A community-based model for supervising public investment has proved its effectiveness in reducing corruption and wastefulness, subsequently reducing related complaints and petitions in central Quang Nam province.

The outcomes were shared at a workshop on January 23 in Quang Nam which was held to review the operation of the model, a prize-winning initiative in the 2011 Vietnam Anti-corruption Initiatives (VACI) and was carried out with funding from the World Bank and the Government Inspectorate.

The Quang Nam provincial inspection department has set up 102 community monitoring boards with over 2,000 members across six districts and towns since 2011. Members of the board are volunteers from the local Vietnam Fatherland Front chapters. They all underwent training courses to better deal with real-life situations of public work construction projects.

The boards monitored 558 construction projects in their localities in 2014 and detected 96 law violation cases that were promptly reported to relevant agencies.

Participants at the workshop hailed the boards’ achievement in enhancing transparency and strengthening democracy at grassroots level.

In 2015, the province plans to expand the model to 12 other districts and towns.-VNA