NAB recovers Rs.45bn during three years: Chairman

ISLAMABAD: Chairman NAB Qamar Zaman Chaudhry Sunday said the department had recovered Rs.45 billion during last three years in corruption cases, which was a record achievement.

He said NAB's conviction ratio in respective accountability courts is about 76 percent which is a remarkable achievement in investigation of white collar crimes in the world, said a press release issued here.

NAB has adopted zero tolerance policy across the board as corruption is one of the major hurdle in the progress and prosperity of Pakistan which subsides merit and depriving deserving persons of their due right.

Chairman NAB said that the hard work being put in by NAB officers is commendable. The figures of complaints, inquiries and investigations are almost double as compared to the same period of 2014, 2015 to 2016.

The comparative figures for the latest three years are indicative of the hard work and commitment of all ranks of NAB staff in an atmosphere of renewed energy and dynamism, where fight against corruption is being taken as a national duty. Increase in the number of complaints also reflects enhanced public trusted in the NAB, he said.

He said the performance of NAB is being appreciated by all reputed national and international independent organizations which has given more courage and devotion to NAB officers to perform their national duty by doubling their efforts.

He said that the quality of inquiry and investigation of NAB has been improved due to establishment of NAB's first Forensic Science Lab (FSL) in Islamabad which has facilities of Digital Forensics, Questioned Documents and Fingerprint Analysis.

He said NAB in collaboration with Higher Education Commission (HEC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Over 45,000 Character Building Societies (CBSs) have been established with the help of NAB and HEC in the country in universities/colleges and schools to create awareness against corruption as youths are considered a vanguard in this fight.

"We have set target for 2017 that the number of Character Building Societies (CBS) should reach at least at 50,000 in order to make students aware about the ill effects of corruption so that more and more students/youth should be involved in NAB's nationwide campaign in order to make student/youth aware at an early age", he added.

He said that the present management initiated a dialogue of the anti-corruption authorities of the SAARC countries with a proposal to set up a SAARC Anti-Corruption Forum.

Chaudhry said NAB hosted the first meeting of its kind in Islamabad where the heads of SAARC anti-corruption authorities agreed to the creation of the proposed SAARC Anti-corruption Forum.

This was a recognition of NAB's excellent work during the tenure of present management.

He said NAB is the only organization in the world with whom China has signed a MoU to streamline our cooperation in the field of anti-corruption and oversee projects to be undertaken under CPEC.

He said that signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Pakistan and China is specially significant in the backdrop of increasing economic and trade cooperation between Pakistan and China with the resolve by both the Governments to work in a fair, impartial and corruption free environment in order to share their experiences to eradicate corruption.

He said that NAB has established Internal Accountability Mechanism (IAM) and had initiated disciplinary proceedings against 83 officials of NAB during the last two and half years, out of which 61 cases have been finalized with 23 major penalties, 34 minor penalties and 4 exonerated.

He said that NAB is committed to eradicate corruption from Pakistan. NAB hopes that joint efforts of all stakeholders can collaborate to check corruption before happening with the help of all stakeholders.