In a strange turn of events, NADRA (National Database and Registration Authority) has shut down its Whistleblower program. The system was launched a couple of years ago to catch corrupt NADRA officials.
What Was the Whistleblower System?
The program was launched by the former NADRA Chairman to promote a culture of ethics and clean administration in NADRA. It aimed to uncover misconduct, abuse and inefficiency among NADRA officials and help in providing solutions towards the problem. A dedicated team of investigation officers were specially appointed to respond to any reports via the Whistleblower system. The whole program was personally headed by the NADRA chairman.
How it Worked
The system worked with the cooperation of volunteers from the general public and NADRA employees. These volunteers could submit complaints and eye-witness accounts. While remaining completely anonymous, the volunteers could go online and report any suspicious or illegal activity related to NADRA officials. Volunteers who provided their details could also follow up on the progress made against their report.
NADRA’s Whistleblower portal consisted of two sections where people could launch complaints regarding CNIC/ SID/ NICOP/ POC issues or submit a Whistleblower report of any official who was involved in any prejudice, grievance or corruption.
The program provided the general public with a chance to report corrupt officials. With the ever increasing importance of catching the black sheep at NADRA, who were involved in fake CNICs’ and other documents’ issuance, it is difficult to understand why NADRA disabled this program.
What’s Going on Right Now
However, when someone attempts to log a complaint now, they are greeted by a 404 error page. The link towards the Whistleblower page sends the user to a blank page. There is no other way for the general public to report using the Whistleblower system as the only access portal has now been disabled.
Possible Causes
One of the reasons could be that NADRA is about to launch a similar program. Another possibility could be that the system wasn’t marketed well and NADRA didn’t care about keeping it alive for long. The system hasn’t been officially pulled, rather, it has been disabled intentionally or through the system developers’ negligence.
Final Words
Whatever the cause may be, such internal programs could help remove corruption from organizations. It is strange to see that NADRA, an authority which claims to be digitally well equipped and resourceful, cannot manage to keep it working. It was a positive step that pointed towards NADRA’s emphasis on preventing ethical violations and activities. We highly encourage the authority to be transparent about the reasons behind disabling the program and whether we’ll be seeing an improved version or not.
It would have been better if NADRA is approached first for knowing the reason of unavailability of the page before making it a big story. That’s yellow journalism in my view. You are just filling your site’s space, scoring points, increasing your rating and spreading rumors. That’s not good reporting.
The heading is misleading. It indirectly gives the impression that is is close now officially which is not true yet.