NAB recovers Rs264.398 billion looted money since inception

Islamabad
National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has recovered Rs264.398 billion looted money from corrupt elements since its inception and deposited this amount in national exchequer. NAB received 282,931 complaints, authorised 6,250 inquiries, authorised 3,142 investigations and filed 2,330 references in the respective Accountability Courts, says a press release.
The figures of complaints, inquiries and investigations are almost double as compared to year 2013 to 2014. The comparative figures for the latest two years are indicative of the hard work being put in by all ranks of NAB staff in an atmosphere of renewed energy and dynamism, where fight against corruption is being taken as a national duty. Increase in the number of complaints also reflects enhanced public trusted in the NAB.
Corruption undermines development and good governance. Considering these facts, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was established in 1999 as Pakistan's apex anti-corruption organisation which is assigned with the responsibility of elimination of corruption through a holistic approach of awareness, prevention and enforcement. It operates under the National Accountability Ordinance-1999 which is extended to whole of Pakistan including Fata and Gilgit-Baltistan. NAB has its Headquarters in Islamabad while it has seven regional offices.
Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, Chairman NAB, after assumption of his duties has chalked out a comprehensive National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS). Under NACS, NAB has adopted Zero Tolerance Policy and proactive approach to curb corruption and corrupt practices from the country.
The PILDAT report for the last year also 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 175 to 126 which is a great achievement for Pakistan due to the NAB chairman’s efforts in the last 20 years.
To create awareness against the ill effects of corruption among the youth of Pakistan, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in collaboration with Higher Education Commission (HEC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Over 4,030 Character Building Societies (CBSs) have been established with the help of NAB and HEC in the country, in universities, colleges and schools during the last one year to create awareness against corruption as youths are considered a vanguard in this fight.
NAB has devised a comprehensive Quantified Grading System in NAB in order to review and further improve the performance of Officers/Officials of NAB. Under this grading system, NAB Regional Bureaus will be evaluated at a given criteria 80% will be considered "Outstanding/Excellent", marks between 60% to 79% will be considered as "Very Good", marks between 40% to 49% will be considered as "Good", while marks less than 40% will be considered as "Below Average".
NAB on the directions of the chairman, Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, has developed an effective Monitoring and Evaluation System catering the needs of all concerned having salient features of maintenance of data at each stage including complaint entry, complaint verification, inquiry, investigation, prosecution stage and record preservation of Regional Board Meetings and Executive Board Meetings including case brief, decisions made and list of participants attended the meeting with time & date and setting up of an effective Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) System and ability to analyze data in qualitative and quantitative form having warnings and alarms system for violators.
NAB with improved infrastructure and rationalised 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. In order to ensure uniformity and standardisation, the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for investigation officers (IOs) in vogue were reviewed and revised after a gap of 10 years in order to benefit from the 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 the work but also ensure that no single individual can influence the proceedings.