The assessment covers five thematic areas critical to organizational effectiveness and transparency. The first theme, Project Information, delves into essential project details, such as titles, descriptions, funding sources, and timelines, providing a holistic view for strategic planning. Governance Information explores the management structure, decision-making processes, financial oversight, and monitoring mechanisms, ensuring effective and transparent organizational leadership. Record Keeping and Financial Management assesses practices related to record-keeping, personal data handling, financial software use, and segregation of duties, contributing to operational efficiency and compliance. Procurement Transparency evaluates policies, tendering, selection procedures, and subcontractor transparency, fostering fair and accountable business practices. Lastly, Operational Transparency & Accountability examines operational details, whistleblower mechanisms, contact channels, beneficiary criteria, and partnerships, promoting transparent and ethical organizational conduct. This comprehensive assessment enables organizations to identify strengths, address areas of development , and enhance their overall impact and integrity.
Taking this assessment is crucial for organizations engaged in developmental, aid, humanitarian, or related fields projects or initiatives as it provides a comprehensive evaluation of key aspects. The assessment covers project details, governance structures, record-keeping, financial management, procurement transparency, and operational accountability. By participating, organizations gain insights into their projects, ensuring effective planning and decision-making. It fosters transparent governance, efficient operations, and accountability. This proactive step helps in identifying areas for improvement, aligning with international best practices. The assessment promotes transparency, accountability, and adherence to best practices, offering a valuable roadmap for improvement. It empowers organizations to build trust with stakeholders, ensure ethical conduct, and contribute positively to their communities, ultimately fostering success and impact.
Methodology
Totally welcome thoughtful collaboration and idea-sharing in order to contribute
The large increase in civil society’s work after the Beirut port explosion on August 4th, along with the increase in the amount of aid, made it more important than ever to monitor the management of the aid, and apply international measures of anti-corruption to ensure more transparency and accountability in the work of civil society organizations.
The goal of our Civil Society Transparency Checklist is to do just that, as a part of the Transparency International Lebanon and Nudge Lebanon’s work to reach a corruption-free civil society.
The checklist is meant to work as a tool for organizations and initiatives to help them identify the level of transparency and good governance that exist in their projects as well as their organizational governance.
The organizations are encouraged to do the assessment for every project.
The self-assessment questionnaire is filled in by organizations and initiatives, based on information they made public or sent to the Transparent Hearts platform. The questionnaire addresses 5 dimensions and has 29 questions. While there are optional questions that depend on the nature of the organization, most questions are required.
The entire process should take no more than 3 hours. In addition to the questionnaire, the organization must submit a declaration of certification for the data they used.
Our team at Transparency International Lebanon will then review each questionnaire response, to ensure that the most appropriate answer has been given to each question and that there is evidence to support each answer, submitted either through a link to an online source or documents submitted to the platform. Lastly, the review checks for consistency in answering the questionnaires.
When each questionnaire is reviewed and adjusted - if needed - [each indicator will be given a score, along with a total score for each of the 5 dimensions, or groups, of indicators. An overall transparency rating is also given to each organization, depending on their score.
The results and scores are then sent to each organization. Questions may be asked about some evidence that was not clear enough, and the organization will have 30 days to submit additional evidence and feedback, they can also request changes to the results if the evidence they submit can support their request. In addition, they can upload further information to their website or the Transparent Hearts platform during this time and retake the questionnaire, which might also change their score.
Once done, the final results of each organization will be published on the Transparent Hearts platform.
The checklist filled by the organizations is based on 5 aspects using 29 indicators. The indicators and the guide on how to answer them are available in the figure above. Our team will provide support in person or online introductions when needed.
Most of the indicators are “core” indicators which means they must be answered by all users. However, some indicators are optional and only require answers from large organizations or projects. For example, Indicators 3.3, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4. are about procurement and sub-contracting processes, which is not something done by smaller organizations that only receive funds without using it to fund other organizations or external projects. All organizations who do are required to answer these questions. Likewise, Indicators 1.9 and 3.6 are concerned with organizations that run multiple projects or have multiple projects and donors, so organizations with only one project do not need to answer them.
