NAB’s efforts to curb corruption

Corruption is one of the major factors that hurdles the progress and prosperity of a country. It creates injustice, poverty and subsides merit, depriving a deserving person of its due right.
Corruption not only causes delays in the early completion of development projects but also causes huge losses to national exchequer. It also increases inflation in the country decreasing the buying power of common man.
Corruption affects country just like a cancer. Awareness and prevention of corruption is a challenging task and as a Pakistanis it is our moral duty to spread awareness regarding the ill effects of the menace. All the segments of the society should play an active role for the eradication of corruption from the country. There are many examples of the countries which achieved progress and prosperity through effective legislation and by combined efforts of government and general public for the elimination of corruption.
Corruption is not only an obstacle in way to economic development but also causes poverty because money earned from corruption and corrupt practices concentrates in a few hands. Countries which have succeeded in controlling the corruption achieved progress at a fast pace.
Considering these facts National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was established in the country. The NAB has chalked out a comprehensive strategy — National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) — for the awareness of general public about the ill effects of corruption. Under this strategy the NAB organised seminars and workshops for the character building of people. The purpose of NAB’s all these efforts is to root out corruption from the country and make all the public and private institutions to serve the general public in a genuine way, having no complaint of ‘bribe or greed’ against them from the public.
The NAB works according to National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999, which empowers it to act against those who are involved in the

corruption and corrupt practices.Youth is the asset of a country, therefore, the NAB has much expectations from youth.Parents should also focus on the character building of their children from the beginning. For this the NAB, in collaboration with HEC and civil society has established more than 4,000 character-building societies in different schools, colleges and universities and its positive result would be seen in the coming future. The NAB has also provided another platform, which works on union council level, having a job to identify corruption at that level.
It is an honour for Pakistan that it has very strong and effective anti-corruption law in the form of NAO-1999, which covers all the aspects of corruption and its causes. All other countries are also adopting NAO-1999.
After taking the charge of the post, NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry felt the need for a comprehensive and effective campaign, to be run all over the county, to create awareness among the general public about the ill effects of corruption. For this purpose the chairman directed the NAB to prepare a comprehensive National Anti-Corruption Strategy, which includes awareness and prevention, and enforcement. Following these directions the NAB recently organised a 5th A&P Directors’ Conference under the chairmanship of its Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry at its headquarters in Islamabad. The NAB deputy chairman, director general (A&P), DG (Operations), DG (Headquarters), senior member (CI&MT) and all the regional directors, who are working for the awareness and prevention, attended the conference. This conference was one of its own kind, because senior officials’ of Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) and Pepra also attended it and shared the method of technical evaluation of projects and Pepra rules with the participants. All the regional directors, associated with A&P, director (Media) and senior member (CI&MT) addressed the conference.
Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, while addressing the conference, emphasized all the officers that eradication of corruption from the country is our top priority. The chairman said NAB is actively participating in the awareness campaign to educate people about the ill effects of the corruption and its adverse effects on the progress of our country. The chairman also said, “We should not deny the fact that all the schemes of the society should contribute to end corruption from the country. The role of media is also very important in achieving this goal.”
The chairman also said NAB in collaboration with the HEC is conducting an awareness campaign at different universities all over the country to educate and provide knowledge to students in this regard.
The NAB has also introduced the mechanism of self-accountability and Quantified Grading System under which annual inspection of all the regional NAB bureaus will be conducted. So far annual inspection of Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi regional bureaus are conducted and after analyzing their performance, merits and grades were conveyed to these offices for the improvement of performance in next years.
The NAB chairman believes on the evidence-based accountability on merit. He is an honest, hardworking and having good repute. During one year tenure, his efforts to make the NAB an effective and independent institution have been commended across the board. He decentralised his powers to all the regional NAB bureaus for working on fast pace and for timely completion of inquiries/actions against the corrupt and Proclaimed Offenders (POs).
The recent reports of Transparency International and Pildat also reflected the efforts of the NAB in increasing the trust of general public on the NAB. It is hoped that the NAB under the dynamic leadership of Qamar Zaman Chaudhry will help root out corruption from the country and make it prosperous.