Tunisian delegation visits Korea to benchmark Seoul’s public construction management tools

September 5, 2018

 

Delegation from Tunisia participated in a technical study visit co-hosted by UNDP Seoul Policy Centre (USPC) and Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) of Korea on September 4-6, 2018. The delegation, led by Mr. Sofiene Hemissi, Director-General of the Ministry of Local Affairs and Environment of Tunisia, included the Mayor-and-Presidents of the Municipal Council of three islands in Djerba, agents and government officials from relevant departments, and UNDP Tunisia country office. The main objectives of the study visit were to share Korea’s experiences in developing and implementing anti-corruption tools and to utilize existing partnerships and knowledge-sharing from USPC’s Development Solutions Partnerships (DSP).

The study visit was a follow-up of the high-level webinar that took place in March, which provided an opportunity to share SMG’s expertise on Korea’s Clean Construction System (CCS) within the framework of USPC’s mandate to share Korea’s development experiences and tested-and-proven policy tools with other partner nations. The mission also came under the framework of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed among the SMG, Ministry of Local Affairs and Environment, and National Anti-Corruption Agency (INLUCC) of Tunisia in May 2018.

Clean Construction System (CCS) was introduced in 2012 by SMG to increase efficiency, accountability, and transparency of Seoul’s public construction management, through full digitalization of its construction process management and real-time public disclosure of information on construction projects. Composed of the One-Project Management Information System (One-PMIS) for digital construction project management and Construction Information Disclosure System (or “Allimi”) for sharing the information managed through One-PMIS directly with citizens, CCS has reduced the workload of manual reporting for project managers and enhanced transparent data-sharing among all project participants. CCS provides a concrete example of how to strengthen the accountability and transparency of the public construction sector, which accounts for significant portions of the national as well as local government budget across major cities. In addition, Seoul’s anti-corruption policies and legislative actions, the Integrated Complaint Handling Mechanism “Eungdapso”, and SMG’s best practiced policies were also shared during the study visit.

A series of technical presentations on CCS, SMG’s policy tools, and interactive discussions during the visit allowed the Tunisian delegation to identify the most relevant and feasible elements of CCS to be localized and applied in Tunisia. At the end of the three-day study visit, the Tunisian delegation developed a solid action plan and timeline based on the knowledge and feedback they had garnered from SMG and UNDP on pilot-testing a contextualized CCS-like tool in the three local municipalities of Tunisia. The partnership between USPC and UNDP Tunisia aims to support the implementation of a progressive and sectoral approach by adopting CCS in the three municipalities as a pilot experience to strengthen public accountability and transparency at the municipal level.

The Tunisian delegation also recognized the need for the digitalization of administration data and public services in the local municipalities, supplementation of Tunisia’s existing national systems and tools for enhanced implementation, and continued commitment to their framework of “Islands of Integrity”.

Throughout the study visit, officials from key participating institutions expressed their strong commitment to further strengthen the institutional framework for mutual cooperation to combat corruption. Furthermore, USPC and SMG reaffirmed their steadfast dedication to work in close collaboration with Tunisia to promote accountability, transparency, and integrity in its public construction sector.

USPC’s Development Solutions Partnerships (DSP) is a programmatic approach to share Korea’s innovative policy tools with other countries through the UNDP’s global network. In the period of 2015-2017, USPC has implemented DSP projects in the area of anti-corruption and transparency with Vietnam, Ukraine, Jordan, Uganda, and Thailand to share the CCS approach