KARACHI, Sept 19: Speakers at a workshop on Monday said that corruption in procurement process with public sector organizations added 30 to 35 per cent cost to the country.

They said hardly one per cent information with public sector organizations was confidential but everything was hidden from public under bad intention.

Procurement area in public sector was very attractive for corruption which could be checked through change in mindset along with the use of traditional anti-corruption tools, they observed at the inaugural session of three-day workshop on “Capacity building and training on procurement,” here on Monday.

“Without cultural change, and mass awareness, it would be very difficult to curb corruption in public sector,” they said.

The workshop, meant to train the trainers, has been organized by Transparency International-Pakistan, National Accountability Bureau, Public Procurement Regulatory Authority and Secretarial of Auditor General of Pakistan. Senior officers from various government organizations participated in the workshop.

It was recommended that new rules and procedures devised by Transparency International, Pakistan in its three volumes meant to ensure transparency in procurement process should be included in syllabus of all refresher courses and trainings for professionals at the NIPA and other training institutes.

The deputy chairman of the NAB, Maj-General Muhammad Siddqui, said devising rules and procedures about transparency was good job but more important was their proper implementation. However, he appreciated the efforts of TI-Pakistan for formulating effective rules and procedures for right procurement.

He said the bureau had been seriously working on improvement of procedures and systems in public sector departments over the last four years to curb corruption. Many steps had been taken to formulate rules and evolve standing operating procedures to help various government organizations to improve their systems, he added.

He said public sector procurement constituted one of the attractive areas that offered more opportunities of corruption than any other. That was why need for having transparency in these systems had been realized the world over.

He mentioned non-standardization procurement regimes, outmoded and non-transparent procurement rules and procedures, lukewarm response of international actors to effectively prevent corrupt practices by foreign bidders or importers in procurement, and inadequate procurement expertise were some of the areas posed to corruption in public sector procurement.

He said the best practices in procurement involved using competitive selection procedures; clear bidding rules; transparent and efficient application and administration of those rules; sound procedures for evaluating bids; selecting successful bidders; firm supervision and evaluation of implementation.

The deputy chairman of NAB expressed satisfaction that various public sector departments had activated procurement websites and had started practices like communication of grounds for rejection of bids to contractors and announcement of results of bids evaluation. These steps would ensure wider competition and reduce the costs of doing business for all parties. Transparent process of privatization in the country was one such fine example that earned the government a lot of appreciation, he said.

The Auditor-General of Pakistan, Younas Khan, said investigative audit reports had revealed that corruption in public sector added 30 to 35 per cent cost to the government. He called for social and cultural change to check corruption.

He pointed out that audit was a post-damage exercise as it came into action when damages were already done. However, he suggested, the audit efforts be result-oriented.

Younas Khan said citizens’ participation was must for making the anti-corruption steps meaningful. Besides, outdated procedures in procurement should be re-engineered and updated.

He suggested that the new procurement rules and procedures be made public to the maximum level so that people could put pressure on procurers.

PIA chairman Tariq Kirmani said that the PIA had saved around Rs2 billion by adopting centralized procurement policy last year. Centralized procurement would help ensure uniformity of suppliers’ rates and check kickbacks, he added.

The CEO of Transparency International-Pakistan, Adil Gillani, noted that the World Bank as international donor organization was doing its best for transparent procurement. However, a lot was still needed to check corruption.

The Chief Procurement Officer of the World Bank, Naseer Ahmed Rana, the MD of Public Procurement Regulatory Authority, Khalid Javed and Junita Olaya and Javed Ahmed Siddiqui from TI-Pakistan also spoke on the occasion. —APP