ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) filed a total of 208 corruption references in 2014 and recovered Rs18.83 billion of what has been described as looted public money.

With the addition of Rs18.83bn last year, NAB has so far recovered Rs264.4bn since its inception, NAB chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry said at the conclusion of Investigators’ Basic Induction Course organised by the bureau’s Training and Research Division (T&R) in cooperation with Police Training College in Sihala.

He said that 585 inquiries were completed last year as compared to 243 in 2013. He said the bureau carried out 188 investigations last year as against 129 in 2013.

The references filed last year rose to 205 from 135 in 2013.

According to him, Rs5.408bn was received last year under the Voluntary Return (VR) scheme as against Rs2.7bn in 2013. Recoveries under Plea Bargain (PB) deals amounted to Rs13.423bn last year.

The bureau, he said, also recovered billions of rupees and returned to people affected by the Double Shah case, the Modarba scam,

the housing societies’ scams and the foreign exchange companies’ scandals.

He said the bureau had changed the investigation system and, instead of one-man investigation by the Investigation Office (IO), corruption cases were now investigated by a Combined Investigation Team (CIT) to end the possibility of a single officer/official influencing the outcome. These teams include investigation and prosecution officers who work as a team to ensure transparent, unbiased, collective investigations and decisions.

In order to ensure objectivity and standardisation, he said, the Standing Operating Procedures (SOPs) have been examined and revisited through a participative exercise spreading over four months for up-gradation and implementation.

“Corruption breeds injustice, mistrust and suspicion and also generates a false sense of insecurity,” he said.

Being a complaint driven organisation, Mr Chaudhry said, a system of cognizance had been developed to standardise selection of cases for processing. “Priority is assigned keeping in view the nature of the case, the amount of money involved, the social impact and the number of affected people.”

He said that the bureau was trying to accomplish its mission of ridding the nation of corruption and corrupt practices across the board.

Published in Dawn, October 6th , 2015

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