ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhary Wednesday said that the Bureau has adopted enforcement-based approach in its fight against corruption and is fully geared up to get rid of this menace without any fear or favour.
The NAB chief said this while addressing an event held here Wednesday at Aiwan-e-Sadr (President House) to commemorate International Anti-Corruption Day. Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Pervaiz Rasheed was also present. The Anti-Corruption Day on December 9 every year commemorates signing of United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).
The event was organized in collaboration with Asian Development Bank, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and PILDAT.
Expressing special gratitude, the Chairman said the President has indeed championed the fight against corruption and led the anti-corruption campaign through his words and deeds. Starting with the year 2014 which can be called basically a year of reinvigoration, he said “We have moved with new zeal and effort and introduced concept of Combined Investigation Team (CIT) where at least two investigation officers as well as a rep of prosecution are working as a team for transparent and unbiased investigation.”
“Corruption is endemic to mankind since the beginning of time. Since greed is inherent in the nature of man, if punitive action is not initiated at the outset, greed obviously flows towards an increase in corruption. We inherited the twin menace of corruption and greed at the time of independence,” he said.
Keeping up the momentum in the ongoing year i.e. 2015, he said many new initiatives were undertaken which have started yielding results, adding that to clear backlog of old cases, which in some instances were pending since inception, timelines have been fixed for each stage of Enforcement work i.e. a CV will be completed in 2 months, Inquiry in 4 months and Investigation in 4 months.
He said to eliminate element of discretion an IT based Monitoring & Evolution System (MES) has been introduced. Through this online system the performance evaluation at all levels is being monitored. On a TV screen called “Dash-board” all levels of field and supervisory staff are interlinked, he said.
Qamar said the comparative figures of these two years with previous ones have shown a marked increase in terms of receipt of complaints, conversion into CVs, up-gradation into inquiries, further processing in shape of investigation and the number of references filed in courts of law.
He said National Strategy to fight corruption has started yielding results and added improvement of Pakistan in Corruption Perception Index (CPI) ratings is a clear indication. It is encouraging for NAB that for the first time Anti-Corruption has been made a part of development agenda in Pakistan in the context of governance.
The Planning Commission of Pakistan has included a chapter devoted to issues of corruption in the 11th Five year plan and we are working closely with Planning Commission in this respect. “NAB is embarked on course to eradicate the scourge of corruption. It is a collective social responsibility. The dream of a corruption free society will remain elusive unless we the citizens of Pakistan reduce our corruption tolerance threshold, elect honest public representatives and above all generate a strong political will to wipe out corruption from the sacred soil of our country,” he added.
He said the Bureau was determined to performing its duties with absolute professionalism and unimpeachable integrity with our motto “Say no to Corruption.”
