Jhang model to cut corruption, now all over Punjab

[sonicboom]

Jhang model to cut corruption, now all over Punjab

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

By Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: After a delay of almost 20 months, the Punjab government has finally launched the incredible Jhang model at divisional, district and Tehsil levels all over the province to improve public services of police, revenue, health and education and to curb corruption.

It has already been enforced in the entire Bahawalpur division, in some selected departments of Narowal district and in the Registration Branch of Gujranwala and Sialkot. Sources said the author of Jhang model and former DCO Jhang, Zubair Bhatti, who had left the government service and had joined a multi-national organisation, has recently been hired back by the provincial government to get this idea implemented in the whole of Punjab within a few months.

Jhang model is based on the concept of making the officials to approach the citizens instead of citizens approaching the official to know what difficulties the people are facing in their interaction with government departments at Tehsil, district and division levels.

In 2008, this newspaper reported about the wonders of the Jhang model that is based on citizens’ feedback. Bhatti had done wonders in Jhang by remarkably reducing corruption in the otherwise most corrupt Revenue Department’s Registry offices, amongst the Patwaris, in the government hospitals etc, by simply asking the officials concerned to submit daily the list of all the property transactions registered with mobile numbers of both sellers and buyers, the total amount of taxes due and other basic details of transactions.

Similar orders were given to Patwaris in cases where fard were given. The clerks of the Revenue Department were told that the officer would personally call any number of these citizens randomly on their mobile phone to find out if they were asked to pay any bribe or commission above and beyond the taxes due, if any. He did the same and within a few weeks’ time, things changed miraculously as far as getting of a fard or intiqal done and the registration of property was concerned.

Bhatti also used to talk to different buyers of the property or those getting fard or intiqal in the district or those treated/operated in the government hospital or those getting domicile/birth/death certificates, etc, on their mobile numbers to know if they had paid only the taxes due or were also forced to grease the right palms.

On July 9, 2008, the chief minister ordered immediate implementation of the incredible Jhang model administration in all the districts of the province to reduce corruption and improve service delivery, through citizens’ feedback, in the otherwise inefficient and corrupt departments of Revenue, Police, Health and others.

However, it did not happen till recently when the Punjab government finally woke up to implement this new idea of administration to the benefit of ordinary souls. Sources said that the government started immediately with the Registration Branch in Gujranwala a couple of weeks back. “Over the last two weeks, tremendous reduction in corruption and extortion has been seen in the district in the Registration Branch there,” a source said adding that anti-corruption cases have been registered against two clerks, Jehangir Butt and Saif Buttar, and their boss Ahmad Saeed, Sub-registrar, of the branch because feedback from citizens about them was very negative. They also tried to fudge the data. The first two, it is said, have also been arrested. The third is absconding as of now.

The Commissioner Bahawalpur, the sources said, has also ordered this model to be implemented for several services. In health service, department shall report the cell number of all citizens who were issued medico-legal certificate, underwent medical procedures in rural health centres or were provided free medicines in emergency.

Commissioner, DCO and their officers and a dedicated team of staff have started calling citizens to find out about their welfare. Similarly, registration branch, domicile branch and leave and pension orders in the education department, bill payments in the treasury office shall be monitored.

Since this idea had started in the Registration branch some days ago, the Commissioner Bahawalpur reportedly made several calls to citizens, who were both shocked and pleased to find the otherwise indifferent baboos asking if they were treated well or asked to pay bribe.

According to Zubair Bhatto, as good systems are developed, tested, improved and implemented, this feedback service shall be expanded to other services as well. “We are thinking to also send messages to all citizens for example who obtained domicile in Muzzafargarh district, for example, to report back by sending small messages back if they suffered any extortion at the hands of officials. Patterns of corruption can thus be clearly identified from a distance,” he said.

Bhatti offered the media to get from him the cell numbers of hundreds of citizens who could be contacted by the mediapersons themselves to find out about the quality of services. Bhatti has also sent to The News a couple of recorded conversations by the Commissioner Bahawalpur and also his own. “It would be great if Jang and The News investigate the impact of this in Bahawalpur Division in two weeks or so.”

Jhang model to cut corruption, now all over Punjab

 

[sparklingway]

It took a lot of time for the Government of Punjab to implement this but it is great to hear that it is being done finally and that Zubair Bhatti has been hired back.

Some people consider it a naive and non-sophisticated way of dealing with corruption but the fact of the matter is that prevalence of corruption at the patwari level can only be countered in this way. I hope we are also to replace thw patwari system with revenue officers soon.

Good job Shahbaz Sharif ! Thanks Zubair Bhatti !

