NAB to set up anti-corruption training academy

Decides to conduct refresher courses for prosecutors and investigation officers to build their capacity

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will set up an  training academy in the country in addition to conducting refresher courses for its officers to build their capacity.

These decisions were taken during a NAB directors general’s conference which concluded in Islamabad, read a statement released by the bureau on Monday.

The conference, chaired by the NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, concluded with the determination that the body would pursue corruption cases as per merit and with transparency.

The conference thoroughly deliberated the performance of all regional bureaus and NAB headquarters on operations, prosecution and awareness and prevention divisions of NAB.

It also reviewed measures taken by the incumbent management to further improve the performance and efficiency of the anti-corruption watchdog.

During the conference, it was decided to establish a state-of-the-art anti-corruption training academy of the bureau, on the pattern of the National Anti-Corruption Academy of Malaysia. The academy would enhance the abilities of NAB’s officers.

Noting that training was a continuous and systematic process for any organisation and that they were according top priority to it, the NAB chief directed the concerned division to expedite the work on the academy.

The director generals also decided to conduct refresher courses for prosecutors and investigation officers to build their capacity as per approved capacity building training plan for 2017.

During the conference, NAB’s regional bureau’s performance was evaluated per the set criteria under the Partly Quantified Grading System (PQGS) on the Operational Efficiency Index. The results were deliberated to improve the performance of officers.

Moreover, the Monitoring and Evaluation System (MES) - developed on Chaudhry’s directions - was discussed during the conference. It was decided that the MES would be implemented forthwith.

While addressing the concluding session of the conference, Chaudhry said that NAB had been established to eradicate corruption and recover looted money from the corrupt. In this regard, he said that NAB had chalked out a comprehensive operational methodology for processing complaints, verifying them, inquiries and investigations.

“NAB’s investigation officers strictly follow a code of conduct and have adopted a zero-tolerance policy on the basis of evidence as per law,” he said.

Providing a recap of their performance, he said that since 2014, when the anti-corruption watchdog was re-invigorated, a concept of ‘combined investigation team’ (CIT) was introduced where two investigation officers and a legal consultant are working together to eliminate the possibility of any single NAB officer influencing proceedings.

The NAB chief added that they had given their prosecution department targets which resulted in a conviction ratio of 76 per cent in accountability courts. Moreover, he said that NAB had recovered Rs287 billion since its inception from corrupt and deposited in the national exchequer.

Further, NAB had received 343,356 complaints which were all disposed of according to law. In this regards, he said that since its inception, the bureau had authorised 11,581 complaint verifications, 7,587 inquiries, 3m846 investigations and filed 2,808 corruption references in the respective accountability courts to proceed against the allegedly corrupt.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2017.