Bureau to have new set of SOPs for court cases; NAB Chief directs adoption of proactive approach. PHOTO: FILE
LAHORE:
The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) are all set to join hands in the fight against corruption.
On Wednesday, a two member delegation of UNODC headed by Mr Collie Brown, Advisor for Criminal Justice, called on Chairman NAB Qamar Zaman Chaudhry at NAB Headquarters and discussed avenues of cooperation ranging from capacity building of investigators and prosecutors, dissemination of Awareness and Prevention regime of NAB, and enhancing international cooperation in the fight against corruption.
During the meeting, chairman NAB appreciated the country programme of UNODC and directed relevant wings of the bureau to plan activities in collaboration with UNODC; including a national dialogue on anti-corruption, training need assessment leading to practical training, possible assistance in areas of prevention and cooperation for United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) review mechanism and provision of latest technology to help boost capacity in financial investigations.
It was agreed that time targeted and result oriented activities will be undertaken under the Joint ownership of NAB and UNODC.
New SOPs
Meanwhile, Chairman NAB Qamar Zaman Chaudhry has directed NAB director generals and prosecutor generals at all regional NAB offices to adopt a more proactive approach in pursuing corruption cases in courts at various levels with the aim of achieving concrete results.
Chairing a presentation of a special committee constituted to highlight current weaknesses in prosecution of corruption cases and areas for improvement, the chairman directed NAB headquarters to prepare a set of new Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) keeping in view the recommendations of the special committee.
The new SOPs will be circulated across all NAB regional offices to ensure harmony and uniformity in NAB’s work. The chairman also directed all regions to fix time limit and targets for prosecutors and legal consultants to evaluate performance based on success achieved against performance targets.
Chaudhry also directed staff to ensure proper monitoring and postmortem of all cases. He said that the concept of Combined Investigation Team (CIT) be implemented in letter and spirit and cooperation between the investigating officers and prosecutors should be ensured. He also directed DPGAs in each region to discuss cases with the prosecutor and legal counsel on a daily basis and formulate strategy to achieve maximum success.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 29th, 2014.
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Its hilarious since NAB is nothing but a joke here in Pakistan