Recently, I wrote an article based on my experience while working as Director
Planning Commission of Pakistan and prepared a model to monitor public sector
projects. The article created tremor among the decision makers that ultimately
lead to my resignation. Nonetheless I am in belief that the public has a right
to access to information in respect of projects which the tax-payer is to own,
finance. Greater disclosure of project information is necessary to help reduce
corruption and reduce poverty. Disclosure would make it more difficult to
conceal corruption, and would therefore help both to prevent corruption and to
uncover corrupt practices. In addition, greater willingness by the public sector
to provide transparency would increase public confidence in the integrity of the
public sector.
But governments in South-Asia are committed to eradicate poverty by disclosing
all information of all projects to ensure transparency. This is possible if all
stakeholders urge their respective governments to make project inforamtions
online. I hope member of Andaman Nicober will particepate in this discussion.
regards  
Arshad H Abbasi
 
Transparency in governance
By Arshad H Abbasi
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=140335
October 11- 2008


          The need for good governance has emerged as the single most
important precondition for sustainable development. Governance is simply the
manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country’s economic
and social resources for development.  Where governance is good, the government
addresses seriously all issues of accountability, transparency, participation,
openness and the rule of law.  This is particularly important for development
projects that aim to reduce poverty - funds are generally inadequate here so
greater care is needed.  The government must implement such development
projects ensuring proper planning and continual monitoring for greater success.
         Pakistan inherited the Audit & Accounts Department which was
established in 1860 for ensuring public accountability and fiscal transparency
in governmental operations.  The next step was the setting up of the 1947
Prevention of Corruption Act which was further reinforced by the Pakistan Penal
Code of 1960. 
          The main drive for ensuring transparency started in 1999 when
the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was established followed by the
formulation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) in 2002. It was
partly due to the NACS and the realization that transparency in procurement is
essential, that the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) was
established in 2002.
        PPRA was endowed with the responsibility of prescribing
regulations and procedures for public procurements to improve governance by
devising a transparent mechanism to enhance accountability and improve the
quality of public procurement of goods, works and services.  Although PPRA
succeeded in standardization of procurement procedures, it failed to grant right
of public access to all tendering processes, even though its rules recommended
this. 
          The Electronic Government Directorate (EGD) was created
within the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology in 2002. 
Unfortunately, the outcome of EGD has to date only been in providing
connectivity, networking, technology up-gradation and purchase of state of the
computers – largely hardware inputs have resulted without attention to the
more important aspect of data openness, which is necessary for rational
decision-making and monitoring of ongoing projects.  Insignificant effort has
gone into opening the information banks that the government departments
traditionally keep closed to external inspection.
          While the government has topped up with computer hardware
there has been serious overruns in cost of its numerous projects, which could
easily have been avoid with close scrutiny if data related to them was made
public.  Government data shows that the Bolan Medical College and hospital
complex was estimated at Rs 70 M but ended costing ten times as much.  A more
expensive project of Port Qasim was to be completed at just over Rs 300 M in
early 1980s but ended up costing Rs 2.4 billion by the time it was built in the
mid 1990s.
          Transparency International (TI) issued a report, “Overview
of Corruption in Pakistan” in early Aug 2008, where the lack of transparency
was clearly underlined as a critical factor in the absence of good governance. 
We will mainly focus on the public procurement and management areas that the
report covers.  TI’s surveys have shown this lack of information to adversely
affect infrastructure and public works, as they are easily affected by absence
of open documentation.  Public works kickbacks are estimated to constitute
approximately 25% of the budget.   The World Bank which provides loans, and
the Auditor General of Pakistan, have pointed to governance problems which have
caused lack-luster performance in projects and there have been cases of
premature closure of certain projects due to this, e.g. the Balochistan Primary
Education Project. 
              As in Karnataka, India
(http://www.ksphc.in/highlights.asp) Pakistan can use Information Communication
Technologies (ICT) to help in better procurement and monitoring of public
works.  Web based Project Management System (WBPMS) set up there started in
2001, along with computerization of all its activities in a phased manner. The
other transformation initiatives include transparency, accountability,
stakeholder involvement, Right to Information, professional approach to
management, etc. The transformation promotes total transparency in all its
operations, and makes possible cost effective and timely delivery of quality
buildings constructed innovatively to enhance the functioning of the essential
public services.  The transformation initiative helped it to come to grips with
the myriad problems associated with increased workload and project execution in
remote locations.
               The transformation helps tackle the emerging issues
in executing projects efficiently and in a better manner than ever before. From
a computer located anywhere, the status of the projects can now be reviewed at
any time by any of the stakeholders and this helps to initiate appropriate and
timely intervention strategies that are necessary to improve project
implementation. The system enables the project and the State to cope with the
challenges of distance, time pressures, inadequate resources, lack of knowledge
and skills and facilitates collaborative workflow, information sharing and good
governance. When non-compliances occur or are noticed, alerts are generated
either automatically or manually, and remedial measures can then be initiated
and accountability fixed.
             Over the 16 year period 1985-2001 (before this project)
the value of work done was Indian Rs 74 M annually, with administrative cost at
Rs 13 M.  After the ICT projects with transparency the work done annually was
over ten fold but only Rs 8 M for administration.  From 2007-2012 the work
expected to be worth Indian Rs 1 billion/annum.  This is a phenomenal
improvement.   
           To illustrate what can be done the author has set up a
website (www.good-governance.com.pk ) that lays out all necessary project
monitoring parameters for two under- construction buildings.  These belong to
the Pakistan Planning Commission where it intends to train project managers of
key institution of the country and through this improve governance.   The
author is the Director of Construction of these buildings with over 200 thousand
sq ft area with approved cost of nearly Rs 500 M. 
              Any building project of this nature involves three
principal stages until the building is handed over to the end user: (a)
Conception, selection of consultant, (b) Selection of contractor, and the most
critical (c) Construction phase.  For each of these phases, cost of different
elements of the building and the processes are listed and continually updated,
such as: quality parameters, timeline and milestones. The model website includes
all these parameters.  Putting these online was a rather simple matter
requiring only a cost of Rs 6000, which was borne by the author.  This simple
intervention will allows stake-holders to keep track of all aspects on the
project and lead to the benefits one saw in the Karnataka, and numerous better
examples globally. 
            One would hope that having seen this model of
transparency and live monitoring, the Planning Commission, which owns this
project, will see the wisdom of making its all its  projects also similarly
transparent to start a new era of good governance.  This would be the most
significant success of the government’s e-governance initiative and help save
billions of rupees.  Our Planning Commission would also get one up on its
Indian counterpart’s initiative (still on the drawing board) to do exactly
this if they started immediately. 
The author’s email is ahabasi@...

