Anti-Corruption Establishment recovers Rs1.03b in 2020

PESHAWAR: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recovered Rs1.03 billion from the corrupt officials during the year 2020, officials said on Thursday.

According to the statistics of the department, a total of 39 cases were registered against 111 officials for corrupt practices during the last 12 months. As many as 62 of the accused were arrested while 49 are still at large.

“The recovery of cash as well as properties by the Anti-Corruption Establishment during 2020 is one of the biggest over the years. The department recovered Rs46,351,700 in cash along with properties worth Rs962,665,090 during the last 12 months,” Usman Zaman, director ACE, told The News.

He added that another Rs21,278,320 were recovered in the shape of rectification of work. “The total recovery was Rs1030,295,110 which is one of the highest in many years,” said Usman Zaman.

The KP ACE is an anti-corruption body going after the government officials and others involved in corrupt practices.

Like other parts of the country, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is tasked with tracking the big fish while ACE conducts inquiries and lodges cases against junior officials of various government departments.

There are a number of departments that have developed internal accountability systems to tackle the corrupt practices that need to be followed by other departments at the provincial and district level. “The ACE received 1,528 complaints during the year while 1,676 were pending already. Out of these, 344 were sent to departments, 476 were converted into open inquiries and 898 were filed,” said assistant director ACE Raza Mohammad.

He said a total of 2,564 inquiries were open with the ACE to go after the corrupt elements within different departments.

Most of the cases are against officials of the revenue department, education, health and communication and works.

According to the official data, 249 cases are under trial in various courts after FIRs were lodged against the corrupt officials.

Among those charged during the year 2020 included patwaris, girdawars, assistant directors of the Local Government Department, Auqaf Department, officials of Public Health Engineering and junior officials of education department.

An official informed that a number of reforms were made in the ACE in recent years while more are in the pipeline to further improve its performance to effectively go after the corrupt.