NGO in Argentina to fight corruption there and this takes our total of grant awards to more than the one-half million dollar level. We are demonstrating through completed projects that small anti-corruption projects initiated by civil society can be highly effective."
Landell-Mills noted that, "We are seeing rising support from official aid agencies who recognize the value of partnering with civil society organisations through PTF. Key support for PTF has come from Swedish and German official agencies, from the World Bank, the UNDP and the Inter-American Development Bank. We have also attracted private funding and as we move ahead we believe that rising numbers of wealthy individuals, foundations and official agencies will recognize that we have pioneered a uniquely effective ant-bribery approach that stimulates the work of exceptional NGOs across the globe."
PTF-funded projects can have a direct impact on specific public sector projects, while also serving to build capacity within civil society, establishing the right of NGOs to be valid partners of the public sector in improving governance, and increasing public awareness of practical measures that can improve the management of public resources.
Examples of PTF funded anti-corruption projects:
- Bulgaria: PTF funded a panel of 15 partners organized by TI Bulgaria to monitor the public auctioning of the second license for a GSM mobile cellular network. The panel ensured legal compliance with tender procedures and transparency. It is estimated that this initiative saved tens of millions of dollars.
- Cambodia: PTF provided a grant to the Center for Social Development to work with government and other stakeholders to elaborate a new strategy to curb corruption and to establish a new Coalition for Transparency.
- Costa Rica. PTF supported a pilot project to map forest corruption in a ecologically sensitive area and to use the map to develop an anti-forest corruption plan.
- Czech Republic. PTF supported the elaboration of a pilot city institutional corruption index, which enables the city's accountability system to be assessed and subsequently strengthened.
- India: PTF assisted Transparency in India to work with the Delhi state government to establish and make effective Citizens Charters overseen by independent Ombudsmen.
- Mongolia. PTF funded a competition on anti-corruption themes among journalists, artists and media people. The winning submissions were shown on TV or radio or published in the Press.
- Nicaragua. PTF supported a media campaign to reduce the highly excessive pensions and perks of retired presidents and top officials. Legislation has since been introduced to this end.
- Pakistan: PTF assisted the NEDIANS, an association of professional engineers, in working with the Karachi Water Supply and Sewerage Board to establish an Integrity Pact for the public tendering and implementation of a $100 million water supply expansion scheme. Savings on the engineering contract exceeded $2 million.
- Poland. PTF supported a local NGO, Asocjacje, to pilot a public expenditure monitoring system for local government expenditure aimed at creating the 'transparent commune'.
- Tanzania. PTF is funding a pilot project in Mwanza Province to track local government expenditure on education and health services. This involves developing a methodology and manuals that will be replicable elsewhere