NAB is committed to eradicate corruption across the board: DG NAB Qamar Zaman Ch

Lahore: Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, Chairman NAB said that NAB is committed to eradicate corruption by using all its resources across the board by adopting Zero Tolerance Policy throughout the country.

NAB had chalked out an effective and comprehensive National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) for eradication of corruption and corrupt practices which has started yielding dividends.

NAB’s National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) for eradication of corruption will continue during 2016. He said this while chairing a meeting to review performance of NAB at NAB Headquarter.

He said it is encouraging 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 intend to work closely with Planning Commission to achieve the goals set in the 11th five years plan.
He said that NAB has prosecuted corrupts and has recovered Rs. 266.544 billion since its inception and deposited in the national exchequer which is a record achievement. He said that NAB has been rejuvenated / reinvigorated and various initiatives have been taken to further improve the performance of NAB. It is in this context that PILDAT in its report has rated NAB’s performance at 42% based on public survey.

This compares quite favorably to 29% public confidence in Police and 26% in Government officers working. The rate of success of NAB’s prosecution work in all courts is approximately 70%. The recent reports of Transparency International also rated Pakistan in Corruption Perception Index (CPI) from 126 to 117 which is a great achievement for Pakistan due to NAB’s efforts.

He said that a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has already been devised to rationalize the workload and timelines have been prescribed for efficient, effective and expeditious disposal of cases putting a maximum limit of 10 months- from complaint verification-to-inquiry-to-investigation and finally to a reference in the Accountability Court.

In order to ensure uniformity and standardization, the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for investigation officers (IOs) in vogue were reviewed and revised after a gap of 10 years in order to benefit from the experience and collective wisdom of senior supervisory officers, a system of CIT comprising of Director, Additional Director, Investigation Officer and a Senior Legal Counsel has been put in place.

This will not only lend quality to the work but also ensure that no single individual can influence the proceedings. The implementation of enforcement measures and prosecution matters is being monitored in NAB through daily, weekly and monthly reports and inspections.

He said that last year NAB has devised a comprehensive Quantified Grading System in NAB in order to review annual performance of NAB’s Regional Bureaus and further improve the performance of Officers/Officials of NAB.

Under this grading system, NAB Regional Bureau’s performance (Operational Efficiency Index (OEI) is being  evaluated at a given criteria 80% will be considered “Outstanding/Excellent”, marks between 60% to 79% will be considered as “Very Good”, marks between 40% to 49% will be considered as “Good”, while marks less than 40% will be considered as “Below Average”.

He said that annual performance of NAB’s Regional Bureaus NAB by CI&MT team on the basis of Quantified Grading System has been completed which will helped in improving NAB’s further performance.
He said that NAB has established its first Forensic Science LAB (FSL) in NAB Rawalpindi/Islamabad Regional Bureau. The Forensic Science LAB has facilities of Digital Forensics, Questioned Documents and Fingerprint Analysis.

He said NAB has developed Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) System 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, decisions made and list of participants attended the meeting with time & date and setting up of an effective Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) System and ability to analyze data in qualitative and quantitative form having warnings and alarms system for violators.

He said that the MES System of NAB will help in further improvement and transparency in the working of NAB as NAB is Pakistan’s apex national anti-corruption organization. He directed all officers/officials of NAB to work hard and conduct all complaint verifications, inquiries and investigation on merit and arrest all proclaimed offenders and absconders so that they should brought to justice.