National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has made unprecedented recovery of Rs 150 billion in year 2019.

This was stated by Chairman NAB Javed Iqbal while chairing a meeting, here on Wednesday.

Zahir Shah, DG Operations NAB said that the accountability authority has received 51,591 complaints, of which 46,123 complaints were disposed off while the legal process on 13,299 complaints was under way.

The NAB has given approval of 1464 complaints in 2019 while the scrutiny of 1,362 complaints was completed and remaining 770 complaints were in process. The NAB has also given go-ahead to 574 inquiries and completed 658 inquiries in 2019. Similarly, 221 investigations were initiated in 2019 while 217 investigations were in progress.

In 2019, total 206 references were filed in accountability courts out of which decisions were made on 161 references; he said and added that NAB had made a record recovery of Rs 150 billion during last calendar year.

Chairman NAB was also informed that accountability authority had filed 600 references and recovered Rs 178 billion during last 27 months. Moreover, the NAB had filed 101 references in courts in 179 mega corruption cases, of which 13 inquiries and 19 investigations are in progress.

The chairman NAB while praising the performance of the NAB in 2019 directed officials to finalise inquiries and investigations under their legal purview in time; adding that the conviction ratio in accountability courts was around 70 percent due to transformation of the NAB on modern lines. Furthermore, he vowed to entertain all complaints, inquiries and investigation under legal ambit to protect the dignity of an individual. Similarly, the NAB, Karachi has recovered around Rs 1.6 billion through plea bargain during the period (January-December 2019) with the disposal of 10531 complaints.

The NAB, Karachi has filed 41 references during last six months and also made indirect recoveries of Rs 682.9 million.