Hyde
SENIOR MODERATOR
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2008
- Messages
- 20,543
- Reaction score
- 20
- Country
- Location
70 percent Pakistanis say Zardari's government more corrupt than Musharraf's: TI Pakistan survey
IQBAL MIRZA
KARACHI (June 02 2010): Overall corruption in 2010 increased to an awe-inspiring level of Rs 223 billion, as compared to Rs 195 billion in 2009, according to the 'National Corruption Perception Survey (NCPS) 2010', released by Transparency International Pakistan here on Tuesday.
The Chairman of Transparency International Pakistan, Syed Adil Gilani, told a press conference that 70 percent Pakistanis say that the present government is more corrupt than the previous government. The credibility of Pakistan is almost at the lowest level, which is evident from the fact that there has been no funding in the last two years from the Friends of Pakistan trust fund, being managed by the World Bank, he said.
Police and power maintained their ranking as the top two most corrupt sectors, whereas land administration occupied the third position. Corruption in judiciary, education and local government also increased compared to 2009, whereas two departments of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), customs and taxation, were ranked as the least corrupt sectors.
In terms of bribery per act, land administration is rated as the most corrupt sector where each incident of corrupt act is Rs 46,414, whereas total bribery in other nine sectors is Rs 127,728. Ali Gilani said that corruption is the root cause of poverty, illiteracy, terrorism, shortage of electricity, food, etc, and lack of governance in Pakistan.
The most corrupt sector is 'Tendering' which eats away at least 40 percent of Pakistan's development budget, and this is confirmed from the recent results of transparent tendering for transportation of sugar in Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) where it saved at least Rs 49.3 million by implementing Public Procurement Rules 2004, which is 40 percent lower than the cost of same work awarded last year. Violators of Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) Rules are BOI, WAPDA, CDA, NHA, CCP, SECP, SBP, Customs, EOBI, ECP, EPZA, FIA, MOI, FPSC, FOS, GPA, Islamabad HC, JPCL, MoH, MoInv, MoPA, MoIT, MoPriv, MoZakat, NIH, NSCS, PCB, PEPA, PHF, NLC, NIC, PID, Priv Commission, and Utility Stores Corporation.
Pakistan needs to address corruption with full political will, such as is being demonstrated by Judiciary by at least declaring it under the Judicial Policy to be an organisation of 'Zero Tolerance for Corruption and Pakistan Armed Forces' which has withdrawn its active senior officers from civilian postings and have successfully also controlled violations of Procurement Rules 2004.
This is confirmed from the AGP Report of 2008-09, which has deducted corruption of Rs 323 billion in FY 2008, and none in Armed Forces. However, Transparency International Pakistan would like to advise the Ministry of Defence to issue directive to DHAs, MES, CB, CAA, HMCs, HIT, FWO & SoP to implement PPRA Rules, he said. Parliament shall immediately pass the Act of Independent Accountability Commission for across the board accountability (rated as the top most cause of corruption in NCPS 2010), as required under the United Nations Charter against Corruption ratified by Pakistan in August 2007, he said.
The Transparency International Pakistan Chairman said that unless urgent measures are taken, the time is not far when Pakistan may also be equated to Afghanistan in corruption. It is, therefore, necessary that the rule of law is brought back to Pakistan. TI Pakistan, for the purpose of across the board accountability, fully endorses the views of the Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry that 'Justice should be done, let the heaven fall', and also request the judiciary with bona fide intentions to desist from the culture of giving stay orders against commercial contracts, which causes incalculable losses to exchequer and the nation as well. Transparency International Pakistan is for the elimination of the accusations/allegations of 'Hire the Judge instead of lawyer', he said.
He said that vast majority of people considered the past federal government to be cleaner. "This is quite similar to if we look at the response towards provincial governments, except Punjab. However, if we look at the results from provinces from a standalone point of view, Punjab is the only province where present provincial government is rated to be cleaner than previous provincial government. Pakhtonkawa Khyber is rated as the most corrupt province," he said.
Other findings of Pakistan National Corruption Perception Survey 2010 show that the three main reasons of corruption, in view of the respondents, were: lack of accountability, lack of merit, and low salaries. NAB has not taken any action against those responsible for Rs 323 billion corruption, reported by AGP, and promised on floor of the Assembly by Minister of Law.
Introduction of Motorway Police has reduced corruption in the nation, and about 87 percent of Pakistanis considered that Motorway Police should be established in all the four provinces of Pakistan.
