The federal government has fulfilled yet another condition of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by recommending 13 ground-breaking anti-corruption amendments including strict monitoring and publicizing assets of civil servants and government officers, hiring expert lawyers to fight corruption cases, and removing FIA officers from immigration duty at airports.
ProPakistani is privy to the report titled “Anti-Corruption Task Force on Review of Institutional Framework of Anti-Corruption in Pakistan”, where it learned that the underlined instructions are in line with IMF recommendations for making the anti-corruption framework in Pakistan more functional.
The task force after conducting a thorough review of the in-vogue anti-corruption framework, and obtaining feedback from the executing agencies, practitioners, judges, and stakeholders from the Civil Society unanimously recommended the following:
- FBR to notify draft rules pertaining to “Declaration of Assets of Civil Servants serving in Basic Pay Scale 17-22 and their spouses.
- Make amendments to the Civil Servants Act, 1973 to allow for the publication of the Assets and Liabilities of Civil Servants.
- Make amendments to the Elections Act to mandate the Non-Elected Advisors and Special Assistants to the Prime Minister to furnish their statement of assets and liabilities.
- Make necessary amendments in the NAB Ordinance and the FIA Act to ensure a clear mandate definition, prepare a joint offense list, and establish coordination mechanisms between the two agencies to work harmoniously on the offenses over which both agencies have jurisdiction.
- Provide training on Jurisdictional boundaries to officers of the NAB, FIA, and the Provincial ACEs.
- Make arrangements for repatriating investigating officers of FIA posted at airports for processing immigration and task the said responsibility to any other force.
- Invest in technology, capacity building, and training of the FIA, NAB, and the provincial ACE investigators to bring them to par with their regional counterparts.
- Conduct awareness campaigns to instill a culture of integrity among officials and educate the public at large on their right to seek disclosure of public information under the Right to Information Act and on the regulatory framework in place to appropriately report any corrupt practice to the appropriate forum.
- Make provisions for the appointment of lawyers on open advertisement based on specific expertise to ensure quality prosecution on technically challenging matters and also make way for the appointment of independent members of the legal fraternity in special courts on judicial assignments.
- Empower Provincial Anti-Corruption Establishments to handle money laundering cases at the provincial level.
- Establish a central coordination forum for assistance in investigation, forensics, intelligence sharing, and addressing jurisdictional issues.
- Ensure that Chief Internal Auditors are appointed within the Ministries/ Divisions as required by the Public Finance Management Act.
- Ensure strict compliance with the State-Owned Enterprises (Governance and Operations) Act, 2023, and ensure that Government entities are run in line with section 36 of the Public Finance Management Act, 2019.
The task force was cognizant of the fact that establishment of an efficient anti-corruption regime and addressing the above-mentioned issues for a country the size of Pakistan in not going to be a short-term process and would require continuous efforts in reviewing structures and the processes involved.
This Division remains resolved for the long haul involved and would simultaneously be working along with the newly elected government in overhauling the legal framework in vogue where deemed necessary and the findings of this task force would function as a beacon for lighting our way forward in terms of addressing the issues within our Anti-Corruption framework.
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A long-awaited reforms, if implemented that will rightly take the crocodiles to task, a PSP and a DMG or any CSS officers get a bungalow in DHA and a Land Cruiser within 2 or 3 years of his appointment, how? The Anti-corruption itself is the corrupted deptt, and there should be like reforms for the Police. Great work if implemented.