Forensics consultant ripping off govt?

The arti­cle below opines that a con­sul­tant hired by the Pakistani gov­ern­ment to bring their foren­sic ser­vices together into an effec­tive mod­ern lab­o­ra­tory struc­ture is rip­ping off the government.

The first point the make is that $700 a day in a province where peo­ple are com­mit­ting sui­cide from hunger. While it does invoke an emo­tional response, it still doesn’t change the fact that $700 a day is a very rea­son­able rate for a hired foren­sic con­sul­tant. The arti­cle even states that the “nor­mal” rate there is between $800 — $2000 a day. I know many foren­sic con­sul­tants that charge upward of $2500 a day.

The sec­ond point the arti­cle makes is that the hired expert isn’t “qual­i­fied” because they only have exper­tise in 4 areas of foren­sic sci­ence, whereas the gov­ern­ment needs some­one with exper­tise in 14 areas. Well no one has true exper­tise in 14 areas. Four areas is a rea­son­able amount of mate­r­ial for some­one to exper­tise in foren­sic sci­ence. If some­one claimed they had exper­tise in 14 areas they would truly be a “foren­sic superman”.

The third point made is that there were “local” appli­cants who were not cho­sen. Well if there were equally qual­i­fied Pakistani foren­sic experts they cer­tainly should have been hired over for­eign nation­als. But the con­sul­tant hired seems to have expe­ri­ence doing just what they are look­ing for in another country.

It seems to me they got exactly what they were look­ing for a smokin’ deal.

Original arti­cle posted here.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Forensics con­sul­tant rip­ping off govt?

* Consultant already worked in var­i­ous coun­tries to assist in estab­lish­ment of sim­i­lar organ­i­sa­tions
* All foren­sics depart­ments to be brought under one umbrella

By Anwer Hussain Sumra

LAHORE: An inter­na­tion­ally trained con­sul­tant has been hired by the Punjab gov­ern­ment for the estab­lish­ment of the Forensics Science Agency (FSA) at the cost of $700 per day, in addi­tion to other perks and privileges.

A Home Department offi­cial, on con­di­tion of anonymity, said that the ini­tial con­tract is for 90 days, which is extend­able by the Punjab gov­ern­ment. He said that there is no mech­a­nism to eval­u­ate the per­for­mance of the con­sul­tant, and there are fears that a huge amount would be drained from the bud­get for the con­sul­tancy fee. In August, the Punjab gov­ern­ment adver­tised a vacancy in inter­na­tional news­pa­pers, invit­ing appli­ca­tion from eli­gi­ble can­di­dates qual­i­fied in foren­sic sci­ence. Seven can­di­dates, includ­ing those with a Pakistani back­ground applied for the post, how­ever, the ser­vices of Dr Ashraf Tahir were acquired with the approval of the chief minister.

Various coun­tries: The offi­cial said that Dr Tahir had served in var­i­ous coun­tries to assist in the estab­lish­ment of such agen­cies, and was work­ing in another coun­try deal­ing with foren­sic sci­ences prior to join­ing the Punjab gov­ern­ment. He claimed that the gov­ern­ment had hired an expert on an excep­tion­ally costly pack­age dur­ing a time of severe eco­nomic depres­sion. The offi­cial alleged that Dr Tahir was qual­i­fied in four sub­jects of foren­sic sci­ence, how­ever, the gov­ern­ment required exper­tise in 14 dis­ci­plines. Another offi­cial revealed that the con­sul­tant had been entrusted with the job of out­lin­ing the con­cept, design and prepa­ra­tion of PC-1, in addi­tion to iden­ti­fy­ing infra­struc­ture require­ments, equip­ments, recruit­ment of suit­able man­power, train­ing of recruited men, instal­la­tion of equip­ment for test run­ning and func­tion­ing of the FSA.

He said that the estab­lish­ment of the Forensic Science Agency (FSA) had been pend­ing since the first tenure of the Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. He also said that the estab­lish­ment of the FSA was an approved scheme in the Annual Development Programme (ADP) 2008–9 to be set up at Multan Road, Thokar Niaz Baig over an area of 20 Kanals. The Punjab gov­ern­ment has ear­marked Rs 90 mil­lion in the ADP and it would be func­tional by 2010, he added.

Umbrella: All the 14 sec­tions involved in the inves­tiga­tive process such as Chemical Analysis, Latent Prints, Firearm and Tool Marks, DNA Analysis, Material Analysis, Documents Analysis, Forensic Audio, Video and Image Analysis, Investigative and Prospective Graphic Support, Explosives Analysis, Cyber Crime Analysis, Analysis of Trace Evidence, Deontological and Physical Anthropological, Organised Crime Records, and Fingerprints would be brought under the admin­is­tra­tive umbrella of the FSA. He said that the cen­tral­i­sa­tion of all sec­tions would help in the removal of abnor­mal­i­ties in results of civil and crim­i­nal cases.

Sources said that the cur­rent Forensic Sciences Laboratory was set up in 1935 for bal­lis­tics and forgery, and is now obso­lete. The cur­rent chem­i­cal exam­iner is deal­ing with poi­sons and adverse effects of drugs and chem­i­cals on var­i­ous bio­log­i­cal sys­tems in a medico-legal con­text. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) analy­sis is con­ducted at the Centre of Excellence Molecular Laboratory func­tion­ing under the con­trol of the Punjab University.

A senior Home Department offi­cial anony­mously said that the con­sul­tant had been hired after a going through proper pro­ce­dures. He said the nor­mal pack­age for a for­eign qual­i­fied foren­sics expect ranged between $800 to $2,000. The Punjab gov­ern­ment has hired the con­sul­tant on a rea­son­able pay pack­age, he added. Punjab Home Secretary Nadeem Hasan Asif, when asked about the hir­ing of a con­sul­tant on $700 per day in a province where peo­ple were com­mit­ting sui­cide due to hunger, said that if some­one would pro­vide an equally qual­i­fied con­sul­tant for cheaper rates, they should come for­ward and do so.