Better than cure: Corruption prevention committees set up in CDA office, says NAB chief

Qamar Zaman says such panels working in other departments too

ISLAMABAD: Chief of the apex accountability body on Friday said that the body is committed to eradicating corruption from the country since corruption was just like cancer.

In this regard, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry on Friday said that the body had chalked out a comprehensive anti-corruption strategy and was adopting a zero tolerance policy.

While chairing a meeting to review progress of the authority at NAB headquarters, Chaudhry said that the bureau was committed to eradicating corruption from the country and hoped that joint efforts of all stakeholders could check corruption and corrupt practices.

He added that for this purpose the bureau had set up prevention committees in the office of the Capital Development Authority (CDA).

Moreover, these committees had also been set up in Ministry of Religious Affairs, Agriculture and National Food security, National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, Prevention Committee on FBR, Prevention Committee on PID and Prevention Committees constituted in provinces relating to health, education, revenue and housing, cooperatives.

Chaudhry said that NAB’s prevention committee in the religious affairs ministry had forwarded its recommendations to ministry officials who had considered by recommendations aggressively.

The NAB chief added that over the last 16 years, NAB had received around 326,694 complaints from individuals and organisations, both public and private.

During this period NAB had authorised 10,992 complaint verifications, 7,303 inquiries, 3,648 investigations, filed 2,667 corruption references in respective accountability courts with an overall conviction ratio at about 76 per cent.

NAB’s prime focus, Chaudhry said, was on cases of cheating public at large through fraudulent financial companies, bank frauds, and willful loan defaults, misuse of authority and embezzlement of state funds by government servants.

He highlighted that NAB had managed to recover ill-gotten money worth Rs285 billion.

He said that the figures of complaints, inquiries and investigations had almost doubled from 2015 to 2016. Chaudhry said that this increase in complaints with the bureau also reflected the enhanced public trust in the bureau.

The NAB chairman said that they were creating awareness against the ill effects of corruption among the youth of Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2017.