NAB chief directs mid-term review of regional bureaus

Says inspection must be according to the prescribed criteria to determine the operational efficiency of bureaus

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry has directed officials to conduct a mid-term review of all regional bureaus.

This was instructed in a meeting to review progress and performance of the bureau and implementation of decisions at the NAB headquarters in Islamabad, read a statement released by the anti-corruption watchdog on Monday.

He added that the annual inspection of all regional bureaus of NAB for 2016 had been conducted from January to February 2017. Directing the Inspection and Monitoring Team (I&MT) to conduct a mid-term review of all bureaus in July, he noted that they must be according to the prescribed criteria to determine the operational efficiency of bureaus in quantitative and qualitative terms in line with clearly drawn job descriptions.

Chaudhry said that NAB has filed over 100 corruption references against people for alleged corruption and put them behind bars in line with its enforcement strategy.

Moreover, the bureau has recovered Rs45 billion during the past three years.

Addressing the meeting, the NAB chief said they had chalked out a comprehensive and proactive anti-corruption strategy. He directed NAB officers to redouble their efforts in implementing new initiatives.

In this regard, Chaudhry emphasised NAB’s investigation officers strictly follow the code of conduct as per law.

Terming 2014 as the year of re-invigoration, he said NAB had recovered Rs287 billion from the corrupt since its inception, Rs45 million of which was recovered in the past year.

Chaudhry added that with improved infrastructure and rationalised workload, the bureau had prescribed an efficient, effective and expeditious process of disposing of white collar crimes cases, putting a maximum limit of 10 months for cases – much less than other anti-corruption organisations in the country.

He added that NAB had established a state-of-the-art Forensic Science Lab in Islamabad which has facilities for digital forensics, questioned documents and fingerprint analysis. The NAB chairman said that they were prioritising training of their officer and prosecutors, noting that training was a continuous process to ensure an efficient workforce capable of delivering assigned tasks timely.

He added that NAB had established its own indigenous and effective monitoring and evaluation system (MES) which has salient features such as maintenance of data at each stage including complaint entry, complaint verification, inquiry, investigation, prosecution stage and record preservation of regional board meeting and executive board meeting data.

Chaudhry added that after the successful completion of a pilot project in NAB’s Rawalpindi bureau, MES had been introduced in the headquarters and at all regional bureaus to monitor real-time performance of individuals as well as the bureau.

The chairman appreciated devoted efforts of all concerned and directed officers to conduct complaint verifications, inquiries and investigation strictly in accordance with rules and regulation on merit as NAB was determined to make Pakistan corruption-free.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4^th, 2017.