04 September 2004	Saturday	18 Rajab 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 3: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Friday called for a paradigm shift in administrative policies to ensure a system that could produce results.

He was addressing the inaugural session of a three-day conference of 'Role of government accounting towards enhancing accountability' at the Prime Minister's House.

Mr Aziz said that in the wake of reforms taking place around the world, governments were increasingly expected to do more with less and be accountable to the community for the resources entrusted to them.

He mentioned measures his government had initiated to improve fiscal transparency. He said the country would like to open up to the world and accept changes in governance despite 'resistance by vested interests'.

He stressed on broadening the concept of accountability, saying that bad performance should also be added to the definition of corrupt and corruption, instead of focusing only on money plunderers.

The premier referred to the economic turnaround the country had achieved in the past five years by registering 18 per cent domestic production and over 8 per cent growth rate.

He expressed the hope that such conferences would help develop a vision of the road ahead and lay down standards of reporting, quality of transparency and principles of uniform account keeping.

He said the modern concept of accountability should be adopted, adding that there should be a shift from assigning blame and punishment for a wrong act. The modern state governance, he pointed out, perceived accountability in a much more positive sense and described it as an opportunity to demonstrate government's achievements about accelerating economic growth and poverty reduction.

The government, Mr Aziz pledged, would ensure that citizens of Pakistan and all stakeholders were provided with correct financial information. He said the government was strengthening internal control in ministries which, he added, would improve financial reporting and discipline and increase transparency of official transactions.

He said that a new accounting model had been developed to replace the redundant legacy of the accounting system. He said that PIFRA, a project started with the help of the World Bank to improve financial reporting and auditing, was geared up to accomplish this job.

Pakistan, he said, had a broad-based agenda of structural reforms and added that in some areas it had achieved noticeable macro- and micro-economic targets by achieving high growth rates, stabilizing the economy, reversing the flight of capital and developing strong private sector and a buoyant stock market.

"We have set a momentum. Our future lies in our ability to sustain this momentum by ensuring continuity and consistency with a strong determination to sustain and reinforce reforms," he said.

The venue of the conference was changed from Bhorban to the PM's House for the inaugural session. The rest of the programme will be held at Bhorban. Accountants, auditors, economists and financial analysts from neighbouring South Asian countries are attending the conference.

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