The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has established a record direct and indirect recovery of Rs 382 billion from the culprits in the first nine months, Director General Muhammad Aslam Ghuman told the session of a review meeting of regional directors.
He said the ACE had deposited Rs 234 million out of total recovered amount in the government treasury and returned Rs 170 million more to those affected by fraud. He said his staff had successfully gained the confidence of the public and that of the chief minister.
The chief minister while awarding the sources in terms of new vehicles and special allowance to employees fixed targets for the ACE that they have started achieving now.
He also ordered the regional directors to complete the pending enquiries prior to 2005 in two months and in case of sufficient evidence register the case, arrest the accused and forward the challan to Anti-Corruption Courts. He said target already fixed to complete the inquiry within three months must be achieved to provide immediate relief to the complainants. "Since sufficient police staff has been provided to ACE police, all district level stations should remain open 24 hours. Lockups adjacent to the stations will be constructed throughout Punjab," he added.
While briefing about the nine months progress of ACE, he said his offices received 12,816 complaints from the public out of which 3860 were converted into inquiries and subsequently 574 cases were registered after the detailed investigation.
He directed the officers to further improve standard of investigation and not to take into account any pressure. He said no one was above the law and they should treat the complaints purely on merit. Computerisation of ACE offices is at its final stage according to which all the offices of ACE throughout Punjab would be linked up with the headquarters. Adding that the computerisation will help monitor the status of complaint inquiries and case proceedings.