ISLAMABAD - Smelling a rat, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has sought five-year record from the Employees Old Age Benefit Institute (EOBI) about its investment and purchases in the real estate sector.
NAB spokesman, Zafar Iqbal Khan, Thursday said the Bureau had identified that EOBI's operating procedures of payment and maintenance of rest houses were in contravention of its law i.e. Employees Old-Age Benefit Act. It was also found that cross-verification system of EOBI in purchase of real estate was opaque and rigid where sole reliance was made on an evaluator, which was likely to result in mis-procurement causing loss to national exchequer, he further said. "NAB has directed EOBI to provide details of last five years' real-estate purchases and record of processes on or before March 04, 2013," the spokesman said.
In this regard, NAB authorities also called for a briefing on February 19 that was given by Director General Employees Old Age Benefit Institute (EOBI). Briefing was mainly on EOBI's investment plans and schemes.
The NAB has advised the EOBI to devise the system for cross-verification to check exact market values and relevant market dynamics before venturing into real estate purchases.
The NAB claims that under its 'Awareness and Prevention Framework', the Bureau has accelerated its efforts in its fight against corruption. Prevention of corruption, a neglected aspect of NAB anti-corruption endeavours, has been given priority under the present chairman with a view to adopt a three pronged approach of awareness, prevention and enforcement to eliminate corruption from our society, giving priority to prevention. Chairman NAB accordingly empowered the 'Awareness and Prevention Division'; which remains in constant liaison with various agencies under Federal and provincial set-ups especially the regulators for improvement in their existing framework to make them more effective, transparent and contributive to anti-corruption drive.