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| NAB becomes billionaire by catching big thieves |
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Friday, March 19, 2010
By Usman Manzoor
ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will bag over Rs 2 billion from the recovered money of the Bank of Punjab (BoP) scandal as its legitimate commission. NAB has already earned billions in the last decade from the recovery of corruption money.
The chief justice has also questioned this legitimate commission of billions of rupees given to NAB during the hearing in the Bank of Punjab fraud case when Khwaja Muhammad Haris, advocate, pointed towards the strange payments.
Member of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice, framing the new accountability law, say there would not be any such commission in the new accountability mechanism.
After its formation, the commission requested the then-Chief Executive Gen (retd) Musharraf to allocate a certain portion of the recovered money for the bureau and the then-dictator ordered the Finance Division to issue a letter for NAB, legitimising the commission. The letter of the Finance Division bearing number 2(2)DFA(CAB)/2000 dated 06-07-2000 states: “The chief executive has been pleased to approve NAB proposal of retaining a portion of money recovered/ discovered through NAB operation with a view to sustain accountability process and make NAB self-sufficient with regard to funds.”
NAB’s commission was divided as recovery of bank default, 3 per cent; recovery of written-off loans, 20 per cent; recovery from known Central Board of Revenue (CBR) dues, 10 per cent; discovery and recovery of corruption money, 30 per cent; recovery of known corruption money, 25 per cent and corruption money involving general public, 0 per cent.
The letter says: “NAB’s share in the discovered and recovered money is designed to be spent on hiring of experts, for purchase of equipment, reward to informers, and purchase of land for official purposes and repair of official building owned by NAB.”
Though no one in NAB is ready to come on the record regarding NAB’s commission, however, in their private discussions, NAB officials say only 20 per cent of the amount granted to NAB by the government is spent on the welfare measures of employees of NAB.
According to official figures, NAB has recovered Rs 116.836 billion in loan default cases; Rs 11.233 billion in voluntary return plea bargains and Rs 15.912 billion in other categories. While recently, NAB has approved a plea bargain of Rs 8.6 billion from the Bank of Punjab scam culprits, which would get the accountability bureau 25 per cent of the recovered money.
NAB has also rescheduled/reconstructed bank loans worth Rs 60.47 bn; Rs 9.41 billion was indirectly recovered and Rs 11.68 was collected as court fines. NAB officials say the funds (commission) got by NAB did not go into anyone’s pocket but only 15 per cent of the fund was used for the welfare of employees. “We cannot call it a commission in any way as it was a legitimate fund approved by the Finance Division,” said a senior official, adding this fund was used for procurement of equipment and other jobs.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
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