ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry said that eradication of corruption is our national duty.
While addressing the NAB officers after the two-day annual inspection of NAB Rawalpindi on Monday, Qamar Zaman Chaudhry urged the officers to double their efforts for eradication of corruption by adopting zero tolerance policy across the board. He said that it is encouraging for NAB that the Planning Commission of Pakistan has made anti-corruption part of the development agenda and included a chapter devoted to issues of corruption in the 11th five year plan in order to achieve the goals set for eradication of corruption.
The NAB chairman said that NAB’s prime focus is on fraudulent financial companies, bank frauds, wilful bank loan defaults, misuse of authority and embezzlement of state funds by government servants. He said that since NAB’s inception, one of NAB’s major achievements has been the recovery of around Rs 285 billion of ill-gotten money, which was deposited in the national exchequer.
He said NAB’s operational methodology comprises of complaint verification, inquiry and investigation. NAB’s officials need to follow strict code of conduct and merit set by the law. He said that starting with the year 2014, which can be called basically a year of reinvigoration of NAB, “we have moved with new zeal and effort.” The chairman said that NAB has established its first Forensic Science Lab (FSL) in NAB Rawalpindi, which has facilities of digital forensics, questioned documents and fingerprint analysis.
The NAB rationalised its workload and timelines have been prescribed for efficient, effective and expeditious disposal of cases putting a maximum limit of 10 months – from complaint verification-to-inquiry-to-investigation and finally to a reference in the accountability court, he said. NAB has also introduced a new system of combine investigation team (CIT) in order to benefit from the experience and collective wisdom of senior supervisory officers, a system of CIT comprising of director, additional director, investigation officer and a senior legal counsel has been put in place.
He said that NAB’s proactive awareness campaign on “Say No To Corruption” remained very successful throughout the country. He said more than 42,000 character building societies (CBS) have been set up in universities and colleges. “We have set target for 2017 that the number of character building societies (CBS) should reach at least 50,000.
