Two-day 18th National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Director Generals Conference has concluded in the metropolis on Friday with a determination to pursue corruption cases actively and ensure effective monitoring of the regulators to break the nexus of corrupt practices in the country.
NAB Chairman Admiral (r) Fasih Bokhari chaired the conference. The conference thoroughly deliberated the performance of operation and prevention wings of the organisation and reviewed measures to improve its efficiency.
While addressing the concluding session of the conference, the NAB chairman said the bureau would focus on completing the ongoing investigations and mega corruption cases would also be taken up. He said that any clue of corruption within the NAB would not be spared and directed all the regions to evolve a strong mechanism for internal monitoring to boost the efficiency levels of the bureau. He said that the departments that were not following the relevant rules would be taken to task and the bureau would intervene for streamlining the regulatory mechanism in the country which was otherwise on the verge of collapse and needed major overhauling.
Furthermore, NAB DGs conference agreed that the bureau would have its own police force to maintain effective security and for field operations. The conference asked the Sindh NAB DG to develop an implementation mechanism for NAB own police force, while also directing to provide details of size, needs and expenditure involved in this regard. The NAB DG was also directed to present proposal for requirements and purchase of the weapons for security and operations of the bureau.
The conference was informed that NAB was facing problems in execution of its mandated assignments in absence of a dedicated force for security and operations. The police cadre of the bureau would help to cope with the problems by strengthening indigenous security system and improving operations.
Moreover, the conference also decided to establish a pool of experts for the NAB headquarters and the regional NAB offices to monitor irregularities in working of different organisations, particularly in regard to bad loaning and bank frauds, customs duties evasion, sales tax / income tax misappropriations, SROs and financial publications and utilities default. These experts would be hired on contact and as well as on assignment basis. NAB would also monitor the budgets of mega projects at the provincial and federal levels.
The bureau had also decided to revive its informer set ups to unveil the corruption in line with international practices. It was decided that a national witness protection programme would be evolved in this connection.
The conference also decided to end the condition of limit of Rs 50 million for taking up the corruption cases, however, preference would be given to mega corruption cases and smaller cases to be transferred to the other investigation and anti-corruption agencies with the direction that the bureau must be constantly kept informed on the progress made.
Meanwhile, it was decided to gear up efforts for the NAB’s expansion plan including setting up three new regions for eradication of corruption and better monitoring of its activities across the country. This expansion was part of the programe to reach out to district level and be more responsive to complaints of the general public. The new regions would include Multan, Sukhar and Gilgit-Baltistan.
NAB DGs conference concludes with pledge to thwart corruption
