KARACHI: President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday informed visiting World Bank Vice President Isabel Guerrero that a foolproof system had been evolved for transparent distribution of aid among flood victims.

He said that everyone would have access to all relevant information on the internet about the source and quantity of aid whether in cash or in any other form received and its onward distribution through various agencies and government departments.

He also called for increased World Bank assistance in energy and public-private partnership projects.

President Zardari said this in a meeting at the Bilawal House with Ms Isabel Guerrero, the vice president of the World Bank for the South Asian region, who called on him.

The meeting was also attended by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Secretary General to President Salman Farooqui, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Malik Hammad, Secretary Finance Salman Siddiq, Secretary to President Malik Asif Hayat and President’s Spokesperson Farhatullah Babar.

According to the presidential spokesperson, Mr Zardari has emphasised that the government is deeply conscious of the fact that the success of relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction operation depends on the trust of donors that their donations are utilised for the purpose and the confidence of the victims that that every rupee meant for them is being spent on them.

Keeping this in mind, plans had been devised to ensure that complete web-based information was available to everyone and that all the stakeholders including the provinces were on board in the distribution of relief goods, the spokesperson quoted the president as saying.

Access to complete information was the key to transparency which in turn was the key to good governance and eliminating corruption and mismanagement, the president said.

Mr Zardari also said that the government had already put up a credible structures of accountability and for the first time in the country’s history had placed Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee — the highest watchdog body of public finances — under the leader of the opposition.

All international assistance for flood relief and rehabilitation therefore needed to be routed through the government agencies, Farhatullah Babar quoted the president as saying.

The president informed the World Bank’s vice president that damages caused by the flood were far too great for Pakistan to manage on its own and it needed generous international assistance and urged the World Bank to make a global appeal for mobilising financial assistance.

He said that while the country was already facing an energy crisis, the floods had caused huge damage to the existing energy infrastructure.

He emphasised that Pakistan was in critical need of international financial and technical assistance and called upon the World Bank to explore new financing avenues for energy projects in addition to the 2010-13 allocation under the Country Partnership Strategy.

The president said that poverty and deprivation was one factor that fuelled extremism and militancy. Any delay in the aid would further compound the problem of poverty and did not auger well for the fight against militancy, he said.

President Zardari said that Pakistan valued its long-standing relationship with the bank which had been instrumental in providing funds for social sector and infrastructure development and thanked the World Bank for its initial assistance and also asked for additional support.

He said that the government was conscious of the need to raise additional resources nationally to give confidence to the donors and that Pakistanis needed to help themselves as well.He said that he had advised the federal and provincial governments to consider imposing a onetime flood levy to raise additional resources to meet the challenge.
He said that the flood gravely affected efforts of the government of past 30 months to turnaround the economy.

He said that just when Pakistan’s economy was poised to overcome the effects of international recession, unprecedented floods hit the country.

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

The World Bank vice president commiserated with the president over the loss of human lives and colossal material damages and said that the World Bank would assist Pakistan in every way possible.

She said that the WB would also assist Pakistan at the donors’ forums for raising necessary finances.

Courtesy by dawn.com