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| Sindh govt corruption a serious impediment: WB |
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Monday, November 09, 2009
By Mehtab Haider
ISLAMABAD: A World Bank report reveals that the growing perception about rampant corruption in Sindh has become a serious constraint in the development of the province.
The World Bank’s Sindh Economic Report titled ‘Securing Sindh’s Future — The Prospects and Future Ahead’, a copy of which is exclusively available with The News, states that the policymakers have indicated that they see weak governance and growing corruption as the number one and two developmental challenges facing the province.
“The entrepreneurs of Sindh placed corruption as the number one barrier to improving the investment climate of the province” says the report. Several of government’s own evaluation reports in the past have found widespread non-compliance by departments with existing procedures and criteria in the areas of procurement, site selection, and recruitment, as well as the adequacy of systems for the monitoring of staff absenteeism, the report added.
The WB has recommended certain policy measures for tackling the corruption problem in the province that include simplifying the decision-making process by introducing a single-file system, permitting level jumping, capping the number of approvals and introducing a computerised file monitoring system.
The WB also asked for improving transparency in public procurement by separating tender-inviting and -accepting authorities; publishing a tender bulletin; creating a standard bidding document; revising the finance, accounts and public works codes; revising the list of registered contractors in key departments; introducing third-party inspection of all major works; convening a high-level committee to vet major procurement decisions; and creating a dedicated central procurement procedure cell to supervise the implementation of procurement reforms.
The WB also recommended for empowering the citizens by enacting a provincial Freedom of Information Act, providing more information to citizens about the quality of public services through “citizens report card” and “public expenditure tracking surveys,” and partnering with the media to regularly disseminate information about the amount of government funds disbursed and utilised at the facility or scheme level, that is for individual schools, hospitals, water supply schemes and so forth.
The WB also states that raising the institutional capacity of the government is fundamental to the long-term success of any reform programme in the province. It is also one that would take the longest to produce any result, and, therefore, its implementation should be of utmost priority for any reformist government.
To bolster capacity, the report suggests to strengthen the Sindh Public Service Commission by increasing its financial and administrative autonomy and expanding its mandate over hiring and transfers of civil servants; using more transparent hiring procedures and outsourcing some of the hiring process to reputed private organizations as is being done in the education sector; creating a civil service board that undertakes transfer, posting, detailment, deputation, and promotion of civil servants based on need and merit; and emphasising leadership and professional trainings for civil servants by making them an integral part of their career.
Introducing more competition in provisioning of public services is the most durable solution to Sindh’s service delivery problem. Fiscally, it is more prudent for the government of Sindh to let the private sector expand, as the latter can deliver the same services at a much lower cost than the government itself.
This could be accomplished by building on existing successes like the Community Supported Schools and Fellowship Schools Programmes and to expand them to other underserved areas. The WB also asked for giving greater autonomy and financial independence to existing public sector service providers and developing a policy framework to promote low-cost private schools and public funding of educational services through private or NGO sectors in rural areas.
To ensure better coordination within the government and to facilitate effective administrative devolution, some of the measures proposed here include creation of a local government career service for staff at grade 16 or below and a provincial-local government service for staff in grades 17-20, restoration of the financial powers of key district officers to pre-devolution levels, and strengthening of the office of the Local Government Commission to serve as impartial arbiters of disputes, the report concluded.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