Here is a list of the indicators divided by the dimension they address and whether each is core or optional:
1.1 Project/Initiative Title - CORE
1.2 Project/Initiative Description - CORE
1.3. Type of assistance delivered - CORE
1.4. Funding Sources CORE
1.5. Types of support received - CORE
1.6. Project/Initiative Dates - CORE
1.7. Project/Initiative Current Status - CORE
1.8. Project/Initiative Total Budget - CORE
1.9. Aggregate Budget - OPTIONAL
2.1 Management structure - CORE
2.2 Decision-making - CORE
2.3 Financial oversight - CORE
2.4 Monitoring - CORE
3.1. Record keeping - CORE
3.2. Personal data - CORE
3.3. Procurement records - OPTIONAL
3.4. Financial management software - CORE
3.5. Segregation of duties in financial management - CORE
3.6. Multiple bank accounts OPTIONAL
4.1. Procurement policy - OPTIONAL
4.2. Transparent tendering - OPTIONAL
4.3. Transparent selection procedure - OPTIONAL
4.4. Sub-contractor transparency - OPTIONAL
5.1. Operational information- CORE
5.2. Whistleblower/CRM mechanism - CORE
5.3. Multiple contact channels - CORE
5.4. Beneficiary selection criteria - CORE
5.5. Partnerships and communication - CORE
Each indicator is asked as a question, and the organization can answer with yes, partial, or no to each of them, except for some questions that only take a yes or no answer.
For each indicator, the following information is provided:
● Dimension
● Indicator number and name
● Indicator question
● Type of indicator (Core or optional)
● Guidance for answering the question (Yes / Partially / No)
● Type of information required to support the answer
Here is an example of that:
DIMENSION 1. Project information (9 indicators)
INDICATOR NUMBER & NAME 1.1 Project/Initiative Title
INDICATOR QUESTION Is the title of the project/initiative provided?
TYPE OF INDICATOR CORE
GUIDANCE FOR ANSWERING THE QUESTION YES = The title of the initiative/project is provided (if there is more than one relevant project, all of their titles are provided);
PARTIALLY = some but not all of the project titles are provided (if there is more than one):
NO = The title of the initiative/project is not provided (if there is more than one relevant project, none of their titles are provided)
TYPES OF SOURCES REQUIRED TO SUPPORT RESPONSE Information to be provided via: (A) project document(s) submitted to Transparency International Lebanon
or (B) via a publicly accessible web link. [Please indicate in the responses section]
● Organizations and initiatives have to complete the tabs of the basic info and instructions on the questionnaire, and the questionnaire itself.
● Most questions can be answered with yes, partial, or no, but some questions can only be answered with yes or no. If a question is not answered, it will be assumed that the answer is no, and will be taken into consideration as such when scoring.
● After each question is answered, the organization / initiative is required to submit evidence of its answer, either through a direct link that leads to a source on the web, or through a document uploaded directly to the Transparent Hearts platform if no link is available, such as when the answer requires information on the internal processes of the organization, or other information that is not found online.
● If the evidence provided was not enough to prove the accuracy of the answer, the answer will be neglected and considered as a “no”.
● The organization/initiative can add information to its own website or platform that meet the requirements of a specific indicator, and have it taken into consideration when reviewing the answers. This is meant to encourage organizations / initiatives to make more information public.
● The organization is also asked to submit a representational letter which guarantees the accuracy of the answers, evidence, and information it has provided, along with noting why any of the questions was not supported by evidence or information. For example, if there was difficulty in providing information to support answers 3.1 to 3.6, the letter could note that certain confidentiality or personal data restrictions made it better not to submit information, but it must explain why this was the case.
Once the questionnaire is submitted, each answer is verified by a reviewer that makes sure the answers (Yes/Partial/No) are:
a. accurate and that the respondent has correctly interpreted the instructions and guidance provided in the questionnaire;
b. accompanied by an explanation, where relevant; and
c. supported by evidence (as explained above)
When an answer cannot be verified, it should be modified accordingly. It is also important to note that the reviewer cannot guarantee the accuracy of information, only that it is available and does address the answer it is meant to support. In case of information provided online, the reviewer is advised to download or screenshot the information given so that it is saved, unedited, and can be used to justify the review process if it came into question, this is particularly important in a fast-moving environment where websites are constantly being updated.
Once the answer to each indicator has been verified it will be given a score, as follows:
● Yes= 2
● Partially = 1
● No= 0
In order to calculate the dimension scores (in %), simply add up the indicator scores for a given dimension and divide by the total possible score for that dimension, then multiply the result by 100.