Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) former Justice Javed Iqbal, said that his organisation has signed an MoU with China to oversee China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.
Presiding over a meeting to review performance of NAB Karachi, the Chairman NAB said that NAB was committed for absolutely conclusion of mega corruption cases for a corruption-free Pakistan by adopting "Accountability for All" policy with an iron hand. He said that NAB has devised an effective anti-corruption strategy for eradication of corruption which has started yielding "excellent" dividends. He said that the NAB has signed MoU with China to oversee CPEC projects being implemented in Pakistan.
He said that NAB has perfected its procedures and has rejuvenated after taking new initiatives. In order to rationalize the workload, 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.
In order to ensure uniformity and standardization, the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for investigation officers (IOs) in vogue were reviewed and revised after a gap of 10 years in order to benefit from the experience and collective wisdom of senior supervisory officers, a system of CIT comprising Director, Additional Director, Investigation Officer and a Senior Legal Counsel has been put in place.
He said that NAB has devised a comprehensive Quantified Grading System in order to further improve the performance of NAB Headquarter and all Regional Bureaus. Under Quantified Grading System, NAB Headquarter and Regional Bureau's are being evaluated on annual and mid-term basis at a given criteria which has proved very successful and the performance of NAB's Regional Bureaus is being enhanced day by day due to regular monitoring and inspection.
Earlier, DG NAB Karachi Brig Farooq Naser Awan (retd) during a meeting said that NAB, Karachi recovered Rs 3.423 billion in 2018-2019 through plea bargain after approval of accountability courts, Karachi.
He said that NAB Karachi filed corruption references against Dr Asim, Sherjeel Inam Memon, Agha Siraj Durrani and Kamran Micheal which were under trial in accountability courts as per law.
He said that 9887 complaints were received in 2018-19 and bureau disposed of 346 complaint verifications during this period; adding that NAB Karachi completed 208 inquiries till Oct 2019 and authorized 93 cases for investigation.
He said that NAB Karachi filed 65 corruption references whereas 28 corruption references were ready for filing of references after approval of the EBM/Chairman NAB.
He said that 159 accused persons were arrested by NAB Karachi during 2019 and added that Bureau helped in the arrest of 32 accused persons of other regional bureaus of NAB as per law. The overall conviction ratio of NAB Karachi in accountability courts Karachi is about 84 percent, he maintained.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019