People's Audit

Objectives for the First Phase

1.          To get all concerned sectors including government units, academic institutions, NGOs and media as well as people in general to realize the significance of policy-making and provision of services by the public sector that listens to public opinions, and of establishing a system of people's audit of public service delivery by government and local government units;

2.          To create knowledge and awareness of methodologies used in auditing public service delivery by government and local government units in all concerned sectors including government units, academic institutions, and NGOs, to be accomplished through running training programs aimed at representatives from the Government and local government units who deliver public services, and the media;

3.          To lead to the development and identification of effective and appropriate forms of people's audit of public service delivery by government and local government units in various contexts;

4.          To strengthen communities and raise public service efficiency, particularly by means of people's audit of public service delivery by government and local government units.

Modus Operandi

            The first phase of operations focusing on the survey of knowledge comprises the following broad steps:

1)       To familiarize participants, through study visits, with proven methods of people's audit of government and local government units in such countries as Pakistan, the Philippines, and India;

2)       To invite executive-level representatives of agencies concerned to undergo a workshop-style training session in order to learn of and master the proven techniques of people's audit used in those countries;

3)       To come to decisions on setting project guidelines and establishing a veritable network of operators that collaborate on identifying workable methods of people's audit of public service delivery by government and local government units, for use in practical implementation in Phase II.

The immediate results expected include

-       the experimental study and determination of a people's audit instrument or format of measuring public service delivery by Government and local government units

-       the creation of a network of coalition members to pool their energies and creative powers in running the project.

The second phase of operations will carry the People's Audit program into the next stage of project implementation in designated pilot areas. Broadly speaking, after consultations and decisions arrived at collectively, some chosen methods of participatory decision-making group process and public service measurement procedure will be tried in 5 pilot provinces. Certain diverse issues, problems and situations, e.g. health care, environment, decentralization, sanitary management, police affairs, and others, which one way or another affect the people's day-to-day living, will be chosen as the springboard for conducting popular group processes of people's audit and decision-making. The data and insights to be collected and analyzed as a result of these on-site field operations will be applied on an extensive scale in some future time. The aim throughout is to effect continual improvement and eventual settling down of some form of the People's Audit program for public service delivery by the Government and local government units.

Overall Objectives of the People's Audit Project

1.        To develop public service delivery standards in Thailand and to improve the standard of living of the population everywhere.

2.        To strengthen community cooperation and unity, and upgrade the quality and efficiency of public service delivery.

3.        To promote quality and equity in the distribution of public services in such a way that the People's Audit methodologies used are most efficient in bridging the gap between the urban, privileged population and the rural population, and that the population in all segments and geographical locations can gain easier access to public services available nation-wide.

4.        To prepare and project Thailand, insofar as the times and circumstances permitting, as a role model of public participation in the measurement of local government service delivery for other countries in the regions.