All information to be available online: Zardari

ISLAMABAD: Every citizen will have online access to information about the source and quantity of aid received and distributed among flood survivors, President Asif Ali Zardari said on Thursday.

Speaking at a meeting with World Bank vice-president for South Asia, Isabel Guerrero, Zardari said that a foolproof system had been evolved for transparent distribution of aid among flood victims and all relevant information will be available to the public.

The meeting, held at Bilawal House in Karachi, was also attended by Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, the president’s senior aide Salman Farooqui, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Malik Hammad, Finance Secretary Salman Siddique, the president’s secretary Malik Asif Hayat and presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar.

“The government is deeply conscious of the fact that the success of the relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction operation depends on donor confidence that their aid was utilised for the purpose it was sent,” he said. “Victims must also be confident that every penny meant for them was being spent on them.”

Therefore, he said, plans had been devised to ensure that complete web-based information was available to everyone and all stakeholders including provinces were on board in relief distribution.

Farhatullah Babar quoted the president as saying that access to complete information was the key to transparency which in turn was important for good governance and eliminating corruption and mismanagement.

Zardari said that the government had already erected credible structures of oversight and accountability. “For the first time in the country’s history, the government has placed the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee, the highest watchdog of public finances, under the leader of the opposition,” he said. “All international assistance for flood relief and rehabilitation, therefore, needs to be routed through government agencies.”

Reiterating the need for generous international assistance, the president said that the damages caused by floods were far too great for Pakistan to manage on its own. He said that poverty and depravation fuelled extremism and militancy and any delay in aid would further compound this problem.

“Pakistan was already faced with an energy crisis but the floods have caused huge damage to the existing energy infrastructure,” he said, calling upon the World Bank to explore new financing avenues for energy projects in addition to the 2010-13 allocation under the Country Partnership Strategy.

Babar said that the president had also asked the World Bank for support in new initiatives in infrastructure projects like roads, ports, bridges and power projects under public-private partnership.

Guerrero commiserated with the president over the loss of life and colossal material damages and said that the bank would assist Pakistan in every way possible. She said that the World Bank would also assist Pakistan at the donors  forums for raising necessary finances.

However, Zardari said, the government understood the need to raise additional resources nationally so that donors realise that Pakistanis need to be helped to help themselves. “I have advised the federal and provincial governments to consider imposing a one-time flood tax to raise additional resources for meeting the challenge,” he said.

Speaking about the economic impact, he said that the floods had affected the government’s efforts to turn around the economy in the last 30 months. “Just when Pakistan’s economy was poised to overcome the effects of international recession, these unprecedented floods hit the country,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th, 2010.