Ambassador Krishna R. Urs and Director of USAID Peru, Jene Thomas, along with the National Reconstruction Authority, Nelson Chui; visited the city of Trujillo, one of the most affected by the floods caused by the Fenómeno del Niño.  Within the framework of USAID and Transparencia Peru project "Citizen Engagement for a Transparent Reconstruction", they had the opportunity to observe the work of the volunteers (citizen observers) who participate in the supervision of works in their communities.  The objective of the volunteers is to prevent corruption and attract the attention of their public officials if they detect irregularities during the execution of public works or corruption risks. 

It was a great opportunity to observe the effective dialogue between authorities and volunteers doing oversight. Mr. Chui recognized that citizen oversight contributes to improve the government work and to provide better information to citizens. 

To date more than 500 citizen observers have been trained along six regions. They oversaw 177 public works among schools, health centers, roads, bridges, water and sanitation systems. Through their work, approximately 911 million dollars have been overseen by these volunteers.