US not to back down on hiring graft watchdog

Ambassador calls Transparency International a "very respected international organisation".

KARACHI: The US government will not back down on hiring Transparency International (TI) to set up a graft hotline which will be used to monitor utilisation of American funds, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Ambassador Robin Raphel, US Coordinator for Economic and Development Assistance to Pakistan, said that the TI was “a very respected international organisation” which would be used by the US government to set up a hotline for the Pakistani public to report irregularities in spending of American aid money.

Speaking to media persons at the residence of the US Consul General, Raphel said that the Pakistan government “says it is open to ideas, and we want transparency.”

When asked about the logic of hiring an NGO that the Pakistan government says it will not work with, the US envoy said that she would “wait for the dust to settle.”

In her one-hour interaction, Raphel said that she was “all praise” for the Pakistan government and the public on how they responded to the recent floods in the country. When asked whether her endorsement meant that the US government was also endorsing the method of aid and fund distribution adopted by the Pakistan government, including the Watan card scheme, she said it “was not fair to criticise the government” and added that no one is perfect.

The US envoy talked about different aspects of American assistance to Pakistan including the plan to build road infrastructure in South Waziristan. The US Consul General in Karachi, William Martin, was also present at the briefing.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2010.