A two-day Director Generals (DGs) Conference of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) started here on Thursday with Chairman NAB Qamar Zaman Chaudry in chair, wherein several policy issues including last years' performance, shortcomings, measures taken for improvement and future plan of action were discussed.
Discussing measures taken during last year, the Chairman said after constitution of Combined Investigation Teams (CITs), many corruption cases were now being well prosecuted in the courts. He said Prosecution Division and Intelligence & Vigilance Cell had been strengthened to evolve a strong mechanism for nabbing the corrupt, adding that efforts had been made to boost the morale of NAB officers through logistics and monetary benefits, who were also now being sent on professional courses and trainings.
During the conference, it has been decided to set up two new Regional NABs as part of NAB's expansion plan for eradication of corruption and better monitoring of its activities across the country. These new Regions will be set up at Sukkur and Multan.
It was decided to establish a state-of-the-art Anti-Corruption Training Academy on the pattern of National Anti-Corruption Academy of Malaysia to enhance the abilities of the officers. The Chairman said top priority should be given to NAB employees on professional line as per international standards, directing concerned Division to expedite the work on this project.
Commenting on timeline of the cases, Chairman NAB directed all DGs to speed up completion of cases so that efficiency of the Bureau's work could be enhanced. The Conference also decided that officers from Inspection Department of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will be attached on need basis to handle wilful loan default and bank fraud cases. The Chairman expressed satisfaction on the work done by the Training and Evaluation Wing (T&E) so far, and directed T&E Wing to complete the remaining work as soon as possible.
The DG Awareness and Prevention (A&P) apprised the Conference that A&P Division under the umbrella of prevention regime has engaged the masses in its efforts to curb corruption through the creation of Character Building Societies (CBSs).
The Chairman said engaging youth through CBSs could be helpful in curbing corruption; since youth represents a significant portion of our country. Conference also decided to pass the direction to the Regulators, Development Authorities like Capital Development Authority (CDA), Lahore Development Authority (LDA) and others to direct Housing Societies to maintain completer computerised data of their clients. Prosecutor General Accountability, Deputy Chairman, all DGs of NAB at Headquarters and Regions participated in the conference.-PR