Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Session 13-Accountability and Transparency, essential elements of Democracy

“Transparency and accountability in public administration are essential to democracy”. Without exceptions, this applies to all the bodies of government and public authority and to all those who are a part of these bodies. In a democracy, it is a public right of access to information about the activities of government, the right to petition government and to seek redress through impartial administrative and judicial mechanisms. Indeed to hold state accountable for its decisions, there should be wide public access to the documents of the decisions that government makes. For example, if voters do not have access to sufficient information to allow them to evaluate government, the right to vote becomes less purposeful.

In case of Pakistan NAB (National Accountability Bureau) exists whose function is implementation of transparency and speedy accountability of corrupt public office holders. NAB aims to provide facts and figures to general public about political figures who have been involved in acts of corruption. NAB greatly influence the view of people of Pakistan regarding their leaders. Regrettably, National Accountability Bureau has fall short in identifying corrupts and eliminating corruption. In a report, Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) claimed that  a number of corruption cases, including famous Rental Power Project case was referred to NAB but it did not proceed even a  single one. This is mainly due to the political pressure upon officers. 

Hence people of Pakistan have no authentic institution on which they can rely for comprehensive and panoramic information about people governing them.


http://www.transparency.org.pk/news/newsdetail.php?nid=1046

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