Islamabad -Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, has said that eradication of corruption is the top priority of NAB.
He said NAB’s proactive Anti-Corruption Strategy remained successful in nabbing the corrupt. “NAB has signed MOU with China to oversee and ensure transparency in CPEC Projects.” NAB has geared up to perform its national duty by adopting zero-tolerance policy across the board to eradicate corruption from the country, he said.”
He said that NAB during the tenure of present management, has filed corruption references in respective accountability courts against corrupt persons and recovered Rs 45 billion in only two and half years which is a remarkable achievement of NAB.
He said that NAB during the last 16 years has received about 3, 38,499 complaints from individuals and private/public organizations which all were processed as per law. During this period, NAB authorized 11,442 complaint verifications, 7528 inquiries, 3810 investigations, filed 2761 corruption references in respective accountability courts and overall conviction ratio is about 76 per cent. NAB has recovered Rs 287.415 billion from corrupt and deposited in the national exchequer.
He said that NAB is national apex anti-corruption agency which has been assigned to eradicate corruption from the country. During the tenure of present management, NAB’s regional offices increased from five to eight in order to address peoples complaints related to corruption. In order to overcome shortage of staff, NAB has recruited through NTS 104 officers from BS-16 to BS-18 on merit and not a single appointment is challenged by any candidate at any legal forum which shows merit and transparency ensured by the present management of NAB. Moreover, NAB has promoted 137 officers on merit and seniority during the tenure of present management. NAB has established Internal Accountability System within NAB to weed out inefficient officers. NAB initiated action against 83 officers. Out of 83 officers, 34 officers were given minor penalties while 23 officers were dismissed from service on the basis of misconduct etc.
He said that NAB has established Forensic Science LAB in NAB Rawalpindi which is equipped with state of the art facilitates and now NAB officers are in better position to investigate cases with more solid evidence. NAB is the only agency which has fixed timeline for disposal of cases especially white collar crimes cases in 10 months besides introducing the concept of combine investigation team (CIT) in order to have solid base of inquiry/investigation of the case on the basis of collective wisdom. These measures taken by the present management of NAB proved very successful in enhancing the performance of NAB officers/officials.
Due to continued efforts of NAB, the independent national and international organizations like PILDAT, Transparency International, World Economic Forum and Mishal Pakistan appreciated NAB’s performance which is great achievement of Pakistan due to NAB efforts.
He said that Pakistan has become first Chairman of SAARC Anti-Corruption forum for collaborative efforts for eradication of corruption on the basis of best practices. NAB is role model for SAARC Countries as NAB was selected first Chairman of SAARC Anti Corruption Forum. NAB has signed MOU with China in order to eradicate corruption. Under this MOU, Pakistan and China will oversee and ensure transparency in CPEC Projects. He said that NAB has constituted prevention committees in federal government/provincial government departments in order to identify/suggest ways and means to plug loopholes and measures for improvement/strengthening regulatory mechanism of federal and provincial governments for transparency, meritocracy, fair play and compliance of relevant laws/rules.
NAB’s Prevention Committees contributed very well and remained successful in plugging loopholes and irregularities in different department due to their meaningful interaction and recommendations.