Citizen friendly initiatives: NAB aims to reach out to complainants

Bureau’s chairman says organisation following zero-tolerance against corruption

ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry said that NAB is committed to rooting out corruption with an iron hand by using all its resources.

NAB has adopted a comprehensive anti-corruption strategy to catch the corrupt and bring them to justice.

The bureau follows zero tolerance policy across the board as corruption affects country just like a cancer and is not only an obstacle in the way of economic development but also causes poverty and money earned from corruption and corrupt practices concentrates in a few hands.

He said that NAB has introduced citizen friendly NAB in order to reach out to the complainants and to cater their complaints submitted to NAB against corrupt for further information regarding the status of their complaints for effectively utilising the modern technology to create better interaction with citizen.

Under Citizen Friendly NAB initiative, existing Monitoring and Evaluation System (MES) will generate a system based complaint registration acknowledgement system to share the information with complainant and Unique Identification Number (UIN).

“Starting from the year 2014 which can be called basically a year of reinvigoration of NAB, we have moved with new zeal and effort,” he said.

Through detailed introspection and analysis of organisational weaknesses, overhaul of procedures and business processes, all pillars of the organisation including operations, prosecution, human resource development and awareness and prevention have been reactivated.

NAB has established its first Forensic Science Lab (FSL) which has facilities of digital forensics, questioned documents and fingerprint analysis.

Rationalised workload

Chaudhry said that NAB has rationalised its 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.

NAB has also introduced a new system of combined investigation team (CIT) 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.

He said that the latest reports of Transparency International (TI) of 2016, Pakistan’s ranking in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) has improved plus nine points, adding that Pakistan was considering role model in South Asian countries in its efforts against corruption.

Reorganisation

He said that NAB has undertaken a number of strategic initiatives aimed at rejuvenation of the organisation. The organogram was revisited to transform NAB into an efficient and responsive organisation.

Quantifiable Grading System (QGS) monitors performance of all regions. From 2015, under QGS, the bureau was conducting annual inspection of all regions and headquarters.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2017.