Thread by @wahdat_ul_wujud

A Trillion Dollar Question. Are WE seriously Fighting Corruption?

What is Corruption:

Corruption involves abusing power held in a state institution or a private organisation. Both sides involved in the corrupt act benefit, either in terms of money or undue advantage(bribery

extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influence peddling, graft, and embezzlement).

Corruption remains a substantial obstacle for Pakistan where it is still perceived to be widespread and systemic. We as citizen pay the direct price of corruption in the form of

A)Paying for services that should be free.
B)Social Poverty and inequality
C)Personal loss, intimidation and inconvenience
D)Public and private sector dysfunctionality
E) Lack of/Poor quality infrastructure
G)Investors loss of confidence in local Business and Govt
F) Moral Cost

Political will and commitment is a first step(not only) to fight corruption. Current govt has pledged to make fighting corruption one of its priorities-But-- Despite having the political will & public support, Pakistan anti-corruption efforts are not yielding much..Do you know y?

1. Structural reason and Lack of transparency in how govt/officials run public business.
2. Capacity of &lack of incentive to Institutions/officials.
3. Lack of citizens Involvement in anti-corruption efforts.

1-Lack of Transparency is one major reason why anti-corruption

efforts are not yielding much needed result,. Pakistan now has around dozen anti-corruption bodies, 10 different ombudsmen and a plethora of other agencies tasked in one way or another with accountability but what they are doing is inaccessible to citizens.

2- See the chart: How public money is being wasted despite transparent procurement procedures, strict rules to govern procurement, strong monitoring and oversight to ensure compliance. But still 2 govt dept are paying different price for the same product... Do we have system

Which encourge, reward and recognize the high performer who is saving public money ?

3. Do we care how to involve citizens especially young people in fight against corruption? Do we really teaching our new generation who and why corruption should be unacceptable to them? Do we

really providing them the tools required to fight corruption at small level? Do we making them believe that paying bribe is a crime? Does state as a whole taking care of the values we spire to build in society to act as deterrent against corruption and abuse?

Solution for 3 Major Problems:

1. Open government-- opening up of government data / information on areas such as public spending, government contracts, lobbying activity, the development and impact of policy, and public service performance.. Let people start questing.

E-government and open data will act as strong control against abuse, misuse of public funds and power. Example-- Everyone who is making decision in public domain will have to make if this info will go into every citizen hands and they will question how, why what--

2. Reward Smart decisions, integrity & ethical behaviors.

The costs of this red tape have to be balanced against the benefits of using rules to improve value for money & the quality of services delivered to citizens. Punishing Corruption and rewarding integrity are equally imp.

Further organizations set up to fight corruption will not work if they are not aligned with the relationships, cultural norms and incentives that shape behaviours. If a dynamic of corruption is entrenched, it is too difficult - and arguably illogical - f

or brave individuals to stand-up alone and try and change the system. They need peers everywhere who will support them. This means govt must think now about a long-term process to shift mindsets through investing heavily in ethics, integrity and, leadership education and training

3. Social mobilization and youth Engagement

No Anti-Corruption Efforts can last for long. Govt need to build an ecosystem to support these young change-makers - mentorship, opportunities, collaborative spaces and communities - and to jointly maximize their efforts. Do we have a

even one platforms for youth to come up with innovative idea, solutions to crub the most imp challenge of Pakistan? If we really want to fight, we need to bring young people into this process effectively, we have to meet them where they are, not where we want them to be.

Building accountability is not about making laws & overcoming weaknesses -it is about a strengths-based approach that draws upon human, institutional, cultural & economic assets. Short-term fixes and anti-corruption tools might prove effective in battling graft in isolated ways.

But if Pakistan -- to truly create fair and open societies for everyone, it is going to take a much larger, generational process to build accountability. The time to start is now.