March 16, 2016
News
NAB has recovered Rs 266.544 billion since its inception
ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has chalked out a comprehensive National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) for the eradication of corruption and corrupt practices throughout the country.
The agency has prosecuted the corrupt and recovered Rs 266.544 billion since its inception, a press release issued on Tuesday said. The numbers of applications it received in 2014 were 40,077, which is double the number of complaints, 19,900, received in 2013. It completed 585 inquiries during the year 2014 as compared to 243 during 2013. Similarly, as many as 188 investigations were concluded in 2014 as compared to 129 in 2013. In 2014, NAB filed 208 references as compared to 135 during 2013.
It is in this context that PILDAT in its report has rated NAB’s performance at 42%, based on public survey.
This compares quite favourably to 29% public confidence in police and 26% in government officers. The rate of success of NAB’s prosecution work in all courts is approximately 75%. 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.
To create awareness against the ill effects of corruption among the youth of Pakistan, NAB in collaboration with Higher Education Commission (HEC) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU). Over 10, 000 Character Building Societies (CBSs) have been established by NAB in universities and colleges to create awareness against corruption as youths are considered a vanguard in this fight. NAB has filed 12 references in the Rs 22 billion Modarba scam and recovered Rs 2.50 billion besides properties and vehicles. It has so arrested 34 accused persons in this case and filed 10 references in rental power project cases in the respective accountability courts.
On the directions of NAB chairman, a standard operating procedure (SOP) has been devised to rationalise 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 standardisation, the 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. 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) are 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”.
The annual performance of all NAB’s Regional Bureaus under Quantified Grading System has been evaluated during January and February 2016. NAB has established Integrity Management Cell in its headquarters. NAB has also established Internal Accountability Mechanism in order to encourage the culture of adherence to rules and SOPs and creating deterrence against indulging in violations and to weed out such elements that for reasons of inefficiency, misconduct, malpractice and violation of laid down SOPs/Rules bring a bad name to the organisation.
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. NAB has decided to give priority to corruption cases i.e.; normal cases from Rs 100-200 million, Complex Cases from Rs 500-1,000 million and Mega Cases Rs 1,000 million and above for mega cases.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk