ISLAMABAD: Chairman National Accountability of Bureau (NAB) Qamar Zaman Chaudhry has said that eradication of corruption is top priority of NAB.
He said this while chairing a meeting to review performance of operation division at NAB Headquarter here, said a press release. NAB’s proactive Anti Corruption Strategy has started yielding positive dividends. NAB has signed MOU with China to oversee and ensure transparency in Pakistan China Economic Corridor Projects.
Qamar Zaman Chaudhry said that NAB has geared up to perform its national duty by adopting Zero Tolerance Policy to eradicate corruption from the country. He emphasized upon NAB officers to double their efforts to arrest corrupt and recover ill-gotten and looted money of innocent people from corrupt and deposit them in the national exchequer.
He said that during the tenure of the present management, NAB has recovered 45 billion rupees in only two and half years and deposited in the national exchequer which is a remarkable achievement of NAB.
He said that NAB during the last 16 years, has received about 326,694 complaints from individuals and private / public organizations.
During this period, NAB authorized 10992 complaint verification, 7303 inquiries, 3648 investigations, filed 2667 corruption references in respective accountability courts and overall conviction ratio is about 76 percent. NAB has recovered Rs285 billion from corrupt and deposited in the national exchequer, he added.
NAB’s prime focus is on cases of cheating public at large by fraudulent financial companies, bank frauds, willful bank loan defaults, misuse of authority and embezzlement of state funds by Government servants etc. He said that the figures of complaints, inquiries and investigations are almost double as compared to the same period of 2015 to 2016.
The comparative figures for the latest three years are 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.
The recent report of Transparency International also rated Pakistan in Corruption Perception Index (CPI) from 126 to 116 which is a great achievement for Pakistan due to Chairman NAB’s efforts.
The World Economic Forum and Mishal Pakistan according to Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum rated Pakistan from 126 to 122 this year which is great achievement of Pakistan due to NAB efforts.
The Chairman said that NAB has established its Forensic Science Lab (FSL) in NAB and has rationalized its workload/timelines have been prescribed for efficient, effective and expeditious disposal of cases putting a maximum limit of 10 months.
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.
This system will not only lend quality to the work but also ensure that no single individual can influence the proceedings. He said that concept of CIT has proved very successful in order to improve quality of inquiry and investigations and benefit from the experience and collective wisdom of senior officers.
The Chairman NAB has 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 ever 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 Pakistan China Economic Corridor Projects.
