Chairman NAB, Justice (R) Javed Iqbal has said that NAB is absolutely committed to eradicate corruption with iron hands, and the eradication of corruption is the top most priority of NAB. ”NAB has devised comprehensive National Anti Corruption Strategy which has been acknowledged by national and international organizations like PILDAT, Transparency International and World Economic Forum in their reports. Due to its continued efforts, NAB has recovered Rs. 297 billion looted money from corrupt elements and deposit in national exchequer which is a record achievement ”, said the NAB Chairman.
He said that NAB is a role model not only for the country, but also for entire SAARC countries. Owing to outstanding performance of NAB, Pakistan’s corruption perception Index (CPI) has been decreased from 175 position to 116. He said that Pakistan is the only country in Asia whose corruption perception index is persistently on declining trend. The performance of NAB has been lauded by SAARC countries including India. NAB had been unanimously elected as chairman of SAARC Anti Corruption Forum which is the great achievement of Pakistan due to NAB’s efforts.
He said that Pakistan and China have inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to work jointly for ensuring transparency in China Pakistan economic coordination (CPEC) project. He said that NAB is playing vital role in recovering looted money from culprit elements. NAB from Oct 2017 to September 2018 has recovered billions of rupees from corrupt elements. The recovery made possible to return to hundreds of effectees of Housing Societies, Cooperative Housing Societies/modarba scams, frauds and looted money of some government departments.
The Chairman NAB said that a grading system has been started to review annual performance of NAB’s officers/officials. Under grading system, the performance of NAB Headquarters and NAB’s regional bureaus is scrutinized on monthly, quarterly; midterm and annual basis and all regional bureaus are informed about their merits and demerits to overcome their shortcomings. Positive results of grading system are being pouring in. He said that NAB has also introduced an effective monitoring and evaluation system. Under MES system, complaint number is being affixed at each complaint which helps maintaining the record and proper monitoring and evaluation of performance and receipt to every complainant in order to ensure transparency.
Chairman NAB said that he has decided to listen to people’s grievances on last Thursday of each month. NAB has also established a complaint Cell at each regional office. Besides, a separate Desk has been established to address complaints of Business Community at NAB headquarters. He said that the concept of combined investigation team (CIT) has been implemented in NAB for effective workings in order to prevent any influence on IOs. He said that NAB has established a state of the art Forensic Science Laboratory for scrutinizing documents/fingerprints etc. The LAB not only saves time but also ensures secrecy and quality.
Published in Daily Times, September 26th 2018.
