Oct 27 , 2015
News
NAB approves internal accountability mechanism
Investigation agency to take stern action against officials for inefficiency, misconduct, malpractice and violation of rules
APPISLAMABAD – National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry has said that the combined investigation teams and heview of the standard operating procedures have made the organisation relevant to current times with considerable improvement in quality of output.
He said that the measures taken by the NAB management such as the teams, clearly defined job descriptions, rational timelines for completing inquiries and investigations, capacity building trainings tailored around specific job requirements and rationalisation of workload has started showing results.
He was chairing an annual two-day Director Generals’ Conference which was attended by deputy chairman, prosecutor general accountability and all regional director generals. In his opening remarks, the chairman said after a thorough and comprehensive analysis ofdefects and deficiencies in the structure and operations of the organisation, a reform and restructuring programme was put in place.
He appreciated field formation on having achieved more than 92 per cent disposal of these cases which was made possible through the dedicated and tireless efforts of entire workforce at all levels for which they deserve unqualified appreciation. He said that moving with the tide of time, NAB has developed an indigenous monitoring and evaluation system which will help ininstitutionalising the support and supervision at different levels of management.
The NAB director general gave a detailed briefing on newly-established monitoring and evaluation system, 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 the regional board meetings and the executive board meetings.
In his briefing, a senior member of the Chairman’s Inspection and Monitoring Team informed the meeting that a standard operating procedure has already been devised to rationalise 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 standard operating procedure in vogue were revised after a gap of 10 years to make these responsive to needs of changed economic, social and technological realities along with goals and targets for smooth conduct of operational activities in accordance with law and to bring further improvements in the performance of regional bureaus.
The conference deliberated all the procedures in detail during the 20th conference and approved. The conference also approved internal accountability mechanism which has been devised with in NAB with a view to weed out such elements that for reasons of inefficiency, misconduct, malpractice and violation of laid down rules and bring a bad name to the organisation.
The NAB chairman directed senior member to issue policy guidelines to all regional bureaus for implementation and application.The conference also approved partly quantified grading system. The director general of the operation gave detailed briefing on operational methodology including effectiveness of combine investigation teams and informed that some of the cases need extension.
The conference approved extension of all pending cases which will now be completed till December 31. The chairman directed that no case would be marked as open ended. He said that NAB is considered to be now well set to perform to its capacity as most of the pendency of cases is almost over. Some of the procedures have been revised and approved. He said awareness and media campaign on against corruption are becoming more effective.
He said with continuous development of existing workforce through trainings and an enabling, consultative work environment and the induction of 110 investigation officers, currently under training at Sihala, NAB is now more than adequately equipped to perform its functions. There are no complaints about any shortage of finances or deficiencies in terms of physical infrastructure and logistic support, he said. “This is the new NAB,” he said.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk