NAB’s Anti Corruption Strategy widely appreciated

ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal on Monday said the bureau’s three pronged comprehensive anti-corruption strategy comprising awareness, prevention and enforcement for eradication of corruption has widely been appreciated by national and international institutions.

Chairing a meeting held to review overall performance of NAB, the chairman said World Economic Forum, Transparency International Pakistan, Global Peace Organization, Canda, PILDAT and Mishal Pakistan have appreciated NAB’s efforts against corruption.

NAB was an apex national anti-corruption organization, as per report of Gillani and Gallup survey, 59 people have shown confidence upon NAB. Pakistan is considered as a role model for SAARC countries in eradication of Corruption due to NAB’s efforts.

He said NAB is the focal organization of Pakistan under United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) which is pride for Pakistan due to NAB efforts. NAB is the only Organization in the world to which China has signed an MOU to oversee CEPC projects in Pakistan.

He said the overall conviction ratio in respected accountability courts is about 68.8 per cent. The performance of all Regional Bureau’s of NAB would be evaluated on midterm and annual basis at a given criteria under Quantified Grading System to review and further improve the performance of officers/officials of NAB as with better quantitative and qualitative improvements in Operational Efficiency Index, rationalized workload, clearly drawn job descriptions and institutional support and supervision.

He said Monitoring and Evaluation System (MES) has been developed for 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 was discussed and decided that Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) System will be implemented forthwith with the ability to analyze data in qualitative and quantitative form having warnings and alarms system for violators.

The Chairman appreciated the devoted efforts of NAB Headquarters, all regional bureaus and directed to double their efforts in eradication of corruption and to recover looted money from corrupt as NAB is determined to make Pakistan corruption free as per law.

NAB has established its own forensic science Laboratory in NAB Rawalpindi which is helping in improving the quality of investigations on a scientific basis.

NAB has recovered Rs. 487 billion from 2018 to 2020 during the tenure of present management of NAB.

There are 1,230 references under adjudication in learned Accountability Courts throughout the country and their approximately worth is of Rs. 47 billion.

NAB had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Higher Education Commission under its Awareness and Prevention Strategy in order to aware students about the ill effects of corruption at an early age. More than 50,000 character building societies have been established in Universities/Colleges in collaboration with HEC besides establishing prevention committees in order to identify and to plug loopholes in government departments.

The Chairman NAB has directed all regional bureaus of NAB to use all available resources to nab corrupt elements and arrest of proclaimed offenders and absconders as per law so that they could be brought to justice and to recover looted money and deposit in national exchequer considering this as national duty.