Are TI reports transparent?

Dawn & Let us Build Pakistan Blog, July, 4, 2010

TRANSPARENCY International is a German organisation which surveys corruption around the globe and has nine offices around the world. Its chairman Adil Geelani, while appearing on a TV programme defended the recent survey which came up with the conclusion that corruption has increased in Pakistan in 2010, said: “Absence of rule of law, accountability, merit and low salaries are the main causes of corruption.” According to the Transparency International report, police is the most corrupt institution followed by the energy department, taxation, education, judiciary, health, etc. Surprisingly, the Motorway Police has been de clared to be “the most clean department” of the government.

The report suggests that Rs223 billion have been misappropriated this year; Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa is the most corrupt province of the state while Sindh and Balochistan also fall in this category, whereas Punjab province has been deduced as decreasing the rate of corruption in the present year.

The Government of Pakistan recognised and signed an agreement with the Transparency International Secretariat in 2001, the same year Transparency International published its first report. The 2nd was published in 2006; the 3rd in 2009, and the 4th this year. There was no sign of Transparency International for the past four years and conducted only two surveys in six years.

This national corruption perception survey is conducted by IBA students (but the survey has not been certified by IBA). They used 50,200 survey samples for preparing their report. They visited four provinces. In Punjab, they surveyed Sailkot, Daska, Gugrawala, Chakwal and Lahore. In Khyber Pakhtoonkhaw, they surveyed Bher, Haripur, Manshe and Abbottabad.

Nobody is denying the fact that corruption is a major problem of this country, but the way it is addressed and propagated by Transparency International is questionable and does not seem to be so transparent. Generally it conducts surveys from small sections of society or selects a portion of people who may not necessarily be true representatives of our society. Besides, it may make such questionnaires which may serve its desired results.

Declaring one province as the most corrupt and another clean show that Transparency International itself is biased. One can easily challenge its claim and the methodology by which it brings the public corruption perception index. 

SHAFIQ SOLANGI 

Islamabad

http://criticalppp.com/archives/12193