Workshop: Fraud Awareness and Prevention Workshop for USAID/ Sub-Sub-Grantees Date:May 18, 2017 Venue: Serena Hotel, Islamabad Guest Speakers: Mr. Chris Reed, Special Agent in Charge, USAID OIG; Mr. John Groarke, Mission Director, USAID; Mr. Nate Marceca, Special Agent, USAID OIG; Ms. Kayla Y. Ma, Investigative Analyst, USAID OIG; Mr. Saad Rashid, Executive Director TI-Pakistan; Mr. Zahir Shah – DG Operations NAB Headquarters Islamabad; Ms. Alina Menicucci, USAID OAA; Ms. Jane Ellen Paschall, USAID RLO; Mr. Mohammad Ali Taj, Project Manager, TI-Pakistan. Summary: Transparency International Pakistan in collaboration with USAID/OIG conducted a workshop on “Fraud Awareness and Prevention” for USAID Sub-Sub-Grantees on May 18, 2017 at Serena Hotel, Islamabad. The objective of the workshop was to create awareness regarding fraud and corruption among the Sub-Sub-Grantees implementing USAID funded projects. The workshop provided the opportunity to the participants to engage with the peers and representatives from NAB, TI Pakistan, USAID, OIG, OAA and RLO to discuss the challenges of corruption and fraudulent practices in the implementation of the projects. The participants with the help of OIG representatives also learned in detail about how to prevent, detect and report fraud in different scenarios. Around 75 participants from approx. 20 organizations attended the workshop. The event was also broadcasted live on TI Pakistan and Anti-Fraud Hotline social media pages so that our followers could view the highlights of the workshop. The registration started at 8:30am and the program officially started at 09:00am with the recitation of a verse from the Holy Qur’an. Mr. John Groarke, Mission Director, USAID Pakistan presented the opening remarks. He informed the participants how OIG plays a more broader and important role then only combating corruption. He also explained that the OIG ensures the integrity of these programs by making sure that the people of Pakistan are benefitting from the United States assistance to the maximum. This was followed by a welcome note given by Mr. Daniel Altman, Assistant Inspector General for Investigations, USAID OIG. Mr. Daniel welcomed and thanked all the participating organizations and offered assistance in making sure that their processes are in accordance with USAID’s terms and agreements. He further emphasized that OIG is willing to work with the recipients of USAID funds in order to ensure that these organizations are aware of the types of frauds and their prevention. Moving on, Mr. Saad Rashid, Executive Director TI-Pakistan, gave a detailed presentation on the Anti-Fraud Hotline project. He highlighted 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, since its
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Workshop: Fraud Awareness and Prevention Workshop for USAID/ Sub-Sub-Grantees Date:May 18, 2017 Venue: Serena Hotel, Islamabad Guest Speakers: Mr. Chris Reed, Special Agent in Charge, USAID OIG; Mr. John Groarke, Mission Director, USAID; Mr. Nate Marceca, Special Agent, USAID OIG; Ms. Kayla Y. Ma, Investigative Analyst, USAID OIG; Mr. Saad Rashid, Executive Director TI-Pakistan; Mr. Zahir Shah – DG Operations NAB Headquarters Islamabad; Ms. Alina Menicucci, USAID OAA; Ms. Jane Ellen Paschall, USAID RLO; Mr. Mohammad Ali Taj, Project Manager, TI-Pakistan. Summary:
Transparency International Pakistan in collaboration with USAID/OIG conducted a workshop on
“Fraud Awareness and Prevention” for USAID Sub-Sub-Grantees on May 18, 2017 at Serena
Hotel, Islamabad.
The objective of the workshop was to create awareness regarding fraud and corruption among
the Sub-Sub-Grantees implementing USAID funded projects. The workshop provided the
opportunity to the participants to engage with the peers and representatives from NAB,
TI Pakistan, USAID, OIG, OAA and RLO to discuss the challenges of corruption and fraudulent
practices in the implementation of the projects. The participants with the help of OIG
representatives also learned in detail about how to prevent, detect and report fraud in different
scenarios. Around 75 participants from approx. 20 organizations attended the workshop. The
event was also broadcasted live on TI Pakistan and Anti-Fraud Hotline social media pages so
that our followers could view the highlights of the workshop.
The registration started at 8:30am and the program officially started at 09:00am with the
recitation of a verse from the Holy Qur’an. Mr. John Groarke, Mission Director, USAID Pakistan
presented the opening remarks. He informed the participants how OIG plays a more broader
and important role then only combating corruption. He also explained that the OIG ensures the
integrity of these programs by making sure that the people of Pakistan are benefitting from the
United States assistance to the maximum.
This was followed by a welcome note given by Mr. Daniel Altman, Assistant Inspector General
for Investigations, USAID OIG. Mr. Daniel welcomed and thanked all the participating
organizations and offered assistance in making sure that their processes are in accordance with
USAID’s terms and agreements. He further emphasized that OIG is willing to work with the
recipients of USAID funds in order to ensure that these organizations are aware of the types of
frauds and their prevention.
