Senate body adopts amendments to privatisation law

Senate Standing Committee on Finance has adopted, in the Privatisation Commission Ordinance 2000, amendments regarding post-audit of privatisation transactions and mandatory declaration of interests by Privatisation Commission members to ensure transparency. A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance headed by Chairperson Nasreen Jalil was presented a report of the sub-committee on a bill moved by the Senator Sughra Iman to amend the Privatisation Commission Ordinance 2000 on Tuesday.
The sub committee recommendations include approval of amendments with regard to declaration of interest and post audit of privatisation transactions to ensure more transparency. The movers argued that the privatisation process must be entirely transparent, judicious and fair and it is essential that all officials involved in overseeing the privatisation process must be free from any personal interest, prejudice or conflict of interests; otherwise, the entire process would become an exercise in futility. The post-audit of each privatisation transaction would be conducted by the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) as well as an external auditor after completion of the transaction.
The federal government or any agency authorised by it would, after the completion of the every privatisation transaction get it audited by an external auditor and publish its report within one month of the completion of the audit. Senator Syeda Sughra Imam remarked that she has proposed amendments in the Privatisation Commission Ordinance, 2000 with a view to improving transparency in the privatisation process and ensuring that Pakistan's economic and strategic interests are duly protected. She stated that she has proposed to make the declaration of interest obligatory for all employees and members of Privatisation Commission by replacing the words 'disclosure of interest' with 'declaration of interest' because of the meanings both phrases imply.
Disclosure of interest implies that it is optional and would have to be disclosed only when one has a particular interest in any given privatisation transaction whereas declaration of interest implies that it is obligatory even when an employee or a member of the Commission has no conflict of interest in any transaction. She specified that she proposed the amendment to ensure that no one ever misuses the law. She added that another reason for proposing this particular amendment is that unlike many other countries, Pakistan has no conflict of interest laws. In the past, people working in Privatisation Commission seldom made disclosures.
Senator Syeda Sughra Imam proposed the post-audit of privatisation transactions, arguing that the post-audit of any contract assesses its impacts on national economy but has never been done in our country. She quoted AGP who stated in Public Accounts Committee that audit is not done properly in the country. She also quoted the case of misplacement of files of a past privatisation transaction referenced by the Ministry of Finance to NAB.