Whistle blowing, finally!

Like many different things such as loadshedding, inefficient government institutions and rising inflation, the local populace has also accepted corruption as part and parcel of living in Pakistan.
Where most have given up hopes that anything can be done about the issue, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Transparency International (TI) are making an effort to address just that.
The USAID and TI have signed a cooperative agreement for the "Anti-Fraud Hotline" project. Under this project, citizens and civil society organisations will be able to report cases of corruption to the hotline, where theyd be able to monitor the processing of their grievances via a serial number allotted to each complaint.
Though the project is currently aimed at monitoring areas and sectors where USAID funds will be disbursed, as well as keeping an eye on the utilisation of the $7.5 billion Kerry-Lugar Bill, it will help set a good precedence for a country whose Ministry of Religious Affairs is also accused of embezzlement with pilgrims funds. Needless to say, citizens will have an avenue to vent off their disgruntlements with the existing state of affairs.
While no punitive action has been specified in the project against fraudulent sectors so far, the data collected can help the USAID to siphon its funds, according to some criterion based on the level of corruption in a division.
Some of the USAID projects also include the (in)famous Watan Card, the disorganised management of which left many perturbed, and the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). Besides these, the USAID reaches thousands of areas in Pakistan, according to Adil Gilani, Chairman, Transparency International Pakistan.
Following the lead of USAID, which is unabashed about using TIs services, the Interior Minister of the country has also recently recognised the presence of the menace in the country, with a call to launch an anti-graft campaign against corruption.
Quite mockingly, however, in the face of these projects the Sindh Assembly has presented a resolution against the TI, vilifying the organisation to be conspiring against the present government. But thats another issue.
As for the USAID-TI project, there is a possibility, unfortunately, that there might be cases of erroneous reporting from the citizens, which will be difficult to validate or verify. "We are expecting a high percentage of fake reporting," said Adil Gilani.
But this shouldn come as a surprise - after all, in a country where corruption is deeply entrenched, its natural that there would be corruption in reporting corruption. That, or the likelihood that citizens would want to complain out of vengeance against anything they dislike, could be plausible reasons for fake reporting.
So whats up the USAIDs sleeve for countering this? While the TI acts only as an intermediary for conveying the complaints to the USAID, it is the latter which will be doing the main filtering and monitoring of the legitimacy of the complaints.
Where the rubber meets the road in relation to this project will be revealed with time. But one hopes that citizens and individuals adopt a rational stance and stay away from unnecessary mischief while reporting their complaints. Its in their larger interests, after all.