ACE riddled with dishonest, disinterested officials: DG

DG ACE explicitly expressed his dissatisfaction with ‘work-shirking, inexperienced and unmotivated’ officials at the ACE.

LAHORE: Kazim Ali Malik, director general (DG) of the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE), has come out and explicitly expressed his dissatisfaction with ‘work-shirking, inexperienced and unmotivated’ officials at the ACE.

The retired district and sessions judge, made the remark following a review meeting of regional directors at his chamber on Thursday. Assigned with the task of improving the performance and dealing with departmental corruption nine months ago, Malik has discovered that - from directors to investigation officers, the men were just ‘lazy and disinterested’.

The DG says he has been forced to surrender some of the officers to their parent departments.

Kazim Malik was re-employed by the Punjab government in the fall of 2009, a high-profile appointment, on a contractual basis.

Since then, he claims to have tried everything from motivational workshops, capacity building lectures and issuing guidelines/instructions to improve operations and address the inhibiting backlog of complaints.

The DG has finally concluded that relinquishing the officials is his only chance at improvement.

“The posting of several inefficient and dishonest officials to the anti-corruption unit is a bigger problem itself than tackling corruption in line departments. These men have bad reputations and worse attitudes.

They were transferred to the ACE mostly to save them from departmental inquiries and subsequent action. Most of them had been charged with corruption, embezzlement and misuse of authority”, said Kazim Malik.

“These men have been surrendered since the ACE can no longer serve as a safe haven for them and shelter them from their past.

I am optimistic that the ACE will now perform its function and become a strong deterrent for corrupt officials”, he added. On the issue of the increasing number of proclaimed offenders, he stated that he had proposed to the police department to provide the ACE with a squad for sixty days to arrest all proclaimed offenders and hand them to the police.

He regretted that the suggestion was turned down by the inspector general of police. Instead the Anti-Corruption Establishment had to submit a detailed list of proclaimed offenders to the police. He revealed that 27 names on the list were those of functioning police officials.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2010.