Documentation: why is it so important?

The call to update the Federal Bureau of Statistic brings to light an extremely important issue in Pakistan; the lack of documentation of nearly every sector. Need for raw facts and data is consistently unfulfilled as there seems to be no go-to source for information and results in a number of highly disturbing problems.
Without formal documentation, transparency is at stake. When formally documented verifications are not maintained in an organised way, it allows corruption to run rampant as accountability is evaded. In such scenarios, missing sums and resources go unaccounted for, and effects the organisation as a whole; when unnecessary payments are expected at every level of the organisation, work without such payments often results in a dead stop of all procedures until payments are made. The entire organisation is, consequently, rendered ineffectual.
As a consequence of all under-the-table activities, the distribution of income, already skewed to begin with, is further biased in favour of those with a relatively high ability to stomach morally questionable proceedings. On the one hand, we have people making an "honest living" and having their real income dwindling due to the stagnant or less-than-the-market nature of income in their government jobs, while on the other, we have the same bureaucrats who are able to sustain a good lifestyle through "other means".
Another issue is that the current documentation methods are ineffective or provides an inaccurate view of the situation. For example the wheat crisis of 2007; initial estimates reflected surplus crops, in which case, they were exported. Later during the year, the deficiency was felt and initial estimates were deemed to have been miscalculated. Not only were expensive wheat exports required as a result, but the public had to bear the brunt of the price increase. Our recent sugar crisis is yet another result of ineffectual documentation. Having very little idea of exactly how much sugar was produced in the country; hoarding took place, with no method of determining the exact amount of stockpiled sugar.
Documentation inefficiency also has a negative effect on development as it inhibits those who are potentially interested from investing. Firstly, private investment ventures, both local as well as foreign, are put off by the chances of having to pay bribes, for which Pakistan is, unfortunately, quite notorious. Secondly, such ventures prefer to base their investment and operations in a foundation of facts and knowledge about the country and their target market. Having little to no basic records means that in order to invest in the country a financier would have to undertake its own research; an overhead cost they may not want to partake in.
The answer to this problem is obvious and simple, albeit, difficult to administer; the capacity of institutions that are vested with the responsibility to undertake in census, surveys and other information-gathering must be increased so that they are in a better position to undertake and carry out their responsibilities. Institutions should be established if they are required, and local bodies must be instituted in order to streamline administration and compilation. The nearly dead census of Pakistan must be taken seriously and carried out comprehensively in order to determine exactly what sort of Pakistan we are dealing with and can expect in the future.
However, no change is possible without a will. If the actions of proponents of change are outflanked by the wish of certain quarters to continue with the current state of undocumented uncertainty, finding that functioning in such an environment is lucrative, then nothing more can be done for it.
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