Held at Hotel Marriott, Islamabad
On 23rd September 2010

 

 

A one day workshop was organized by Transparency International Pakistan and Transparency International in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan on the 23rd of September at Hotel Marriott, Islamabad on the topic ‘Ensuring the Transparent Use of Flood Relief Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Funds’.


The chief guest for the Inaugural session was Mr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Finance Minister of Pakistan who spoke about the use of transparency and credibility as a pretext for applying curbs on support for floods victims, as the government is taking all necessary measures for judicious use of resources in this regard. He also said that, Transparency International Pakistan can help in ensuring transparent use of flood relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction funds. He also mentioned about the creation of an integrated website by the government to facilitate tracking of information regarding inflows of foreign and domestic funds for flood affectees to ensure Transparency. The session was ended by Mr. Saad Rashid , Executive Director Transparency International Pakistan by appreciating the speech and the suggestions given by Abdul Hafeez Sheikh.

The first session was Chaired by Mr. Raja Mohammad Zulqarnain Khan, President Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The topic of this session was “lessons learned on Integrity and accountability in previous disasters”, he spoke of the previous disasters especially the earth quake that struck Pakistan in 2005, and referring to the latter he said that the floods were far more destructive in terms of loss of property, displacement of areas and people etc. He also said that the process of transparency should start before the allocation of the funds and people at all levels should be involved. Ms. Rosalyn Hees from Transparency International was also amongst the panelists and shed light on preventing Corruption in Humanitarian Operations which followed the work TI had done following the 2004 Tsunami and 2005 Pakistan Earthquake.


Ms Yasmin Lari trustee Transparency International Pakistan also gave her views regarding Heritage Foundation of Pakistan which was involved in reconstruction after the 2005 earthquake and its participation in developing low cost housing in Sindh for flood affected communities. While talking about the importance of community participation she said that the involvement of the affected community ensured that the rebuilt structure would be both economically and culturally appropriate.

The second session was chaired by Ahmad Kamal, Member, NDMA who spoke on participatory decision making in Rehabilitation and Reconstruction. He also referred to the former disasters that struck Pakistan and thus created chaos. Dr. Barb Wigley from the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership was also amongst the panelists and shed light on the issues regarding the topic and suggested some reforms that can improve our work.

The third session was chaired by Mr. Tanwir Ali Agha, Auditor General of Pakistan. The topic of this session was Transparency and Monitoring of aid flow.  He asserted on the importance of building a strategic partnership with the Government and the civil society organizations in order to achieve transparent results, he said that accountability is a continuous process and the auditors general’s report are the beginning of this process. He said that the government should make sure that the comprehensive records of project implementation work are kept properly and the information should be easily accessible to everyone. Ms. Catherine Johnson, Director of office and democracy and governance, USAID, was present as a panelist. She suggested that a transparent web based fund tracking system should be developed; she also asserted the importance of building capacity with civil society organizations and also building a broad coalition with the stake holders. Mr. Rukshana Nanayakkara, Deputy Executive Director, TI-Srilanka presented a case study about Tsunami, he insisted on the Participation of local people in every process and in every step to ensure transparency and fulfilling the requirement of the right to knowledge, he stressed upon the monitoring and valuation of all the projects to reaffirm the participatory element, his suggestions were well received by the participants which was evident in the question and answer session.

The fourth session was chaired by Mr. Hafeez ur Rehman, MD PPRA, who stressed upon the need of following public procurement rules in the procurement process and appreciated the efforts of TI-P.  Mr. Adil Gilani , Chairman Transparency International Pakistan Mr Khalid Lodhi and Ms Yasmin Lari was amongst the panelists and shed light on the topic. Mr Gilani presented the success story of National Insurance Corporation and said that there is an inbuilt on self accountability mechanism in the Public Procurement Rules 2004, which is strictly monitored by the bidders themselves. He referred to the recovery of Rs 1.426 Billion expected loss due to PPRA rules in the same case study.

The fifth session’s topic consisted of the “Effective enforcement and complaint handling” which was chaired by Mr. Robert Wilson, Mission Director USAID. Mr. Mohammad Asif Ministry  of finance.  Mr. Saad Rashid Executive Director Transparency International Pakistan, Mr. Daniel Altman, USAID Office of Inspector General were amongst the panelists and shared their views and experiences regarding the topic. Mr. Saad Rashid  said that people are not apathetic and all the procedures should cover private and public sector employees, media and general public.

The sixth and the last session consisted of the suggestions and the presentation of recommendations and closing remarks was chaired by  the Finance Minister Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh.
Mr. Peter Rooke of Transparency International presented the four key recommendations highlighted by the participants of the workshop

• The involvement of affected communities, including women and vulnerable and marginalized social groups, in decisions relating to reliefs and reconstruction at all stages of the process lies at the heart of the effective and transparent aid strategies.
• Ensuring full transparency in aid flows and allocation, procurement and distribution process, and the national tracking system accessible to everyone are vital.
• Effective independent monitoring and evaluation is key to ensuring the transparent implementation of relief and reconstruction programs, including both procurement and service delivery.
• Ensuring appropriate mechanisms and capacity to capture complaints and enforce anti- corruption measures is also of vital importance.

Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in his concluding speech accepted the recommendations on behalf of the Government of Pakistan. He agreed to forward the recommendations to the Prime Minister so that they could be implemented. He also facilitated a meeting of  the Chairman Transparency International Pakistan and Mr U. A. G. Isani, the Chairman National Oversight Disaster Management Council so that the recommendations may be explained to him.