A significant population declined for extension in service of civil servants and, likewise, it was a clear perception that armed forces retirees should not be given opportunity to work as civil servants. Land allocation through allotment and auction seems quite equal. Nevertheless, auction still received higher weight.
Promotion of BPS 20 grade officers should be by public service commission and not head of government, according to the people of Pakistan. Judiciary & Armed forces should also come under accountability check. More than 80 percent respondents said they believed that media's freedom had contributed to expose corruption. Almost 80 percent of Pakistanis consider that land records should be computerised and published.
In the foreword to the 151-page NCPS- Transparency International Pakistan survey 2010, Gilani said that similar to the NCPS 2002, NCPS 2006 and NCPS 2009, NCPS 2010 comprises the perception of levels and frequency of corruption faced by common Pakistanis on daily basis. Unlike the previous surveys, the comparison of corruption between present and previous federal and provincial governments has been more detailed this time, as the respondents in each province were asked to give their opinion about own provincial government's performance, and also the federal government performance. Another aspect of the survey was the opinion of general public on the following few very important governance issues:
-- National Corruption Perception Survey 2010 has revealed that police remains the most corrupt sector; Power was seen as second most corrupt, and land administration moved up from being fourth corrupt since the last two surveys to being third.
-- Pakistanis continue to believe that private sector is less corrupt than the government sector. Builders/contractors, according to those who think private sector is more corrupt, leads from all private sector avenues. This is quite in line with the rise in rank of land administration among the most corrupt sectors.
-- Most important cause of corruption, according to Pakistanis, is lack of accountability. Lack of merit and low salaries follow it. Following this trend Pakistanis wanted accountability of public officers, appointment on merit and adequate salaries as the remedies for corruption.
-- Introduction of motorway police has definitely reduced corruption in the nation and about 87 percent of Pakistanis considered that motorway police should be established in all the four provinces of Pakistan.
-- Land allocation through allotment and auction seems quite equal. Nevertheless, auction still received higher weight.
-- Promotion of BPS 20 grade officers should be by public service commission and not head of government, according to the people of Pakistan. This may be because there is a clear discontent with lack of merit.
-- Armed forces should also come under the accountability check. This is quite consistent with the biggest reason of corruption, lack of accountability.
-- Media's freedom has been quite supported.
-- Almost 89 percent of Pakistanis consider that land records should be computerised and published.
-- The average corruption per household has increased from Rs 9,428 in 2009 to Rs 10,537 and judiciary and land administration lead this list.
-- The average expenditure on bribery/household is Rs 10,537. Based on a population of 169.58 million and 8 members/house, the cost of petty bribery works out to Rs 223 billion, ie an increase of 11.37 percent from 2009 which was Rs. 196 billion.
This year, the Survey had been entrusted to the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) and three Universities of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan, with the objective to enhance the credibility of the NCPS and also to develop knowledge of University students on public survey mechanism.
Gilani said: Transparency International Pakistan expects the federal government, provincial governments and private sector to take advantage from this survey and improve upon the sectors which are identified as very low on governance, and more corrupt.
In NCPS 2009, a note was addressed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Transparency International Pakistan demands from the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to take measures for the Rule of Law in Pakistan, as promised during the restoration of judiciary movement to the citizen of Pakistan. All rules shall be made applicable without further loss of time. To start with, all those departments which are violators of Public Procurement Rules 2004, shall be made accountable by the Supreme Court, in such manner that in future no one would dare violate procurement rules.
Transparency International Pakistan congratulated Pakistan Judiciary on the Supreme Court order given on 28th April 2010 in case of disputed award of multi-billion dollars LNG contract to GDF-Suez, in which the SC announced: "here we may observe that it is duty of the court to ensure that the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority Ordinance 2002 read with the Public Procurement Rules 2004 are adhered strictly to exhibit transparency".
The support and sponsorship in regard to this Survey by the USAID and Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation has been highly appreciated by Transparency International Pakistan. It also acknowledged and commended the efforts and formulation made by the team of students and Professor Shabih Haider of the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, for Transparency International Pakistan-NCPS 2010.
2010 Ranking
Police
Power
Land Admin
Education
Local Government
Judiciary
Health
Taxation
Custom
Tendering
and
contracting
for 2009 and 2006 ranking please go to the source link
Business Recorder [Pakistan's First Financial Daily]
or in another words 1117~ billion dollars
