National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Lieutenant General Munir Hafeez on Wednesday admitted bureau's inability to detect and prevent economic crimes being committed by "organised gangs" on "modern and sophisticated" lines.
He was winding up discussion during a seminar on "NAB and financial sector on economic crimes" here. Corporate heads of commercial investment banks, financial experts and economists participated in the seminar.
The NAB chairman said that in modern days economic crimes were being committed in an organised way and it was beyond NAB's capabilities to detect and prevent all of them alone.
"With the advent of state-of-the-art technology, it has become easier to commit economic crime," Munir said, adding that other financial institutions, including commercial banks should join hands with the NAB in identifying such crimes.
"I think with the assistance and collaboration of corporate institutions, including commercial banks, the NAB can play a better role in curbing economic crimes," he said.
The NAB chairman stressed upon the need for capacity building of employees of the authority to enhance their efficiency in early detection and prevention of such crimes.
He said, "We must impart quality training to the people involved in identification and prevention of economic crimes, so that they can be able to take up their task in a better way."
To prevent economic crimes, Hafeez proposed to create awareness among the general public and government functionaries. He also asked the public sector's financial institutions to strengthen their monitoring system of the funds being released to the government departments.
He dispelled the impression that the bureau had been grossly utilised for victimisation of political foes by a certain quarter.
The NAB's role has been under bitter criticism in both the National Assembly and Senate in recent past, as most of the opposition parties have accused the bureau of victimising political leaders.