The government of Pakistan has guaranteed the donors that funds received for flood relief will be spent under Public Procurement Rules (PPR) 2004. Transparency International Pakistan Chairman Syed Adil Gilani told Business Recorder here on Friday on return, after attending the daylong workshop held in Islamabad on September 23, that PPR 2004 have in-built transparency and self-accountability and access to information.
Monitoring would include both funds and goods and services received (inputs) and also use of those resources (outputs). A complaint hotline will also be established. Participants of the workshop, which was convened by Transparency International Pakistan and Transparency International Berlin in co-operation with the Ministry of Finance Government of Pakistan, recognised that specific actions are needed to support transparency and accountability and to curb the risk of corruption in the use of Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Funds following the devastating July 2010 floods.
Gilani said that the decisions taken at the workshop would go a long way in restoring the confidence of donors who were feeling shy in coming forward to assist Pakistan if these decisions are implemented in letter and spirit. Finance Minister Dr A Hafeez Shaikh while concluding the workshop applauded the participants for their efforts in preparing the framework for utilisation of funds for flood in a transparent manner, and announced that the government of Pakistan would implement the four recommendations agreed in the workshop.
The Transparency International Pakistan Chairman handed over the workshop recommendations to UAG Isani, Chairman of National Oversight Disaster Management Council (NODMC), constituted by the Prime Minister on September 16, 2010 to monitor the inflow of funds for various phases of the post-flood recovery and reconstruction.
Following four key recommendations were highlighted by participants at the workshop:
1. The involvement of affected communities, including women and vulnerable and marginalised social groups, in decisions relating to relief and reconstruction at all stages of the process lies at the heart of effective and transparent aid strategies.
The economic capacity and expertise of affected communities as well as local technology and materials should be used wherever possible in delivering relief and reconstruction to reduce cost, ensure appropriate solutions, and assist with economic recovery. Where feasible, existing rural community support programs should be used in relation to land and property allocation decisions, the rebuilding of community infrastructure and the restoration of livelihoods.
2. Ensuring full transparency in aid flows, allocation, procurement and distribution process, and the national tracking system accessible to everyone are vital. Only access to information on financial flows is, by itself, not enough to improve the transparency and effectiveness of aid flows.
The actual outputs of funds used must also be monitored. Donors and government institutions and other implementing agencies, including NGOs, should strive to be accountable to the intended beneficiaries of reconstruction assistance by, for example, undertaking regular community satisfaction surveys.
Following actions are required to ensure a robust system of accounting and oversight:
-- The national tracking system in place and agreed by the government of Pakistan should contain all information from all stakeholders in order to contribute to co-ordinating, monitoring and managing the overall rebuilding effort.
-- The national tracking system should show the funding mechanism, preferably on budget, and the contribution of multi-donor funds set up for the disaster.
-- The system should contain information comprehensive enough to respond to government and donor exigencies yet simple enough to be accessible by affected communities.
-- International organisations and donors should support the development and maintenance of the tracking system.
3. Effective independent monitoring and evaluation is key to ensuring the transparent implementation of relief and reconstruction programs, including both procurement and service delivery.
Non-transparent or closed/discretionary procurement systems can lead to the diversion of resources away from intended beneficiaries through corruption or uncompetitive processes. Effective internal control and external auditing (including real time and field audits) should be complemented by community-led approaches, such as people's audits, that reinforce accountability towards affected peoples.
Donors and government and other implementing agencies, including NGOs, should ensure that affected communities are provided with accessible and understandable information about relief and reconstruction efforts as well as about the relief and compensation benefits they are entitled to. Appropriate formats and local languages should be used to ensure ease of access by such communities. All flood funds, therefore, must be spent under the Public Procurement Rules 2004, which have inbuilt transparency and self-accountability and access to information system.
4. Ensuring appropriate mechanisms and capacity to capture complaints and enforce anti-corruption measures is also of vital importance. Accessible grievance procedures, including corruption reporting channels and protection for whistleblowers and witnesses, should be provided in the context of relief and reconstruction efforts. In particular, grievance procedures should cover private and public sector employees, the media, and the general public.
Ombudsmen at district level should be in place to enable effective redress of public grievances. A Complaint Hotline shall be established where complaints can be reported on a toll-free telephone number, web, email, fax or by mail, and handled effectively and the use of social media, SMS and other technology should be encouraged. Aid beneficiaries should also be provided access to complaints mechanisms in humanitarian organisations, opening up effective new methods of project evaluation and corruption detection.
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