PROOF (Public Record of Operations and Finance) began in 2002 as a campaign for public financial disclosure. Led by Janaagraha, a coalition of organisations campaigned successfully for the quarterly public disclosure of the erstwhile Bangalore City Corporation’s financial records. Thus, PROOF aimed at enhancing accountability to the citizens by ensuring transparency. Within six months of the campaign, the Bangalore Mahanagara Palika adhered to this demand for public disclosure.

In order to take this to the next level, PROOF also designed a uniform way to evaluate public service delivery through the Standardised Service Level Benchmarks (SSLBs).

Successes

1.Through PROOF, the public disclosure law was included in the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) whereby all municipal bodies are required to disclose financial records to the public.

2.The Ministry of Urban Development also launched an initiative through which SSLBs for four key municipal services were defined through the concepts of PROOF. This was then piloted in 28 cities of the country.

3.In 2010, the Thirteenth Finance Commission included the service level benchmark (SLB) framework as one of the nine conditions by which State Performance would be judged.

Thus, PROOF today exists in the JNNURM and the Thirteenth Finance Commission at the policy level, and through SSLB model, it exists in twenty eight cities at the operational level.