Moving on, Mr. Saad Rashid, Executive Director TI-Pakistan, gave a detailed presentation on
the Anti-Fraud Hotline project. He highlighted 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, since its
inception, had received more than 85,000 calls resulting in successful formulation of over 7,700
complaints.
Ms. Kayla Y. Ma, Investigative Analyst, USAID OIG took a few moments to briefly address the
audience regarding the group breakout discussions session which was to be held in the second
half of the workshop.
The next speaker Mr. Nate Marceca, Special Agent, USAID OIG gave a presentation on “Fraud
Awareness Briefing: Prevention, Detection & Reporting”. He started off by explaining the role of
OIG and its responsibilities. He explained the types of investigations OIG carries out that are
criminal, civil and administrative. Mr. Nate also highlighted 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. Nate
explained further the process as to how OIG receives complaints and differentiates between
anonymous and confidential complaints. Throughout the presentation, participants were very
engaged; asked different questions and provided feedback/suggestions on OIG’s complaints
handling mechanism.
Moving on, Mr. Zahir Shah – DG Operations NAB Headquarters Islamabad in his speech
thanked TI-Pakistan and USAID for their efforts in hosting the workshop. He gave a detailed
presentation on most common PPRA violations. Mr. Shah also mentioned the importance,
framework; challenges and opportunities related to procurement. In his conclusion, he stressed
that Public Procurement Agencies should adhere to PPRA rules in order to promote
transparency to curb corruption. Mr. Shah also thanked TI Pakistan for its role in combating
corruption and corrupt practices in Pakistan and highlighted that many cases have successfully
been resolved by NAB through TI Pakistan’s intervention.
This was followed by Mr. Mohammad Ali Taj, Project Manager, TI-Pakistan, who carried out an
interactive session and shared 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 in their processes 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. He encouraged the audience to report
any incident of corruption to Anti-Fraud Hotline.
Before the breakout discussion groups, Ms. Alina Menicucci, Contracting Officer of USAID’s
Office of Acquisition and Assistance (OAA) accompanied by Ms. Jane Ellen Paschall,
Resident Legal Officer (RLO), USAID, gave a detailed presentation on 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. At the end of the presentation, Ms. Jane
Ellen shared some scenarios with the participants and engaged them by asking the possible
solutions.
In the breakout group discussion session the audience was given a few topics at the beginning
of the day to choose the topic of their interest. The audience was divided into four groups which
were moderated by representatives of OIG, TI-Pakistan and USAID. The moderator initiated the
discussion. The participants shared their experiences and concerns. Various scenarios were
presented by the moderators. An interactive discussion took place. Each group was given a
total of 50 minutes for discussion. At the end a spokesperson from each group presented for 5
minutes the summary of the discussion. The session was highly informative and interactive as it
provided the participants to ask questions related to that topic and learn from the response
given by other participants and the moderator.
This was followed by a Q&A session. Five representatives from OIG, TI-Pakistan and USAID
answered questions from the participants.
At the conclusion of the workshop, Mr. Chris Reed, Special Agent In-Charge, USAID OIG, gave
his closing remarks in which he thanked everyone for their participation and engagement. Mr.
Reed also expressed his hope that audience will apply the knowledge gained at the workshop to
develop anti–corruption strategies to prevent fraud in their projects.
Mr. John Groarke, Mission Director USAID delivering opening remarks
Mr. Daniel Altman, Assistant Inspector General – Investigations, USAID/ OIG during his welcome note
Mr. Saad Rashid, Executive Director TI Pakistan briefing the participants about Anti-Fraud Hotline
Project
Mr. Nathan Marceca, Special Agent, USAID OIG – During his fraud awareness and
prevention training session.
Mr. Zahir Shah – DG Operations NAB Headquarters Islamabad
Mr. Mohammad Ali Taj – Project Manager, Anti-Fraud Hotline, Transparency
International Pakistan
Ms. Kayla Y. Ma, Investigative Analyst, USAID OIG having a cheerful moment with
Mr. Chris Reed, Special Agent In-charge, USAID OIG.
Ms. Alina Menicucci, USAID OAA, during her presentation on conflict of interest
Glimpses of the workshop in full swing
Glimpses from the Group Breakout discussions
Participant asking questions
A group picture of representatives of TI-Pakistan, OIG and USAID
From L to R: Kashif Ali, Business Analyst, TI-Pakistan; Nathan Marceca, Special Agent, USAID
OIG; Jane Ellen Paschall, RLO, USAID; Jawaz Aziz, Investigator, USAID OIG; Alina Menicucci,
OAA, USAID; Mohammad Ali Taj, Project Manager, TI-Pakistan; Kayla Y. Ma, Investigative