Workshop: Fraud Awareness and Prevention Workshop for USAID Sub GranteesDate: March 10, 2016Venue: Serena Hotel, IslamabadGuest Speakers: Ms. Ann Calvaresi Barr, Inspector General, USAID, Mr. James Peters, Deputy Mission Director USAID, Mr. Daniel Altman, Special Agent in Charge, USAID OIG, Mr. Saad Rashid, Executive Director, TI-Pakistan, Mr. Zafarullah Khan, Director, International Cooperation Wing, NAB, Mr. Bill Sedlak, Contracting Officer, USAID OAA, Priya Cariappa, USAID RLO, Mr. Mohammad Ali Taj, Business Analyst, TI-Pakistan

Summary:

Transparency International Pakistan with the collaboration of USAID/ OIG conducted a workshop on Fraud Awareness and Prevention workshop for USAID sub grantees on March 10, 2016 at Serena Hotel, Islamabad.

The objective of the workshop was to spread awareness regarding fraud and corruption among the sub grantees implementing USAID funded projects. The workshop provided the opportunity to the participants to engage with the peers and representatives from USAID, OIG, NAB, and TI- Pakistan to discuss challenges of corruption and fraudulent practices in the implementation of the project and their prevention. Around 111 participants attended the workshop from approx. 45 organizations.

The registration started at 8:30am and the program officially started at 9:00am with the recitation of a verse from the Holy Qur’an. The program was opened by a welcome note given by Ms. Ann Calvaresi Barr, Inspector General (IG), USAID. Ms. Barr thanked everyone and welcomed all representatives from USAID, OIG, TI-Pakistan and participating organizations. Ms. Barr briefly introduced her appointment as an IG and the responsibilities that she is charged with. Ms. Barr presented a memento to Mr. Saad Rashid, Executive Director, TI-Pakistan in recognition of their efforts in making the Anti-Fraud Hotline a great success.

Mr. Daniel Altman, Special Agent in Charge, USAID OIG, in his opening remarks briefly explained the proceedings of the day. He also addressed the participating organizations and offered assistance in making sure that their processes are in accordance with USAID’s terms and agreements, he further clarified how OIG is willing to work with them to ensure that everyone is aware of the types of frauds and its prevention.

Mr. Saad Rashid, Executive Director TI-Pakistan, gave his presentation on the objectives, setup and operation of Anti-Fraud Hotline project, how the project is advertised and how the complaints are handled. In his presentation Mr. Saad Rashid informed the participants that Anti-Fraud Hotline had received approx. 70,000 calls of which approx. 7,000 were registered as complaints.

Mr. James Peters, Deputy Mission Director USAID, expressed his understanding on the role TI-Pakistan had been playing in promoting anti-corruption activities in the country and also acknowledged the efficacy of Anti-Fraud Hotline in this regards. He said it is very lucky to have a hotline here in Pakistan, as its culture embraces the hotline, which can be ascertained by the

huge number of complaints that are received, and this shows the vibrancy of this culture, where people do not just desire oversight but demand oversight.

Mr. Daniel Altman, Special Agent in Charge, USAID OIG, gave his presentation on fraud awareness and prevention. He started by explaining the role of OIG and its responsibilities. He explained the types of investigations OIG carries out that are criminal, civil and administrative. He also mentioned how USAID OIG has been collaborating with national entities such as NAB, PPRA and TI-Pakistan in order to ensure that USAID funds are properly utilized and to minimize the corruption and wastage. Mr. Daniel Altman shared OIG’s results of their investigations from 2009 till 2015 by giving stats that $15 million had been recovered from civil recovery, $165 million in savings and recoveries and $1 million in recovery of equipment. He also gave a detailed presentation on employee’s misconduct, how OIG receives complaints, difference between anonymous and confidential complaints, procurement fraud, beneficiary schemes, product substitution, and detecting fraud in procurement, notification procedures and details to be included in implementer report.

Mr. Zafarullah Khan, Director, International Cooperation Wing, NAB followed the presentation by Mr. Altman and explained the role of NAB in fighting corruption in the country in great detail. He also shared some case studies, achievements and ongoing operations of NAB.

Mr. Mohammad Ali Taj, Business Analyst, TI-Pakistan, carried out an interactive session, by sharing some common scenarios that Anti-Fraud Hotline comes across in the implementation of the projects. He shared preventive measures to educate the implementing partners on how to incorporate these measures to establish an environment with minimum corruption. He further described the red flags that the implementing partners should look out for in order to identify corruption and encouraged the audience to report any incident of corruption to Anti-Fraud Hotline.

A documentary video from Concern Worldwide (CWW) was next presented. The documentary pertained to CWW’s efforts, activities in the country in implementing humanitarian assistance programs under Rapid Funds, as well as their feedback and complaint response mechanism.

Mr. Bill Sedlak, Contracting Officer of USAID’s Office of Acquisition and Assistance (OAA) accompanied by Priya Cariappa, Regional Legal Officer, USAID, gave a detailed presentation on the conflict of interest. The presentation was primarily designed to help the audience understand the different types of conflict of interest, how to identify conflict of interest and what they could do to report such instances and avoid them in their respective projects.

A breakout group discussion section was also a part of the day’s agenda, in which the audience was given a few topics at the beginning of the day. The audience was divided into four groups which were led by representatives of OIG, TI-Pakistan and USAID and the topics were discussed and concerns and questions of the people were answered. The topics included Procurement Fraud, Improper hiring selection process, Internal Controls, and Whistle Blower protection. The session was highly informative and interactive as it provided the audience to ask questions related to that topic only and learn from the response given by the group leaders.

In the end a panel of five representatives from OIG, TI-Pakistan and USAID answered questions from the participants. Finally Mr. Daniel Altman gave his closing remarks and thanked everyone for their enthusiastic participation, and shared his hope that the people learned from the

program which would further enable them in developing anti-corruption strategies in their given projects.

Glimpses from the workshop

Ms. Ann Calvaressi Barr, Inspector General, USAID giving her welcome note

Mr. James Peters, Deputy Mission Director, USAID

Ms. Kayla Y. Ma, Pakistan Intake Coordinator, USAID OIG, giving an overview of the group breakout discussion

Mr. Saad Rashid, Executive Director, TI-Pakistan, giving his presentation on Anti-Fraud Hotline

Mr. Daniel Altman, Special Agent in Charge, USAID OIG during his presentation on fraud awareness and prevention

Mr. Zafar Ullah Khan, Director International Cooperation Wing, NAB during his presentation

Mr. Mohammad Ali Taj, Business Analyst, TI-Pakistan, during his presentation

Mr. Bill Sedlak, Contracting Officer, USAID OAA, and Priya Carriapa, Regional Legal Officer, USAID during their presentation on Conflict of Interest

Ms. Ann Calvaresi Barr, meeting with the attendees prior to the start of the program

The participants

The panelists during the Q&A session at the end of the workshop