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

Analyst, USAID OIG; Muhammad Riaz, Investigator, USAID OIG; Saad Rashid, Executive

Director, TI-Pakistan; Chris Reed, Special Agent In charge, USAID OIG; Daniel Altman,

Assistant Inspector General, USAID OIG.