‘NAB officers to come up to nation’s expectations’

ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry on Monday said corruption was the major hurdle in the way of progress and it created injustice and poverty, depriving deserving person of due rights. Corruption is a cancer and silent killer, he said while visiting NAB Balochistan during his farewell visit.

The chairman said, “As a chairman I have tried my level best to rejuvenate NAB by taking new initiatives for eradication of corruption.“He said today NAB was absolutely committed to rooting out corruption in all its forms and manifestations with iron hands. Qamar Zaman said PILDAT, Transparency International and World Economic Forum had appreciated Pakistan. He said overall performance remained excellent as compared to other Anti-Corruption Organisations.

Today NAB had rejuvenated and the hard work being put in by NAB officers/officials was commendable. He said, “Nation is proud of you as you are performing your duties even in odd hours professionally and transparently as per law. “NAB during last four years had recovered Rs50 billion from corrupt and deposited then in national exchequer which was a record achievement.

The chairman said figures of complaints, inquiries and investigations were almost double as compared to same period of 2014to 2017. He said NAB since its inception, had recovered Rs288 billion which was indicative of hard work, dedication, professionalism and transparency of all ranks of its officers/officials in an atmosphere of renewed energy and dynamism.

He said NAB in collaboration with HEC established 45,000Character Building Societies (CBSs) in Universities/Colleges to aware youth about ill effects of corruption at an early age.

He said NAB had set target for 2017 that number of Character Building Societies should 55,000. Today NAB was chairman of SAARC Anti-Corruption Forum.

NAB wasthe only organization in world with which China had signed MoU in order to streamline cooperation in field of anti-corruption and oversee projects to be undertaken under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

He said NAB had established its first Forensic Science Lab (FSL) in Islamabad which had facilities of Digital Forensics, Questioned Documents and Fingerprint Analysis.

Qamar Zaman said NAB had rationalized its workload and timelines had 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 Accountability Court.

NAB had also introduced a new System of Combine Investigation Team (CIT) in order to benefit from experience and collective wisdom of senior supervisory officers, a system of CIT comprising of Director, Additional Director, Investigation Officer and a Senior Legal Counsel has been put in place.

This will not only lend quality to work but also ensure that no single individual can influence the proceedings.The results of CIT are very encouraging.

He said NAB had devised Monitoring and Evaluation System (MES) to track implementation and outputs systematically and added after its implementation performance of NAB officers/officials witnessed improvement. The chairman said NAB Balochistan was one of the important Regional Bureaus which plays prominent role in contributing towards overall performance.

He appreciated the performance of NAB Balochistan and directed to arrest all corrupt, proclaimed offenders and absconders in line with NAB’s enforcement policy.He also directed all ranks of officers of NAB Balochistan to work more vigilantly, diligently and honestly in order to curb corruption and corrupt practices.

He said performance of all wings of NAB Balochistan under supervision of Irfan Naeem Mangi, Director General was appreciable, hoping NAB Balochistan will continue its excellent performance in future.

Earlier, in his welcome address, Irfan Naeem Mangi said chairman NAB had always been remained a guiding force forofficers/officials in discharge of their duties without any fear.

“Memories of last four years remind us professionalism, transparency, hard work, honesty, commitment, dedication and merit,” he said and added strong leadership like yours led the organisationin right direction with proactive Anti-Corruption Strategy which was implemented in letter and spirit.On arrival in NAB Balochistan, Chairman NAB reviewed guard of honour and held a meeting with Irfan Naeem Mangi, who highlighted regional Bureau’s performance.