Pakistani Branch of International Anti-Corruption Agency Claims Harassment

The largest international Anti-Corruption agency is Transparency International (TI - located at www.Transparency.org ) , and they issue many reports, including the Annual Corruption Perception Index that ranks about 170 countries on how corrupt they are perceived.   Iraq and Afghanistan usually are near the very bottom, and they do not have TI offices, but Pakistan does. 

When I was in Iraq in 2004-2006, I looked into forming a TI office there, but the process requires the collaboration of several NGO's who fund it, and that was not possible then.

So, the Pakistan TI office says in the articles below that they are being harassed by the Interior Minister for monitoring corruption, and they might close the office.  Pakistan is rated in the TI Index as being the world's 34th MOST corrupt nation. The TI office has been there 10 years.

You can see the full TI Corruption Perception Index HERE, and the US is 22nd from the top, where New Zealand, Singapore and Denmark tie for first place out of 178 countries, where AFghanistan is 176th, Iraq is 175, and Pakistan is 143rd on the list.

HERE is the official TI news article about the problems, which was issues from their Berlin HQ yesterday.

HERE is the NY Times article and there are many more.

According to the NY Times, the US foreign aid arm, USAID, signed a recent agreement with Pakistan's TI to provide an anti-fraud reporting hotline, which is probably why Pakistani officials are not complaining about TI.

Below is an article from the UK's Daily Telegraph as published in the Vancouver Sun about the new hotline, and reasons for it.

However, the establishment of an INDEPENDENT hotline is a good sign, and is

one of the main factors in countries with low corruption like Singapore, which has a very good anti-corruption agency.

vj

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U.S. hotline to tackle aid fraud in Pakistan

By Rob Crilly, The Daily Telegraph November 30, 2010

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/hotline+tackle+fraud+Pakistan/3906778/story.html#ixzz16ottS7OM

America is opening an anti-corruption hotline in Pakistan to try to protect billions of dollars of aid money at risk from fraud, waste and theft.

Transparency International, a global corruption watchdog, will run the telephone line to help monitor more than $7.5bn (pounds 4.81bn) promised over the next five years as part of a package to help stabilize Pakistan as it battles militants along its border with Afghanistan.

The move risks angering the government of Pakistan which has criticized Transparency International for increasing the country's graft rating. Activists have already warned that they face intimidation and harassment when carrying out their work.

Syed Adil Gilani, the chairman of Transparency International Pakistan, said on Tuesday he had received three death threats from government officials since signing up to run the hotline.

"One to one, I was told not to keep on working as we are," he said. "I was told that Karachi is not safe and there are many target killings."

With millions of dollars in aid pouring in to Pakistan in the wake of this year's devastating floods, allegations of financial mismanagement have been widespread.

The fraud hotline is one of a number of anti-corruption projects that USAID, the U.S. government's donor agency, is working on with the Pakistan government.

"This is a normal oversight mechanism in many countries where we work," said Bob Wilson, USAID mission director, as he recently announced plans for the hotline.

However, Mr Gilani said the threats and intimidation had begun when his organization signed up to the project in September.

"We have suffered because we are trying to prevent corruption of U.S.-funded projects in Pakistan," he said, adding that Transparency International had worked with the government in Islamabad to try to improve accountability and to tackle graft in the past.

Last month, Transparency International's annual corruption perception index ranked Pakistan as the 34th most corrupt country in the world - a rise of eight places, putting it on a par with Mauritania and one place below Zimbabwe.

Allegations of corruption have long dogged the government of President Asif Ali Zardari.

At the weekend, Rehman Malik, Pakistan's Interior Minister, described Transparency International as a "detective agency" and accused it of operating illegally in the country.

He also accused the campaign group of trying to buy information from government officials, a charge denied by Mr Gilani.

Mr Malik was not available for comment.

Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for the president, said Mr Malik had merely disagreed with the methodology of the survey.

© Copyright (c) The Daily Telegraph

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/hotline+tackle+fraud+Pakistan/3906778/story.html#ixzz16ottS7OM