NAB’s efforts brought an improvement in Pak CPI ranking, says chairman

‘Other anti-corruption institutions also deserve credit of bringing down corruption’

ISLAMABAD: Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Qamar Zaman Chaudhry said on Wednesday that Pakistan’s improvement in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) ranking proves that efforts made by the NAB and other anti-corruption institutions are showing positive results.

“The CPI 2015 ranking of Pakistan in Transparency International (TI) report has improved to 117 from 126 which would further strengthen our resolve as a nation against corruption and corrupt practices,” he said while commenting on the report of the Transparency International, according to which Pakistan’s ranking in the CPI 2014 has improved.The NAB chairman said the NAB has a firm commitment to eradicate corruption from the country across the board.

He said it is quite satisfactory and a great achievement for the Bureau that Pakistan positively improved nine points in the CPI, which is a result of hard work of the NAB employees and other relevant institutions.

He elaborated that Pakistan has been given an improved position in the CPI as compared to other Saarc countries and added that except Pakistan, the ranking of other countries in the region remained the same or dropped during the period.

Detailing the steps and vigour behind this positive development, Qamar Zaman Chaudhry said corruption is an insidious plague that has a wide range of corrosive effects on societies. “It undermines development and rule of law,” he said.

He said awareness and prevention of corruption is a challenging task and as a Pakistani, it is our moral duty to play an active role for eradication of corruption from the country.

Considering these facts, he said the NAB had chalked out a comprehensive National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) for eradication of corruption and corrupt practices and recovered approximately Rs265.977 billion since its inception and deposited in the national exchequer, which is a great achievement. “The allocation to NAB for its operational work is Rs10.111 billion since its inception which is only 3.7 percent of the recoveries made by the NAB,” he added.

He said the NAB had received 300,009 complaints since its inception and authorised 6,662 and 3,391 investigations. “As regards corruption references in respective Accountability Courts, the NAB has filed 2,451 corruption references since its inception,” he added. The NAB chairman said increase in the number of complaints also reflects enhanced public trusted in the Bureau.

He said to create an awareness against the ill effects of corruption among the youth, the NAB, in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission (HEC), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as over 10,000 character building societies (CBSs) have been established in universities, colleges and schools.

He especially mentioned the standard operating procedure (SOP) which have been devised to rationalise the workload while timelines have 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.

Qamar Zaman Chaudhry said in order to ensure uniformity and standardisation, the SOPs in vogue were revised after a gap of 10 years to make these responsive to needs of changed economic, social and technological realities along with goals and targets for smooth conduct of operational activities in accordance with law and to bring further improvements in the performance of NAB regional bureaus.

The NAB chairman further elaborated that a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system had been developed, catering to 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. “A centralised monitoring mechanism, he said, has also been devised to ensure compliance with the SOP’s and prescribed timelines,” he added.

He said the Bureau has introduced the concept of combined investigation team (CIT) and internal accountability mechanism (IAM) while the NAB and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) have decided to create a joint task force to work expeditiously on corruption cases referred by the SECP to the NAB. He said the Bureau has established its first forensic science lab.

He said the Bureau has proposed Whistle Blowing Protection Act which is imperative for the country under the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).  The prime minister has approved the Whistle Blower Protection Bill which will now be sent to the cabinet for further necessary action.

The chairman said under its awareness and prevention campaign, the NAB has been engaging different governmental and non-governmental organisations and civil society in the fight against corruption and initiated “Say No to Corruption” drive. Qamar Zaman said he believes in zero tolerance policy against corruption and expressed the hope that joint efforts of all the stakeholders against this menace would prove successful in making Pakistan a corruption-free country.