A delegation of Transparency International (TI), comprising procurement experts, from Germany and Pakistan will start meetings with government and local government officials in Karachi. During its four-day stay here, the delegation, led by Juanita Olaya, will have meetings and discussions with the Ministry of Irrigation and Power, City Nazim, Nazim Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town, Pakistan Steel Director Finance and National Accountability Bureau officials, including National Anti-Corruption Strategy in-charge Brigadier Amjad Jawaid.
The project, preventing corruption in public contracting, capacity building and networking for civil society and local governments in Asia, aims at curbing corruption in public contracting in local governments in three Asian countries in co-operation with one country in the EU.
To do this, the TI Secretariat plans a two-year capacity building and inter-regional networking project for the TI national chapters, other civil society organisations, and local governments in Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan.
This involves, in each Asian country, an initial general country assessment to identify needs and capacities of the stakeholders and the potential for partnerships, and a capacity building and training (CBT) workshop addressing those needs and introducing useful and practical tools for promoting transparency and accountability in public contracting and procurement, such as the TI developed and tested integrity pact.
The overall objective of the project is to build capacity and foster effective national and regional networking in Asia and the European Union to improve transparency and integrity in public contracting by local government and generally to improve their procurement systems.
The intended outcome is a reduction in the cost of public procurement and better citizen participation in procurement processes leading to better allocation of public resources, more appropriate project selection and design and better construction standards, producing higher quality and environmentally less damaging projects.
The project's Asia-EU Regional Workshop will promote the sharing of best practices, tools and training materials, in particular the outcomes of the CBT Workshop.-PR