This is what "The Economist" had to say about the Jhang model :-

Mobile phones can also be used to root out corruption in more direct ways. For example, Zubair Bhatti, a Pakistani bureaucrat, asked all clerks in the Jhang district who handled land transfers to submit a daily list of transactions, giving the amount paid and the mobile-phone numbers of the buyer and the seller. He explained that he would be calling buyers and sellers at random to find out whether they had been asked to pay any extra bribes or commissions. When charges were subsequently brought against a clerk who had asked for a bribe, the others realised that Mr Bhatti meant business, and buyers and sellers reported a sudden improvement in service. Mr Bhatti extended the scheme to other areas, such as cracking down on vets who demanded bribes from farmers, and has proposed that the Jhang model, as it is now known, be adopted in other districts. “It could easily be institutionalised with a call centre,” he says. “It could have big vote-getting influence.”

Here is a profile of Zubari Bhatti. He was working with The Asia Foundation after quitting his job with the DMG:-

Zubair K. Bhatti is The Asia Foundation's Director of Programs, Pakistan. Before joining The Asia Foundation, Bhatti was with Engro Chemical Pakistan Limited, Karachi, where he was the Public Affairs Manager. He has worked as the District Coordination Officer in the District Government, Jhang, Punjab Province. Bhatti was with the Finance Department, Government of Punjab. He worked on the Access to Justice Program with the Asian Development Bank in Pakistan; he was with the Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy. Bhatti also worked for the Baltimore Sun, Beijing Bureau as a stringer/interpreter for a time.

Education: Beijing Languages Institute; B.E. in Computers from the University of Science and Technology, Beijing; MBA from the Management School, Imperial College, University of London; Masters in Public Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University.

 

[greatsequence]

I am ipressed. This model will definetly decrease corruption on the lower level. However I dont know how well it will go in the govt of mr 10%.

 

[karan.1970]

Congratulations guys.. Make me feel a little bit proud as well . My family from my father's side actually belongs to Jhang and they came to Delhi in 1947 when my dad was a kid...

 

[ice_man]

great job! i wish we can implement it all over pakistan!!!

another way to root out corruption is E-GOVERNANCE! this leads to elimination of corruption! you can't bribe the net!

the problem is training a nation onto e-governance is time very hard when your literacy rate is so low & access to the net is lower!

 

[sparklingway]

I am ipressed. This model will definetly decrease corruption on the lower level. However I dont know how well it will go in the govt of mr 10%.

Neither does the person you mention have anything to do with the the land record personnel who work under a provincial government nor was it necessary to go on a I-hate-Zardari-and-politicians-in-general rant.

 

[sparklingway]

 

[sparklingway]

Document on future expansion and prospects sent by Zubair K Bhatti.

Task, Process and Rationale
A letter needs to be written to the DCOs to inform officers and staff that any effort to misreport cell numbers shall be construed as cover-up of corruption and shall be dealt accordingly as per rules.

A helpline needs to be established where citizens can call before they enter into any particular transaction and ask questions about the steps and taxes/fees involved in that transaction.

To begin this could be more passive with information only on our idea and how it is going to impact them.

(a) they need not involve an expensive middleman,
(b) that they must get a receipt,
(c) that they must record their cell number with their own
hands,
(d) that they must not pay any penny to anyone other than the full official documented fees and the small (ideally regulated) middle man fee, and
(e) that they shall receive an sms after the transaction seeking their opinion on whether they were asked to pay anything extra to any one, official or not, during the process and they are requested to kindly ensure replying to that sms,
(f) that a percentage of citizens shall receive a call for more detailed conversation about the quality of transaction,
(g) and that DCOs, Commissioners and others are also calling the citizens to find out their welfare,
(h) and that bthis contact with the citizens shall be completely anonymous and he would not be called for any evidence or enquiry or any proof, and
(i) this is a CM initiative to improve governance in the province.

1. The idea mainly would be to fortify the citizen before the transaction so that he avoids the trap of the corrupt middleman or the corrupt official. Also, he should be made aware of the sms and the call that is likely to come his way.
   
   
2. Later, we should be able to answer more detailed questions about the nature of transactions and the various processes and issues involved.
   
   
3. To begin with, this helpline scan perhaps focuses on registration. It can be a one or two person operation answering calls. It could also perhaps be a recorded messages that the citizens may hear and he speaks to an actual attendant only when a citizen wants a detailed conversation.
   
   
4. We can advertise the number with banners in the revenue offices, in local cable stations, with posters and leaflets in the local offices, and with instructions to the registration offices that they must ask persons to call the helpline before they start the transaction.
   
   
5. The calling centre should eventually manage this helpline. But to begin with we may need to place one or two persons to start answering calls. This way we can start immediately and small and complement the other effort with citizen education.
   
   
6. A before transaction sms/or voice message needs to be sent talking about the information given above should also be sent. At this point, we don’t have the cell number of the customer because he hasn’t done the transaction, but it is the citizen who calls on his own and seeks this information.
   
