The Transparency International Team led by Sohail Muzaffar and NAB Chairman, Admiral (Retd) Fasih Bokhari discussed the process of Accountability and the areas of mutual cooperation between the two organizations to root out corruption from the society.
Various issues related to accountability, anti-corruption laws and awareness in regulatory mechanisms were discussed during their meeting here on Monday.
According to a press release, the NAB Chairman informed TI that NAB is carrying out a comparative study of the Accountability Bill against the different similar enactments of other countries. He stressed that the experience of NAB had not been considered in the drafting of the bill. A seminar was proposed to be held by inviting stakeholders for soliciting their views on improvements to the Accountability Bill. Revamping the lacunae in laws and rules that allow space for corruption has been lacking said the Chairman.
The Chairman stressed the need for capacity building in financial forensic capabilities for the NAB investigators. The Chairman explained that the huge financial volume of corruption injected into third world countries through kickbacks is not being considered in the international index surveys of TI. This leads to a misconception that the supplier countries are clean and only the Third World is corrupt.
Adil Gilani, the Advisor TIP stressed the need to ensure implementation of punitive clauses of PPRA Rules. He appreciated the NAB Accountability Bill review initiative and offered support for the seminar event. Mr. Gilani also apprised the NAB participants of the efforts made at the global level to meet the menace of corruption and the support that could be made available to NAB by TI.
TI delegation included Sohail Muzaffar, Adil Gillani, Saad Rashid, Executive Director, Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa, Trustee, and Wajid Jawad; while the Deputy Chairman, DG A&P and Director NACS attended from NAB.