Important projects: implementation remains a distant cry

A happy-go-lucky atmosphere seems to be prevailing in government departments and "couldn't care less" attitude of senior officials to follow the instructions is impeding the progress in implementing important projects.
According to details available here, on Jan 24 Dr Nadeem ul Haque, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission had desired that Secretary, Planning & Development division, Sohail Ahmed, who is former Chairman of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), implement the measures recommended by Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) to reduce corruption in donor's projects.
The request was made to the Secretary in the presence of Syed Adil Gilani, Chairman, TIP by the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission during discussions in his office on the measures recommended by TIP to be taken by the Government of Pakistan but no progress had been made so far. The implementation remains a distant cry to this date.
TIP recommendations included:
-- Loan agreements with all donors viz World Bank, ADB, JAICA, etc., shall be based on procurements to be processed under Public Procurement Rules (PPR) 2004, and not under donor agencies procurement guidelines.
-- Independent observers shall be appointed in all procurement processes to ensure that the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) Rules are being followed. They may be chosen on project to project basis, from credible NGOs/IEP/ICAP/PEC/FPCCI, as has been done by the World Bank in case of Sindh Water Sector Improvement Project Phase-I (WSIP) in which TIP is to observe:
(a) Bid opening is done according to schedule;
(b) Bid opening venue is accessible to all prospective bidders;
(c) Bid documents are made available to all interested parties and they are also available on the procurement website;
(d) Bids are received in sealed forms, opened publicly and kept in verifiably safe place after opening till the evaluation is complete to avoid any tempering after opening;
(e) Bid evaluation are carried out confidentially and intermediate working reports are kept safely with access to only the evaluators;
(f) Complaints are received, entered into the system processed through the established complaint redressal system; and
(g) Report to PMCA, any issues or anomalies in procurement process and if necessary bring to the attention of PAC and P&D department; bank will be copied on all such correspondence. TIP would carry out such reviews or participate in bidding procedures for contracts that are above threshold for prior review and on a random basis for contract subject to post review:
Anti-corruption hotline to be established by the Planning Commission, on the model of TIP-USAID Anti Fraud Hotline. All complaints received by the Planning Commission on this Anti Corruption Hotline shall be forwarded to NAB for inquiry.
US Agency for International Development (USAID) and TIP had signed a co-operation agreement on Sept 22, 2010 in Islamabad for the "Anti-Fraud Hotline" project. The objective of the project is to ensure transparency and prevention of corruption in the utilisation of grant to be provided to Pakistan by USAID, including the USD 7.5 billion under Kerry-Lugar bill.