A dollar 100 million global initiative has been created to fight corruption and fraud through collective action, education and training. The initiative is aimed at creating fair market conditions for all the market participants. This was stated by Naveed Iqbal Ansari, Siemens' General manager and Regional Compliance Officer. He was briefing representatives of the non-governmental officers (NGOs) regarding participation in the Siemens Integrity Initiative.
Naveed said that the NGOs from Pakistan as well as the non-profit organisations could also compete for allocation of funding to be made at the international level by selecting the projects. He said that the first funding round is from December 9, 2009 to January 31, 2010, and the amount allocated for the projects to be selected at international level would be to the tune of $40 million.
Naveed pointed out that an NGO could join hands with a couple of others if it desires to come up with a joint project for approval. He said that the maximum funding for an approved project would be to the tune of four million dollars and the minimum amount under that head would be 50,000 dollars for the project timeframe of three to five years.
Naveed informed that the initial review would be from February to April 2010 by the World Bank and that would be what was termed as a 'non-veto decision'. An announcement regarding the second and third funding round of $60 million would be made separately, he further stated.
For fighting corruption and fraud, the collective action pertains to creating national alliances and platforms of dialogue between public and private sector, strengthening the rule of law and voluntary standards as well as creating incentives for good performers.
For education and training it is about curricula development, capacity building for public, private and non-sector, platform for dialogue between practitioners from public and private sector as well as knowledge exchange with growth markets and emerging markets through scholarships and co-operation with other institutions. The briefing held here on Tuesday at the Siemens City Office was attended by Sharfuddin Memon chief of the CPLC and Ronald de Souza of Shehri.-PR