National News

ISLAMABAD, Aug 6 (APP): The National Accountability Bureau
(NAB) has recovered Rs 50 billion from corrupt elements during
last three years and deposited the amount in the national exchequer.
About the overall performance of NAB during its present
regime, a NAB press statement Sunday claimed that complaints, inquiries
and investigations almost doubled as compared to the same period of
2014 to 2017.
The comparative figures for the latest two and half years were
indicative of the hard work being put in by all ranks of NAB staff
in an atmosphere of renewed energy and dynamism, where fight against
corruption is being taken as a national duty., it added.
The NAb said increase in the number of complaints also reflected
enhanced public trust in the Bureau.
NAB’s operational methodology, it said, comprised of complaint
verification, inquiry and investigation. NAB’s officers/officials
needed to follow a strict code of conduct/ standard operating procedures (SOPs) and merit according to law.
The statement said NAB under the leadership of current Chairman
Qamar Zaman had chalked out a comprehensive and proactive and holistic National Anti-Corruption Strategy of Awareness, Prevention and Enforcement in order to revamp NAB and to root out corruption from the country by
making all the public and private institutions to serve the nation with
best of its abilities on merit.
Starting from the year 2014 which can be called basically a
year of reinvigoration of NAB, it said the NAB moved with new zeal.
During the tenure of present management of NAB, the overall
convection ratio in respective accountability courts was about 76
percent which, it said, was excellent as compared any other
anti-corruption agency.
NAB has established its first Forensic Science Lab (FSL) in
Rawalpindi which has facilities of Digital Forensics, Questioned
Documents and Fingerprint Analysis. NAB has rationalized its
workload and 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 the Accountability Court.
NAB has also introduced a new System of Combine Investigation
Team (CIT) in order to benefit from the experience and collective
wisdom of senior supervisory officers, a system of CIT
comprising of Director, Additional Director, Investigation Officer
and a Senior Legal Counsel has been put in place.
“This is not only lending quality to the work but also ensuring
that no single individual can influence the official proceedings of
NAB. As per the latest report of Transparency International (TI) of
2016, Pakistan’s ranking in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI)
has improved plus 9 points and Pakistan is considered role model in
South Asian countries in its efforts against corruption,” the statement
said.
The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) in the Pakistan as per
Transparency International (TI), report was declining after 2013 due
to steps taken by the present management of NAB against the corrupt.
Besides Transparency International, the Independent National
and International watch dogs like PLIDAT and World Economic Forum
had also appreciated Pakistan’s efforts to curb corruption in
Pakistan.
NAB in collaboration with HEC signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) in 2014 and in a very short span of time
established over 45, 000 Character Building Societies (CBSs) in the
country in universities/ colleges and schools to create awareness
against corruption.
Under the leadership of Mr. Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, Chairman
NAB, it has undertaken a number of strategic initiatives aimed at
rejuvenation of the organization.
The Organogram was revisited to transform NAB into an
efficient and responsive organization. NAB has devised a
Quantifiable Grading System (QGS) to monitor the performance of all
Regions of NAB on annual basis.
From 2015, under Quantifiable Grading System (QGS) NAB is
monitoring the performance of all regional NAB’s and NAB headquarter
on annual basis in order to know the strengths and weaknesses of NAB
regional Bureaus.
NAB has also introduced Internal Accountability Mechanism
(IAM) System and till todate out of 84 officers/officials, 23
officers have been imposed major penalty which is removal from
service and 34 have been received minor penalties.
This is a record that any organization has initiated
Accountability Process within its organization at its own.
NAB has developed an effective Monitoring and Evaluation
System (MES) catering the 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 including case brief, decisions made and
list of participants attended the meeting with time & date and
setting up of an effective Monitoring and Evaluation System and
ability to analyze data in qualitative and quantitative form having
warnings and alarms system for violators.
NAB has also been engaging different Governmental and Non-
Governmental Organizations and civil society in fight against
corruption as Chairman NAB strongly believes in eradication of
corruption by adopting Zero Tolerance Policy across the country
without any fear and favor.