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Islamabad, December 08, 2015 (PPI-OT): Chairman, National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Qamar Zaman Chaudry on Monday said the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) in the organization has started showing results with number of received complaints reached 28,844 so far this year.
The number of received complaints was 19,997 last year and increase reflects enhanced public trusted in the Bureau, he said this in an exclusive interview with APP here. The Chairman said of the total received complaints, 11774 were verified, 5,723 moved to inquiry stage while 2,432 complaints were authorized for investigation.
So far 1131 references have been prepared and filed in respective Accountability Courts this year, he said. He mentioned World Anti Corruption Day to be observed on December 9 which is a Day when UN’s member states make resolve to put in place comprehensive measures to eradicate corruption and create awareness to prevent the menace.
Listing the measures taken so far during his tenure, he said these are introduction of Combined Investigation Teams (CIT), review of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) – making them relevant to current times, clearly defined Job Descriptions, rational timelines for completing investigations, capacity building tailored around specific job requirements and rationalization of workload have started showing positive results.
He said Partly Quantified Grading System and Internal Accountability Mechanism (IAM) have improved quality of the working in NAB. The Chairman said a mechanism has been developed where all regional offices of NAB are updating minutes by minutes to headquarters through an Intranet System about details of received complaints and also updates on court cases.
He also briefed about newly established Monitoring and Evaluation System (MES) having salient features of maintenance of data at each stage including complaint entry, complaint verification, inquiry, investigation, prosecution stage and record preservation.
He said Internal Accountability Mechanism has been devised in NAB with a view to weed out such elements that bring a bad name to the organisation and added action was also taken due to inefficiency against employees.
The Chairman said NAB with improved infrastructure and rationalized workload has prescribed timelines for efficient, effective and expeditious disposal of case putting a maximum limit of 10 months – from complaint verification-to-inquiry-to investigation and finally to a reference in Accountability Court. This include two months for complaint verification, four months for inquiry and four months for investigation.
Replying to a question, the Chairman said a comprehensive National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) has been chalked out it would not be out of place to mention that Bureau has prosecuted the corrupt, irrespective of their status and social standing.
NAB has so far recovered an amount of over Rs. 265.12 billion of looted public money besides jail terms and other punishments to convicts. The Chairman also mentioned an agreement with Higher Education Commission (HEC) and some varsities to carry out joint awareness efforts against elimination of corruption.
He said support from all segments of society, particularly the educational institutions is imperative to make it effective at mass-scale, adding that NAB had initiated the programme to form Character Building Societies to eliminate the corruption at grassroots level, therefore about 12,000 CBS societies were established in which 150,000 members have been registered.
He said NAB has established its first Forensic Science LAB (FSL) which started work and has facilities of Digital Forensics, Questioned Documents and Fingerprint Analysis. He said awareness and media campaign on “Say No to Corruption” was very effective and showing positive results.
Answering another question, the Chairman said NAB would also ink an agreement with China and Malaysia with regard to curb corruption. The Bureau also plans to hold a first SAARC Conference on anti-corruption in Islamabad. He said a lot more need to be done to bring improvement in our strategy and make Pakistan a corruption free country.
For more information, contact:
National Accountability Bureau (NAB)
Attaturk Avenue G-5/2, Islamabad, Pakistan
Tel: +92-51-111-NAB-NAB (111-622-622)
Fax: +92-51-9214503
Email: chairman@nab.gov.pk, infonab@nab.gov.pk
Website: www.nab.gov.pk