Panama

Social Audit of the Program Caring Panama

City/State/Region
Begin – End: 2020 – 2020
Name of organization in charge: Contraloría General de la República de PanamáComisión de Justicia y Paz de la Conferencia Episcopal Panameña
Type of organization in charge: government civil society
Level: national

Impact

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Implementation: was the innovation effectively, partially or not put into practice at all?

Fulfillment of Aims: were the goals of the innovation completely, partially or not achieved at all?

Output: has the innovation generated recommendations, initiatives, decisions or policies?

Outcome: if there were a policy output, was it enacted or implemented?

Implementation: yes
Fulfillment of Democratic Innovation’s aim: yes
Output: -
Policy Outcome: -

The Social Audit of the Program Caring Panama was created by a cooperation agreement between the General Comptroller of the Republic of Panama and the Commission of Justice and Peace of the Panamanian Episcopal Conference, which was signed in April 2020. The purpose is that citizens can, on the website of the Controllership, file complaints of irregularities in the use of public resources within the framework of the program ?Caring Panama? (in Spanish ?Panamá Solidario?) implemented to help vulnerable groups during the COVID-19 pandemic by supplying them with food, medicines and/or purchase vouchers. The complaint must contain some type of evidence, such as photos, videos, or testimonies, as well as information about the place, date and people involved in the incident. Before the complaint is published on the Comptroller's website, it must first be admitted by committees made up of lawyers, human rights defenders, among others. Once a complaint is admitted, the first step is to send a warning letter to the local authorities and then start an investigation. The audit process received more than 180 complaints and more than 30 were admitted.

Institutional design

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Formalization: is the innovation embedded in the constitution or legislation, in an administrative act, or not formalized at all?

Frequency: how often does the innovation take place: only once, sporadically, or is it permanent or regular?

Mode of Selection of Participants: is the innovation open to all participants, access is restricted to some kind of condition, or both methods apply?

Type of participants: those who participate are individual citizens, civil society organizations, private stakeholders or a combination of those?

Decisiveness: does the innovation takes binding, non-binding or no decision at all?

Co-governance: is there involvement of the government in the process or not?

Formalization: only backed by a governmental program or policy
Frequency: regular
Mode of selection of participants: open
Type of participants: citizens
Decisiveness: democratic innovation yields no decision
Co-Governance: yes

Means

Deliberation
Direct Voting
E-Participation
Citizen Representation

Ends

Accountability
Responsiveness
Rule of Law
Political Inclusion
Social Equality

Policy cycle

Agenda setting

Formulation and decision-making

Implementation

Policy Evaluation