   
7. Like the helpline, we can advertise the number with banners in the revenue offices, in local cable stations, with posters and leaflets in the local offices, and with instructions to the registration offices that they must ask persons to call the helpline before they start the transaction.
   
   
8. This helpline, sms and voice message before the transaction are not about complaints but about this idea and its details. They would also aim to address the issue of information failure.
   
   
9. We should start immediately when we start collecting cell numbers, but long term it should be housed with the calling centre
   
   
10. Sending universal sms asking for feedback on transactions. The likely questions could be: Mr ABC, you transaction xyx on xyz date with xyz office paying xyz in fees to the state and xyz to the middle man/waseeqanawees. Did you have to pay any other money to any one extra or did were you asked to pay any more sum to any one else? If the answer is yes, press 1. If the process was corruption free and no one asked for any money from you or took any money from you, please press 0.
    
    
11. Other possible variations (along with many variations possible in the above question):
    
    • Do you think that corruption is going on the xyx office based on your personal experience?
    • Did you face any kind of corruption during your transaction?
    • Do you think that office xyz is corrupt based on your knowledge of the office?
      
    
    
12. All of these questions are likely to have various levels of responses. We need to experiment with them to see which question has the best response rate and what does that mean in terms of actual “investigation” of corruption in various offices. For example, we may need to ask a more broad question to begin with so that we call more people who report corruption to ask detailed questions, or we may ask a narrower question.
    
    
13. We should start sending these sms messages and start collecting information of responses.
    
    
14. The long term location of this service shall be with the call centre.
    
    
15. PITB may at the earliest explore the cost structure of sending sms, receiving feedback and various reports.
    
    
16. The above message could be sent by voice message as well. Perhaps it would be difficult to customize the message for date, nature of transaction and the person but this kind of customizing should be worth exploring. But we must send a voice message, even if a general one, asking for feedback. We need to experiment how big is the difference of response with voice message, customized voice message, simple sms, or a customized sms. Data entry for various forms may begin at the earliest. SMS and other ideas can start with that process.
    
    
17. Contact with PTA may be explored to find out how we will approach them to identify shared CNICs for various cell numbers that have been given to us as means to sabotage the concept. This needs to be done at the earliest because we need to catch a few culprits to ensure that our data is clean (or cleaner) and we go about our pilot testing with less worries about our data.
    
    
18. Contact with NADRA may be also be explored to find out what mechanisms do we need to use their database for data entry and other related investigation and research services.
    
    
19. It may in the long run or perhaps immediately may take the form where they do all the data entry. With their established centres and their databases, they may be able to do this much faster than us.
    
    
20. Though in the beginning and perhaps over the long run, we may want to do this in house because barely any marginal cost is incurred. But if that appears to be feasible and lots of data needs to be entered on daily basis, we may like to outsource this to NADRA (or to any other data entry operator. Though NADRA brings tremendous advantage to the table. Software needs to be built to record who called what number with what results and whether audio of this conversation exists. It would have security protocols meaning that Commissioner BPR could call any service in the division, a DCO any service in the division, a DDO R, any service in the tehsil(?), a Director Health, any health service in the division etc. Similar protocols may be built for civil and CM Secretariat.
    
    
21. It should have print page kind of a version where a DCO prints the details of some numbers, calls them, writes or ticks his remarks on the page, signs and sends it to his PA for entry in the system with his remarks.
    
    
22. The higher level of officers should be able to see percentage of calls made by various tiers after every day and what kind of results it had.
    
    
23. Procurement of call centre services may begin immediately. It may start with five or six supervisor level men, age 25 plus, with BA education and possible fluency in Punjabi with possible rural background, to kick start the process as we develop things along.
    
    
24. ZKB can work with them to train them and also to develop means to train others. SOPs for various calls can also be built while training them extensively.
    
    
25. We may want to develop SOPs as to what incentives would we offer the callers. They make a commission on every sale? Should we let them make x rupees on every corruption reported if it is reported in specific detail?
    
    
26. We need SOPs as to who and how detailed investigation is triggered, who makes those calls, what kind of detailed questions are asked, how far back do we go, how big a percentage is called after that trigger (the higher the probability of corruption, the higher the need to make more calls to detect it, and nail the person involved).
    
    
27. This is not an immediate requirement where the jurisdictions and services covered are still small in number. Reports about wrong numbers, dead numbers and such other possibilities need to be generated.

 

[Gazzi]

This sort of thing is not going to change and like a computer hacker, people will find their way around it. Unless the very need to take bribes changes i.e. a higher or better wage for the workers in Revenue and Police, then this sort of thing will continue unfortunately.

Every person wants a better life for their children and the Police and workers in other institutions are no exception. These are the people who need to be paid good so the need for bribes is only then bought down to greed and not necessity. This can then be sorted quite quickly when the need becomes greed.