Mohamad Hanif Hashimi, Provincial Coordinator – Nangarhar
With the help of Integrity Watch Afghanistan, local monitors ensured the quality construction of Shaheed Angeeza high school in Jalalabad city.
During the construction period, the Local monitors discovered that the sand used to build the school was of low quality due to a high quantity of soil that was not needed. Knowing their right to monitor and access to information the volunteer monitors shared the issue with the construction company which resulted in improving the quality of construction materials. The local monitors along with local council had received, contract, map and other necessary information about the project beforehand. The construction company replaced the sand after the monitors examined the low quality of the material that was not according to the project documents they received.
The money for the public high school was provided by UNHCR that cost a total of $180,000. The decision for the construction was taken after realizing that previous building could not support the huge number of students. Students now can enjoy studying in the new classrooms protected from sun heat and raining.
To ensure that taxpayers money is not wasted in the public construction project such as schools, libraries roads, and hospital, community monitoring by people is an effective way. Integrity Watch is actively helping local communities across Afghanistan to have access to information and the tools needed to monitor public construction projects.
