ACE short of directors, investigation officers

LAHORE
Sixty-six percent seats of investigation officers and 34 percent seats of directors are lying vacant at Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Punjab resulting in piling up of cases besides affecting the quality of investigation, The News has learnt.
This was disclosed during a meeting on Prime Minister’s Anti-Corruption Strategy held on March 2, 2015.
The meeting reviewed the performance of the ACE Punjab and pointed out the problems being faced by the establishment causing high pendency rate of the cases. The meeting pointed out that legislation was required to make the ACE more effective.
Convener of Prime Minister’s Anti-Corruption Strategy MPA Dr Ayesha Ghous Pasha chaired the meeting. Director General ACE Punjab Mohammad Anwar Rashid, Director (RD&T) ACE HQ, Director (Legal) ACE HQ, Deputy Director (Admin) ACE HQ, Deputy Director (M&V) ACE HQ, Assistant Director (RD&T) Tauqeer Aslam ACE HQ and Deputy Secretary (Opinion) Law & Parliamentary Affairs Department attended the meeting.
The meeting was informed that besides 66 percent seats of Investigation Officers, three posts of Regional Directors of Gujranwala, Bahawalpur and Multan, while one post of Director Technical ACE HQ are lying vacant since long. Despite repeated requests to the authorities concerned, the seats are still lying vacant. It was disclosed in the meeting that against the sanctioned 70 posts of Deputy Director, 39 posts are vacant, against 142 sanctioned strength of Assistant Director, 85 posts are vacant, and against 46 sanctioned posts of inspectors, nine posts are lying vacant.
Similarly against 36 sanctioned posts of Deputy Director Investigation, 24 posts are lying vacant, against 10 sanctioned posts of Deputy Director Technical, seven posts are lying vacant, against 72 sanctioned posts of Assistant Director (Inv, complaints, coord), 48 posts are lying vacant, and against 12 sanctioned posts of Assistant Director Technical, five posts are lying vacant.
It was told that Anti-Corruption Case Management System (ACCMS) had become functional and the data was being uploaded by the existing staff as an additional assignment. The IT expertise in the ACE is not available. It was informed that 58 posts for ACE IT Wing had been sanctioned and requisition for filling of these posts had been sent to Provincial Public Service Commission (PPSC).
Director General ACE Anwar Rashid during the meeting took up the case for better pay package and transport facilities for ACE officers and officials. He said that NAB staff was better motivated as compared to the ACE officers as the NAB officers were getting better remuneration. He informed that most of the ACE vehicles were outlived and Rs45 million was required for new vehicles. He proposed that pay and allowances of officers and officials transferred to the ACE shall be protected and 40 percent allowance shall be paid at the present scales.
Anwar Rashid emphasised that the amendments were required in legislation to make the ACE effective so that it could take action against white-collar crime and make it a potent law enforcement agency for corrupt public functionaries. After the meeting, five committees were constituted which would submit their recommendations to address the above-mentioned problems being faced by the establishment.
Talking to The News, Convener of Prime Minister’s Anti-Corruption Strategy MPA Dr Ayesha Ghous said sub-committees had been constituted which would furnish their recommendations within 10 days. In the next meeting, the Prime Minister’s Anti-Corruption Strategy would review the commendations of the sub-committees, she said, adding that the present government was determined to curb corruption from the public sector. She said formulation of comprehensive strategy was required to curb corruption from the society. She said the government would provide all possible resources to the ACE to overcome the problems being faced by it. If required amendments would be made to the ACE legislation to make it more effective and efficient, she concluded.