UN convention: E-governance key to check corruption: NAB chief

Tells UN forum that ICT use digitises connection between officials, people

ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry has said that e-governance is an important step to check corruption to digitise connection between public officials and communities, leading to accountable and inclusive decision making.

An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based Monitoring and Evaluation System (MES) in NAB has been introduced to automate all functions of operations division, he said while addressing the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) on Prevention of Corruption at Vienna, Austria, according to a message received the other day.

He said now complaint verification, inquiry, investigation and filing of reference have been automated as software has in-built Executive Dash Board (EDB) functions which reflect day-to-day work right up to field level.

These efforts have been duly acknowledged by international community and Pakistan’s Global Ranking in ICT over the years have improved as per world economic forum report published in year 2015 which was in 2013 at 105th position, in 2014 at 111th position and in 2015 at 97th position, he said at the international convention.

The NAB chairman told the UN forum that corruption not only undermines development of any country but also deprives people of their due rights and considering these facts, NAB was established as Pakistan’s apex anti-corruption institution with responsibility of elimination of corruption through a holistic approach of awareness, prevention and enforcement.

Qamar Zaman said the government has introduced IT to bring transparency and minimise the chances of corruption and corrupt practices in government departments’ employment and procurement.

The chairman of NAB said the bureau was essentially a complaint driven organisation which was established to eradicate corruption and chalked out a comprehensive operational methodology for proceeding of cases, inquiry and investigation.

NAB’s investigation officers strictly follow Code of Conduct and Zero Tolerance Policy on basis of evidence as per law. He told the UIN forum that NAB has recovered Rs277.909 billion since its inception and received 3,21,318 complaints which were all disposed of according to law.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 25^th, 2016.