Corruption rampant in our society, says NAB chairman

ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, while addressing NAB’s newly recruited 104 investigation officers who were after training posted in eight NAB’s regional Bureaus for on job training, said that corruption is rampant in our society and  labelled as mother of all ills. "It gives birth to multifarious problems, including nepotism and favoritism. It negates meritocracy, transparency and accountability," he said.

The NAB chairman said that the Bureau was established to eradicate corruption in a holistic and integrated manner and recovered looted money from corrupts. "This is the backdrop against which NAB is striving to accomplish its mission--to rid the nation from corruption and corrupt practices," he said.

He said that NAB is a complaint driven organisation and an exhaustive system of cognizance of cases has been formulated to standardise the selection of cases for processing. Priority is assigned keeping in view the case nature, the amount of monies involved and the number of affectees. NAB’s operational methodology has set three stages for processing of cases ie complaint verification, inquiry and investigation. He said that the hard work and pains taken by all ranks of NAB towards their national duty, particularly in the last two years--2014 & 2015-- is very encouraging in eradication of corruption from the country.

He said that an effective accountability mechanism is quintessential for economic growth, investment and stability of social order. The intervention by NAB has acted as a catalyst, as transparency is a prerequisite for promoting investment and economic growth. Since its inception, NAB had adopted the enforcement based approach in its fight against corruption.  Controlling corruption on a sustainable and long term basis requires a broader vision and multi-faceted strategy, which banks heavily on awareness and prevention of corruption in addition to the enforcement approach. Special focus is, therefore, being given to awareness and prevention activities to educate the people at large about the ill effects of corruption.

He said youth is the future of Pakistan; therefore, NAB has laid special emphases on this segment of the population. Character building societies (CBSs) are being set up in educational institutions across the country to build an effective edifice against corruption. Presently, more than 10 thousands character building societies (CBS) have been established besides signing an MOU with Higher Education Commission (HEC) in this respect. Each regional Bureau is in touch with universities, colleges and other educational institutions to organise CBSs in their respective areas of responsibilities. We hope that these young members will be able to carry the message of anti-corruption in their homes, streets and localities.

He said that a public office is not only a decorated room where you stare at the pile of files and sign daily “daak”, it is rather a huge responsibility that the state puts on your shoulders. It demands grace out of you; it craves for your fullest efforts in the matters of public good; it requires your analytical decision powers to deliver the benefit to the state; it asks for patience and above all when you work in NAB particularly; it calls for impartial, transparent and equitable behavior. This is why seven months have been involved in your training so that you should be able to handle your duties with the best professional skills.

He said that NAB has designed an automated monitoring system for effective monitoring of the performance of individual officers, prosecutors and the field formations. This will replace and substitute the existing paper bases, time-lagged reporting system and will add efficiency and quality to the official business. He said NAB has established its first Forensic Science Lab (FSL) in NAB, Rawalpindi, which has facilities of digital forensics, questioned documents and fingerprint analysis. He said our work has been appreciated by PILDAT and Transparency International which has rated Pakistan in Corruption Perception Index (CPI) from 126 to 117 due to NAB's efforts.