The SANCUS project, implemented by Transparency Maldives, supports strengthening the vertical and horizontal accountability and governance mechanisms around State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in the Maldives. SOEs are a powerful actor in the economy of Maldives with most SOEs receiving significant financial contributions from the state coffers.
Many SOEs drain the state budget and contribute to increasing levels of public debt[1]. According to a World Bank Report[2], while the Public Sector Infrastructure Program (PSIP) accounts for the majority of capital spending, capital injections to SOEs have increased significantly over the past years. As such, capital contributions to SOEs increased threefold from US$33-36 million in 2017-2018 to US$102 million in 2019. The report also highlights that fiscal risks, namely explicit risks, were estimated at US$1.6 billion or 30 percent of 2019 in GDP, arising mostly from guaranteed and on-lent debt to SOEs.
As a key focus of the SANCUS project is on improving the accountability and oversight of SOEs, TM developed a toolkit that citizens and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) can use to collect information on government awarded projects with a special focus on the projects carried out by SOEs. The current toolkit is built on ACC’s Community-Led Social Audit Pilot Program, which was piloted and evaluated in Gn. Fuvahmulah City in 2017. It comprises extensive sets of questionnaires designed for the evaluation of projects within local communities. The data collected through these social audits aims to support citizens and CSOs in raising awareness and advocating for the performance, governance, accountability, and oversight of project-awarded parties, including State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).
This toolkit comprises the steps that need to be undertaken to complete a social audit.
View/Download the full toolkit here
You can download the sample questionnaires for your own social audit here:
Sample Questionnaire for Contracted Company
Sample Questionnaire for Council
Sample Questionnaire for Site Observation