Pakistani anti-graft authority plans offices in all districts

Internews/Islamabad

They said NAB chairman Fasih Bokhari in his recent meeting with the caretaker Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso apprised him of the importance of restructuring of this anti-corruption institution in the face of unprecedented level of financial corruption that is causing loss to the tune of Rs7bn per day.

“The caretaker prime minister has directed the NAB chairman to immediately prepare proposals for restructuring of NAB that should also include establishment of its offices in every district of Pakistan. It would require recruitment of hundreds of new staff members so if the proposal is approved then NAB would set up its offices in each and every district in a phased manner,” the sources said.

A senior official confided that the NAB chairman very candidly informed the caretaker prime minister about the rampant corruption, especially in the last couple of years and requested him to ensure restructuring of this institution so that it could prevent corruption at any level,” the sources said

The official data showed that restructuring of NAB was done for the first time in 2004 by a team comprising Bertrand de Seville, principal of the Independent Commission Against Corruption in Hong Kong, Eric Lockyear, a prevention and awareness specialist and former public relations director for the Hong Kong Police, Peter Graham, an investigation specialist and former deputy director of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, Barrister Shahzadi Beg, a legal and policy adviser and prosecution specialist, and Mujib Khan, an institutional reform specialist.

The official said there is need to enhance scope of NAB as not all criminal acts are defined in the penal code; some procedural misconducts and moral trade-off by holders of public offices and lack of performance cause more damage to the state and its interests than graft punishable under the penal code.

“The NAB by spirit is a constitutional body whose independence would be guaranteed in the same way in which the independence of the judiciary is guaranteed under the Constitution,” he said.

The official data further stated that NAB operations currently involve prosecution, investigation, inquiry and recovery but according to the NAB chairman financial corruption to the tune of Rs7bn per day is taking place, especially in the public sector development projects.

The NAB chairman being head of an autonomous institution reports to none. The provisions of NAB do not lay down any reporting system except the Annual Performance Report, which is mandatory to be presented to the president of Pakistan by 30th of March every year.

The armed forces and judiciary remain exempted from the NAB’s ambit as the armed forces have their own accountability process, which provides for strict action against cases of corruption and there is Supreme Judicial Council, which decides allegations and misconduct cases in judiciary. The investigation of corruption cases at times never measures up to the new techniques in crime, therefore, capacity building training exercises would be conducted to improve and enhance the expertise of NAB officers.