NAB’s new initiatives to eradicate corruption acknowledged internationally: chairman

Islamabad

National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry chaired a meeting to review latest progress on the implementation of new initiatives taken by the NAB management under the leadership of the present chairman at NAB Headquarters, says a press release.

While addressing the meeting, NAB chairman said that the top priority of NAB is to eradicate corruption with iron hands without any fear and favour across the board by adopting Zero Tolerance Policy as NAB is apex Anti-Corruption Organization which has been assigned to eradicate corruption and recover looted money from corrupt. He said that NAB has devised a proactive and comprehensive National Anti-Corruption Strategy and the feedback received about new initiatives taken by the present management of NAB is very encouraging as NAB during the tenure of present management of NAB, NAB has recovered Rs45 billion which all were  deposited in the national exchequer and not a single rupees is paid to any NAB employee as all amount recovered from corrupt is deposited in the national exchequer with the realization that this is our national duty.

He said that today NAB’s conviction ratio is about 76 percent which is a comparatively very high from other Anti-Corruption organizations in investigation of White Collar Crimes. He said that the new initiatives taken by the present management of NAB has acknowledged by all reputable organizations such as the PILDAT in its report supports the position stated above as 42% people trusted NAB against 30 % for police and 29 % for government officials. The recent report of Transparency International also rated Pakistan in Corruption Perception Index (CPI) from 126 to 116. He said Pakistan has role model for SAARC countries in eradication of corruption and made first Chairman of SAARC countries Anti-Corruption Forum which is a great achievement for Pakistan due to NAB’s efforts. The World Economic Forum and Mishal Pakistan according to Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum rated Pakistan from 126 to 122.

He said that through detailed introspection and analysis of organizational weaknesses, overhaul of procedures and business processes, all pillars of the organization i.e. Operations, Prosecution, Human Resource Development and Awareness and Prevention have been reactivated. He said that NAB with improved infrastructure and rationalized workload, timelines have been prescribed for efficient, effective and expeditious disposal of case putting a maximum limit of 10 months- from complaint verification-to-inquiry-to investigation and finally to a reference in Accountability Court. He said that to close the possibility of any single NAB officer/official influencing the discharge of official business, the concept of a “Combined Investigation Team” (CIT) was introduced where two investigation officers and a legal consultant are working as a team for a fair, transparent and unbiased, inquiry/ investigation.

He said that NAB has established its first Forensic Science LAB in Islamabad which has facilities of Digital Forensics, Questioned Documents and Fingerprint Analysis. On bilateral cooperation, NAB has signed MoU with China to streamline and structure and cooperation in the fields of anti-corruption. In the context of CPEC this cooperation will further boost confidence in projects undertaken in Pakistan. Another MoU is proposed to be signed with Malaysia after approval of the competent authority. 

He said NAB has established 45 thousands Character Building Societies (CBS) in Universities and Colleges. This initiative of NAB has proved very successful in order to aware students about the ill effects of corruption. More and more Universities/Colleges are joining hands with NAB in its country wide campaign against corruption and it is expected that this number should reach to 50 thousands at the end of this year.