Recovering looted money: NAB to turn focus on public swindling cases

Bureau has reviewed 128 post-tender contracts amounting to Rs51.48 billion.

LAHORE:

The head of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday ordered investigators to recover all the money that had been looted or taken away from the public through foul-play or fraudulent means.

While announcing the move NAB chief Qamar Zaman Chaudhry called for prioritising all such cases involving the public.

He was speaking at a briefing at the NAB Punjab headquarters in Lahore, a statement said on Friday.

Zaman was told that the NAB Punjab has recovered a sum of Rs26.436 billion for the national exchequer in different categories since 2006 and is the leading region of NAB as far as the recovery of dues from electricity defaulters is concerned.



The NAB chief was briefed on the high-profile cases of NICL, Pakistan Railways, Bank of Punjab, Qasar-e-Zauq, and the State Life Employees Housing Society and Double Shah scams involving cheating public at large. Chaudhry ordered giving priority to cases of public cheating and fraud.

The bureau’s spokesman Ramzan Sajid said the chairman acknowledged that in terms of conviction rates, NAB Punjab has done fairly well compared to other anti-corruption agencies, but there is always room for improvement.

Preventive measures

Character Building Societies (CBS) set up in all government institutions will play a critical role in creating awareness against corruption, he said pointing out that awareness and prevention should not be confused with investigation and prosecution.

NAB director general in Punjab, Hasnain Ahmed, and senior officers of the bureau briefing the chairman said NAB Punjab has so far set up 13,936 CBS in different districts of the province particularly in the educational institutions.



He was also informed that under the prevention regime NAB Punjab has reviewed pre-tendering process in 86 contracts amounting to Rs2.71 billion. The concerned departments have, on the basis of corrective measures suggested by NAB, issued 40 consequential corrigenda paving the way for saving of Rs1.9 billion of the national exchequer.

The bureau also reviewed 128 post-tender contracts amounting to Rs51.48 billion out of which scrutiny of 98 has been completed whereas 30 projects are under review.

NAB chairman was informed that NAB Punjab, currently, has 408 complaints under scrutiny, 278 complaint verifications, 167 inquiries, 87 investigations which make the total of ongoing cases in the region to 992.

NAB Punjab has filed 668 references out of which the accused in 229 cases have been convicted; 101 have been acquitted; while 338 are under hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2014.