--- On Sun, 2/11/08, Pankaj Sekhsaria <psekhsaria@...> wrote:

From: Pankaj Sekhsaria <psekhsaria@...>
Subject: [andamanicobar] Pawan Hans aims for charter flights to Andaman and
Nicobar
To: "ANDAMANicobar" <andamanicobar@...>
Date: Sunday, 2 November, 2008, 7:22 PM






Pawan Hans aims for charter flights to Andaman and Nicobar
By Siva Govindasamy

http://www.flightgl obal.com/ articles/ 2008/11/02/ 318151/pawan- hans-aims-
for-charter- flights-to- andaman-and- nicobar.html

Pawan Hans, India's largest operator of civil helicopters, hopes around
2010 to begin fixed-wing charter operations with services to the
country's outlying Andaman and Nicobar islands.

"We have been looking for amphibious aircraft and are in talks with
several manufacturers and their representatives, " says the state-owned
company's chairman and managing director, R K Tyagi. "When this is
completed, we can move into the fixed-wing market where there is growing
demand for charter services."

India's burgeoning middle class and the government's plans to promote
domestic tourism sites fit the company's plans, he adds. Bangladesh,
Maldives and Sri Lanka have also approached Pawan Hans to provide air
services to tourism and pilgrimage sites in those countries from India,
and seaplanes could be used for these as well.

Helicopters remain the company's core business, with Pawan Hans
operating 36 of the 197 helicopters in India. This included 17
Eurocopter SA365N Dauphins, nine Eurocopter AS365N3 Dauphins, three Bell
206s, one Robinson R44, two Mil Mi-172s and four Bell 407s.

The company is set to complete the purchase of another 20 helicopters in
a few months, and these are likely to be a combination of Bell and
Eurocopter models. It will deploy these in the growing heli-tourism,
offshore oil and gas exploration, and medical evacuation sectors, says
Tyagi.

"Previously, helicopters were not considered safe in India. However,
many safety features have been incorporated and the infrastructure has
been upgraded. People are getting used to them. Politicians, in
particular, like them as they must cover a large amount of ground during
elections. We believe that there will be enough demand for 500
helicopters in India over the next three years," says Tyagi.

He believes that there is great potential for growth in helicopter
medical evacuation services in the coming years. Pawan Hans is the
operator of India's only medevac helicopter, but it plans to add more of
the type in the coming years.

"There are 700 medevac helicopters in the USA, and we have only one.
This is important as we would be able to save so many lives, and we hope
to increase this service," says Tyagi.

The government is also playing its part by relaxing the air traffic
rules for helicopters, he adds. "They are talking about separate air
corridors. These will be used exclusively by helicopters and will help
in the free flow of air traffic," says Tyagi.

India's growing helicopter population has also led to a demand for
dedicated heliports in the country, and Pawan Hans will begin operations
at New Delhi's first one heliport before the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Tyagi says: "We plan to have heliports in all of India's major cities,
building a helicopter network that links the country."

--

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