‘Rising number of complaints reflect public trust’

Character building societies set up in colleges to make youth aware of ill effects of corruption

With the number of complaints, inquiries and investigations doubling from 2014 to 2017 over a corresponding period, it shows a rising level of public trust in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

This was stated by NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry while chairing a meeting to review NAB’s proactive anti-corruption strategy, a statement released on Thursday said.

He added that NAB has adopted a zero tolerance policy and a proactive approach to curbing corruption and corrupt practices in the country.

The increase in the number of complaints, he said, also reflects enhanced public trusted in the NAB. The PILDAT in its report, he added, noted that 42 per cent of people trust NAB, against 30 per cent for police and 29 per cent for government officials.

A recent report from Transparency International also improved Pakistan’s rating in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) from 126 to 117. The Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum also improved Pakistan’s rating from 126 to 122 this year.

To create awareness of the ill effects of corruption among the youth, the anti-corruption watchdog had collaborated with the Higher Education Commission (HEC), signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create over 42,000 Character Building Societies (CBSs) in universities, colleges and schools over the past year.

The purpose was to create awareness against corruption since youths are considered to be a vanguard in this fight.

He said that NAB had also developed an effective Monitoring and Evaluation System (MES) to cater to the needs of all concerned.

The system maintains data at each stage including complaint entry, complaint verification, inquiry, investigation, prosecution stage and record preservation of regional board meetings and executive board meetings including case brief, decisions made and list of participants attended the meeting with time and date and setting up of an effective MES and ability to analyze data in qualitative and quantitative form having warnings and alarms system for violators.

A pilot project was completed in NAB Rawalpindi, Chaudhry said, adding that the outcome of the pilot project was being shared with all regional bureaus with directions to replicate the system for effective monitoring and evaluation.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 23^rd, 2017.