KARACHI, Sept 26: The Transparency International (TI) has taken a serious note of the government’s decision to give a blanket exemption to all purchase deals of the defence ministry from the Public Procurement Regulatory Rules (PPRA-2004), well placed and knowledgeable sources informed Dawn on Wednesday.
Under the defence ministry come the three armed forces — army, navy and air force — as well as the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation, civil aviation and defence housing authorities and a host of other institutions that transact financial deals and conduct procurement worth Rs200 billion every year.
A Corruption Perception Index (CPI) is drawn up every year by the Transparency International, focusing on corruption in public sector and abuse of power of public offices. Procurement of goods and services by government departments is said to be one of the sources of corruption if the system is not transparent.
The exemption was given by a bureaucrat who in 2004 headed the federal finance ministry and is now the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau.
Sources recalled that the TI had lodged a protest with Islamabad in 2004 soon after it learnt that defence ministry deals had been exempted from the rules of PPRA. The TI is said to have again drawn the government’s attention recently on exclusion of defence ministry deals from these rules.
The Pakistan government put into place a PPRA law in 2002 and framed rules in 2004 in compliance with World Trade Organisation (WTO) conditions that made it obligatory on all
signatories to make all government procurement operations transparent and open to all.
In compliance with the WTO conditions, the government circulated last year a draft of PPRA for consultancy services also.
According to the sources, Islamabad has not responded to the TI communication. There is, however, no word as to what could be the follow-up action by TI or international financial institutions like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank if the government continues to exempt procurement deals of the defence ministry institutions from the PPRA rules.
The World Bank and ADB are among institutions that furnish data used in drawing up a Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of about 180 countries.
This year, TI has placed Pakistan at 138th position, out of 179, in the corruption index. Pakistan has been clubbed with four other countries: two African countries - Cameroon and Ethiopia -, one Middle Eastern country --- Syria ---, and one South American state --- Paraguay.
But more important than ranking is the ‘perception score’. The scale ranges from zero to ten --- zero denoting the highest level of corruption and 10 the least.
The TI’s annual report, released on Wednesday, showed Pakistan’s score at 2.4 points and adjudged it the 40th most corrupt country in the world. Pakistan’s position has improved somewhat over the last few years. In 2005, its score was 2.1 and the rank 13 out of 159.
Last year, Pakistan’s score was 2.2 and it was adjudged the 11th most corrupt country out of 163.
“Pakistan needs sincere efforts to apply rules and regulations across the board to reduce corruption and become an Asian Tiger,’’ Syed Adil Gilani, the chairman of Pakistan TI said during the launching of the report.
