Corruption, poverty interlinked: NAB chairman

Islamabad
National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry has said that NAB is committed to eradicate corruption across the country by using all its resources. He said the menace of corruption leads to injustice, lawlessness and creates a sense of insecurity, hopelessness and despondency. In our own peculiar case the twin menace of corruption and poverty are closely interlinked. A surge in one has a direct bearing on the other.
He said this while chairing a meeting at NAB Headquarters, says a press release. He said NAB was established to fight and eradicate corruption in a holistic and integrated manner. NAB is essentially a complaint driven organisation. He said NAB's personnel need to follow a strict Code of Conduct and zero tolerance against corruption is to be visibly exhibited. He said that we have to redouble our efforts to come up to the expectations associated with NAB. NAB has prosecuted corrupts and has recovered over Rs4 billion of looted public money in 2014. Bringing the total recovery to date to Rs262 billion. The number of complaints received in 2013 was 19,900 which are double of the number of 10,500 complaints received in 2014 from the previous year. The increase in complaints to NAB is reflective of people's confidence in our work. To speed up disposal of pending enforcement work, it has been decided to fix time limit for each step of enforcement i.e Complaint Verification, Inquiry & Investigation. A total of 10 months have been laid down from start -- to finish.
He reiterated that NAB is embarked on the course to eradicate the scourge of corruption. But it's a collective social responsibility. The intelligentsia and media have to play an important role.