Obra Transparente monitored public school construction projects over three years with the aim of increasing transparency and accountability in the execution of educational infrastructure projects through active civic oversight. Born from a partnership between Transparência Brasil and the Observatório Social do Brasil, the project brought together local social observatories working in 21 municipalities in the south and southeast regions of the country to monitor public works, put pressure on municipal governments to resume unfinished works and prevent further delays and stoppages.

The initiative strengthened the civic oversight of public works, carried out by the observatories, through:

1. Specialized training for monitoring public works;
2. Technical advice to the observatories;
3. Sharing experiences and good practices.

135 public school works under the National Program for Restructuring and Acquisition of Equipment for the Public School Network for Early Childhood Education (Proinfância) were monitored in the participating cities. The training activities (six online editions and two face-to-face editions) – containing modules on public bids and tenders, implementation and delivery of public works and risk assessment of fraud and corruption practices in public contracting – reached around 270 participants.

Based on the training, the participants monitored tendering, procurement and contracting documents and public constructions in person. When noticing delays and possible irregularities, the local Social Observatories documented the findings and forwarded them to the program’s Technical Chamber for analysis of the collected body of evidence. If problems were found and verified, city halls and external control bodies were called in.