Writ of law: NAB to create internal accountability mechanism

Employees violating SOP and laid-down procedures to be dealt with strictly

ISLAMABAD: Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, Chairman National Accountability Bureau, chaired a meeting at NAB Headquarters here today to review the Internal Accountability Mechanism in NAB. The Chairman reiterated the need to augment and strengthen the process of internal accountability to weed out elements causing inefficiencies, malpractices or the reason behind the disregard of organizational rules that bring it a bad name.

In this regard the work of Chairman’s Inspection & Monitoring Team (CIMT) needs to be further upgraded so that besides Quantitative Monitoring it should also do a Qualitative analysis of the professional output.

A senior Member of the Chairman Inspection and Monitoring Team (CIMT) gave presentation on the proposed internal accountability mechanism under which NAB officers/officials shall be liable for any adverse action of acts of delinquency or violation of SOPs and ethics of the organization

Under the proposed internal accountability mechanism, monitoring and valuation (ME) shall be carried out by Chairman Inspection and Monitoring Team (CIMT) and the respective Desk Officers in the Operation’s Division, NAB NQ. The matters related to delinquency of NAB’s officers/officials shall be first dealt by NAB’s Regional Bureaus.

The Regional Bureau, NAB will fix responsibility in case of any remarks by superior judiciary regarding poor investigation and prosecution. Subsequently, HRM Division of NAB HQ will act against delinquent officers Moreover, complaints against NAB officers/officials referred by the Honorable Courts about any malpractice or received from any individual or the Government Department shall be dealt strictly by HRM Division, NAB HQ under E&D Rules and Terms and Conditions of Services (TCS) whichever is applicable.

Qamar Zaman Chaudhry said that NAB is Pakistan’s apex anti-corruption organization with the mandate to eliminate corruption from the country. NAB’s performance has been appreciated by international independent watchdog “Transparency International” as well as “PILDAT” in their recent reports. NAB’s priority is that we should first be internally accountable under Internal Accountability System. We should carry out our work and actions under the laid down laws and SOPs.

He reiterated that all complaint verifications, inquiries, investigations and prosecution work will be done promptly. He said that all stakeholders should know publicly that efficiency, honesty, dedication and hard-work is NAB’s main priority. Any violation by NAB employees of the laid down laws/procedures/SOPs and TCS shall be dealt strictly in NAB across the board.

Chairman NAB disclosed that NAB intends to create an effective internal accountability mechanism for which it has to adopt a holistic and proactive approach so that NAB can become an efficient and credible organization that the public can look with satisfaction and appreciation.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2015.