The furious floods Pakistan is facing have caused more damage than the Asian tsunami of 2004 and Pakistan’s earthquake of 2005, according to the United Nations (UN). So far, around 2,000 lives have been lost and 20 million of people are homeless. They are heartbroken and hopeless after raging floods of apocalyptic proportions, and even more so because of poor governance leading to disaster mismanagement and a lack of meaningful support from official corridors.
Due to the poor credibility of the government for not maintaining transparency in governance while managing the aid given in the earthquake of 2005, the majority of the donors are channeling their limited aid through the UN and The Red Cross and Red Crescent, trusting that they will reach affected areas. Last week an Earthquake Reconstruction & Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) official told Pakistani media that “ERRA is unable to carry the task of building infrastructure due to non release of funds by the government.”
By many accounts, most 2005 earthquake relief money flowed to districts least affected by the earthquake while the most damaged areas received less support. Such mismanagement happened despite the fact the government, military, and international donor community spent a great deal of time and effort reassuring people that relief funds would be spent in a transparent and accountable way.
Yesterday the UK’s Daily Telegraph reported that £300 million in aid given for the earthquake was diverted to other projects. Though Pakistan’s finance secretary Salman Siddiq denied the use of funds for other projects, his ministry has provided neither a detailed account of funding spent from donor aid nor gave reason for not building the promised new Balakot City when fifth anniversary of the earthquake has just passed.
There is a belief on the part of donors that Pakistan’s poor governance will affect the utilization of funds. Donor suspicion is two-pronged: either the government is incompetent, or it lacks character to deliver.
Due to the malaise of governance, Pakistanis at large are giving donations to NGOs such as Edhi, The Citizen Foundations, and several others with proven track record. At the same time there is continued confidence in sending “in kind contributions” to Pakistani Armed Forces who besides carrying out massive rescue operations are involved in distributing relief goods.
In these testing times there is also growing mistrust amongst those running the federal government and the provinces. Last Friday, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (North West Frontier Province) Provincial Government accused Pakistani Prime Minsiter Yousuf Raza Gilani of diverting aid to his home city, Multan. The residents of Sindh are accusing those in power that they have neglected to save their lands from floods. This kind of feeling and statement are alarming and will create further divide between the provinces.
The calamity is so huge that the Government of Pakistan will need to rework all its development and non development budgetary expenditure and in doing so, the leadership of the country must not think of provinces but of Pakistan and allocate the resources where needed.
According to the UN paper titled “What is Good Governance,” international donors and agencies now view governance in any country only in terms of “bad” or “good”; there is no in-between. Bad governance represents “one of the worst features of society, and a major cause of its dysfunction.” A government is the prime actor in good governance but not the only one. There are other actors, such as political parties, military, media, NGOs, religious leaders, finance institutions, business leaders and corporations.
Good governance occurs when all actors involved in it are facilitated by government to play their respective inherent or constitutionally assigned roles to the full extent. The primary responsibility for good governance remains with the government; it is something no administration can abdicate, or pass on to others.
One of the biggest reasons for the country’s consistent governance disasters is the absence of strong institutions that can prevent or at least limit the circumstances and consequences of corruption. In the midst of natural disaster, there is some man-made hope; at the suggestion of former Prime Minster Nawaz Sharif, the sitting PM Gilani has agreed to set up a “National Commission of highly respectable and credible countrymen,” to ensure the transparent and responsible use of rehabilitation resources from Pakistani and foreign donors.
Now the $64 million question is, whenever this commission starts its work, will it function independently based on good governance principles and support from private sector, or on the pattern of ERRA?
Published Date: August 16, 2010