The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) under the leadership of its Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, has chalked out a comprehensive National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) for eradication of corruption and corrupt practices throughout the country.
“NAB has prosecuted corrupts and has recovered over Rs. 4.5 billion of looted public money in the last one year bringing the total recovery to date to Rs. 264.4 billion since inception” says a statement issued by the NAB.
According to the statement, the allocation to NAB for its working since creation was Rs. 11.8 billion, which was only 4.4% of recoveries made by NAB. “The numbers of applications received in 2014 were 40077 which was double the number of 19900 received in 2013. The increase in applications to NAB was reflective of people’s confidence in our work. “The litmus test of the efficiency and effectiveness of NAB’s efforts lie in the number of cases processed”, the statement said.
According to the statement, Corruption not only causes delays in the early completion of development projects but also causes huge losses to national exchequer.
Considering these facts, the statement said that the NAB was established as Pakistan’s apex anti-corruption organization which was assigned with the responsibility of elimination of corruption through a holistic approach of awareness, prevention and enforcement.
In terms of inquiries, NAB has completed 585 inquiries during the year 2014 as compared to 243 during 2013. Similarly as many as 188 investigations were concluded in 2014 as compare to 129 in 2013. The references filed in respective Accountability Courts, in 2014, NAB has filed 208 references as compared to 135 during 2013.
“The rate of success of NAB’s prosecution work in all courts is approximately 70 percent”, the statement said.
The recent reports of Transparency International also rated Pakistan in Corruption Perception Index (CPI) from 175 to 126 which is a great achievement for Pakistan due to NAB’s efforts, the statement added.
NAB has filed six references in the Rs 22 billion Modarba Scam and recovered Rs.1 billion and 73 Crore from Modaraba Scam, besides properties and vehicles. NAB also arrested 32 accused in this case. It has also filed 8 references in Rental Power Project cases in the respective Accountability Courts.
On the directions of Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, NAB has approved to rationalize the workload and timelines have been prescribed for efficient, effective and expeditious disposal of cases putting a maximum limit of 10 months-from complaint verification-to-inquiry-to-investigation and finally to a reference in the Accountability Court.
The statement added that NAB has devised a new concept of Combine Investigation Team (CIT) as the CIT had indeed improved the quality of investigations as well as the professional capacity of Investigation officers (IOs).
The Regional Bureaus of NAB under Party Quantified Grading System are being evaluated at a given criteria. NAB has decided to give priority to corruption cases i.e.; normal cases from Rs 100-200 million, Complex Cases from Rs. 500-1000 million and Mega Cases Rs. 1000 million and above for mega cases, it added.
The NAB has developed Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) System catering the needs of all concerned having salient features of maintenance of data at each stage including complaint entry, complaint verification, inquiry, investigation, prosecution stage and record preservation of Regional Board Meetings and Executive Board Meetings including case brief, decisions made and list of participants attended the meeting with time and date and setting-up of an effective M&E System and ability to analyze data in qualitative and quantitative form having warnings and alarms system for violators.
In line with Chairman NAB’s firm resolve and commitment to eradicate corruption and corrupt practices from the country, NAB and SECP have decided created a Joint Task Force comprising of senior level officers of NAB and SECP in order to work expeditiously on the corruption cases referred by SECP to NAB.
To create Awareness against the ill effects of corruption among the youth of Pakistan NAB in collaboration with Higher Education Commission (HEC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) last year.Due to this reason, over 4030 Character Building Societies (CBSs) have been established by NAB in universities, colleges and schools to create awareness against corruption as youths are considered a vanguard in this fight.
The NAB has proposed Ministry of Law and Justice that Whistle Blowing Protection Act is imperative for the country under the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), legislation on Whistle Blowing is an obligation on Pakistan.
The Prime Minister of Pakistan has approved Whistle Blower Protection Bill which has sent to Cabinet Division for placing before the Federal Cabinet for further necessary action.
NAB’s newly recruited 110 Investigation Officers are being trained at Police Training College Sihala on modern lines. The NAB has established Forensic Science Lab at NAB Rawalpindi and also planned establishment of NAB’s Anti-Corruption Academy at Islamabad for capacity building of NAB officers/Officials on the pattern of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Academy.
The NAB’s Anti-corruption campaign is carried widely for awareness and prevention of corruption besides Enforcement across the board. SThe NAB hoped that joint efforts of all stakeholders can collaborate to check corruption and corrupt practices before happening with the help of all stakeholders.
The NAB officers/officials under the leadership of Chairman NAB were determined and committed to perform their national duty with absolute objectivity, thorough professionalism, and unimpeachable integrity and without any leanings for or against anybody, the statement said.