The Prime Minister’s Task Force on Austerity and Restructuring Government is planning on introducing ‘Corruption Sniffing Bots’ for government officials in order to ensure there is no chance of any income other than the known sources.
According to the news, Burhan Rasool, a member of the task force, has proposed to use the bots to detect any anomalies in the encrypted data of employees.
Mr. Rasool also presented a concept paper on the bots, in the presentation he stated that the computer program will notify the employee regarding any discrepancy first so that he/she can make a correction before facing any punitive action.
At the meeting it was also concluded that it is mandatory for all government employees to declare their assets and make scrutiny committees for pointing out any civil servant that is living beyond means. Moreover, the task force has agreed on the formation of scrutiny committees by all departments with an objective of reconciling the assets declaration and tax returns of their employees.
Furthermore, if any anomaly is to arise the employees will be given a chance to explain themselves before any action is taken. The task force members have been asked to lay out rules for the scrutiny committees.
Other ways to use technology in order to keep a check on the government officials were also proposed, such as creating a central repository of individual financial profiles of the officers and their independents. Sources state that this can be done through the development and integration of several systems such as keeping the payroll data of all government employees accurate, comprehensive, and CNIC-based as opposed to the SAP-based “Project to Improve Financial Reporting & Auditing” (Pifra). The second system involves keeping CNIC-based data of parents and dependents of the government employees after running it by the National Data and Registration Authority (NADRA).
