Islamabad - The Director Generals Conference of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) yesterday discussed several policy issues related to reinvigoration of NAB’s work.
A three-day DGs conference started at NAB Headquarter which was chaired by Chairman NAB Qamar Zaman Chaudry. The Deputy Chairman, Prosecutor General Accountability (PGA), all DGs of NAB Regional Bureaus and Headquarter participated in the Conference and gave their suggestions on the basis of their practical experiences.
While addressing the conference, the chairman NAB said that Bureau is the apex anti-corruption organization which was established under NAO to eradicate corruption from the country. He said due to various reasons, NAB’s working got adversely affected during the previous years. In that backdrop, the year 2014 was the year of reinvigoration of NAB.
The present management of NAB initiated the process of putting NAB back on rails. He said after a thorough and comprehensive analysis of deficiencies in the structure and operations of the organization, a reform and restructuring programme was put in place which has not only entrusted a new lease of life for the organization but also infused it with a new character.
He said that the measures taken by present management of NAB such as introduction of Combined Investigation Teams (CIT), review of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) making them relevant to the current times, clearly defined Job Descriptions, rational time lines for completing inquiries and investigations, capacity building trainings tailored around specific job requirements and rationalization of workload has started showing results. An objective appraisal system – Partly Quantified Grading System – and the Internal Accountability Mechanism (IAM) has improved quality of the output considerably with fewer instances of highhandedness and unprofessional conduct. He said that the tempo and momentum generated in 2014 has been sustained uptill todate.
During the Conference, Chairman NAB reviewed performance of NAB Bureau’s and NAB Headquarter and status of implementation of the decisions taken in 20th DG conference and found that most of the decisions were implemented in letter and spirit.
Chairman NAB stressed upon the importance of the team work. He said that the Prosecution Division has been strengthened in order to evolve a strong mechanism for nabbing the corrupt. He said efforts have been made to boost up the morale of NAB officers/officials as NAB officers are now being sent on professional courses and trainings, thus leading to better efficiency, he added.
The chairman NAB said that holding of 21st DG Conference will not only provide an opportunity to all DGs to have interaction with each other but to review their last year performance and shortcomings if any which will be deliberated in detail and will help in overcoming their shortcomings in order to discharge their national duty and future course of action with firm resolve to eradicate corruption as well as to set targets for future working so that NAB Regional Bureaus may achieve their goals and targets well in time. He said that in the last DG conference, two new regions at Multan & Sukkur were deliberated and their establishment was achieved successfully.
Prosecution was also given targets and as a result of endeavours, the accountability court conviction ratio is now 77%. He said that we have decided to automate over system and computerized Monitoring and evaluation system (MES) was introduced in all regional offices. A pilot project of NAB Rawalpindi was completed. The outcome of the pilot project will be shared during the meeting. Continuous efforts are required to implement this system across NAB in order to further improve the working of NAB.