Rotten apples everywhere

The wounds are self-inflicted and state appears willing to tolerate the fiscal blood-loss rather than stem the flow

The reasons why Pakistan underperforms, fails to fulfill potential and any other negative metaphor that may come to mind is plain to see. It is not down to hidden hands or foreign machinations, no plots or conspiracies — it is down to corruption and incompetence and a failure to tackle either or both. The latest smell to come out of the rotten-apple barrel comes in the form of a report submitted by the Federal Board of Revenue. ‘Hundreds’ of officials facing charges of corruption and inefficiency remain at their posts, and sometimes get promoted despite their being found guilty. In some ways this is no surprise, the surprise being that the FBR submitted a report that was critical of itself.

There is an apparent indifference within the FBR senior management indicative of a willingness to tolerate endemic and institutionalised corruption within. This is not a case of ‘a few rotten apples’ — this is a case of an entire department, one of the most important elements of governance at that — being rotten from top to bottom. Some of the cases detailed in the report are well known and in the public domain. The ‘disappearance’ of 7,000 containers belonging to the International Security Assistance Force as they were en route to Afghanistan is one such; and the clearance of imported wheat without payment of dues is another.

Where action has been taken it not infrequently is in the form of delegating the responsibility for whatever wrong had been done to junior Grade 16 officers. Those who were the real culprits slid sideways to cheat and steal another day. Corruption thrives in an enabling environment, and the World Bank recently reported that Pakistan suffers an annual loss of Rs3.2 trillion a year due to weak administration and the non-compliance of taxpayers. Some of those that are non-compliant claim they will not pay up as their taxes will end up in corrupt pockets. They may have a point. Once again the wounds are self-inflicted and the state appears willing to tolerate the fiscal blood-loss rather than stem the flow. With friends like the Pakistan civil service who needs enemies?

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2017.

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