Chairman NAB Reiterate, On World Anti Corruption Day, Intensified Efforts

National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Aftab Sultan on Thursday stressed intensified efforts to minimise the menace of corruption in the country and ultimately bring it to naught

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Dec, 2022 ) :National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Aftab Sultan on Thursday stressed intensified efforts to minimise the menace of corruption in the country and ultimately bring it to naught.

In his message with reference to International Anti-corruption Day (IACD) marked on December 9, the chairman said that corruption is a stealthy plague that undermines rule of law, leads to violations of human rights, distorts markets and erodes the quality of life.

The Day being observed globally on Friday to highlight the adverse impacts of corruption on socio-economic development across the globe.

The scourge of corruption and white-collar crimes have become a cause of serious concern.

He said International Anti Corruption Day (IACD) reminds us about the seriousness of damages that have been caused by the menace of corruption to the development of states and is still causing an imbalance in the socio-economic and socio-political systems.

With the signing of the United Nations Convention against Corruption in 2007, the responsibility became even more extensive as several measures were required under the Convention related to misuse of banking channels for hiding illicit wealth.

In line with the requirements of the UN convention, he said NAB has taken serious actions like the establishment of Anti Money Laundering Cell at NAB headquarters for discouraging money launderers from parking of illicit funds. Such action on an overall basis facilitated the state of Pakistan to meet the requirements of 'Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on money laundering.

The chairman said it is a privilege to mention that the National Accountability Bureau has been consistently engaging all stakeholders in its fight against corruption to uproot this evil from society.

Similarly, expectations from a single organization to do the job on its own without simultaneous changes in the governance and active support of the public would be unrealistic.

NAB is absolutely determined to eradicate corruption from Pakistan through its holistic approach of awareness, prevention and enforcement.

The Bureau has prescribed a maximum limit of 10 months for the expeditious disposal of white collar crime cases.

Due to effective anti-corruption strategy, he said NAB has recovered Rs. 886.865 billion since inception, whereas, during the year 2022, the bureau received a total number of 19,917 complaints and 416 CVs.

Consequently, 209 inquiries and 36 investigations have been authorized. After completing due process under the law, 29 references have been filed in the Accountability Courts.

The Bureau is constantly enhancing the capability of Forensic Science Laboratory established at NAB HQ to meet the requirements of modern investigation techniques.

State of the Art Pakistan Anti-Corruption academy (PACA) has been established and operationalized by NAB for capacity building of its investigators.

NAB under the Awareness and Prevention mandate has successfully established thousands of Character Building Societies (CBS) in educational institutions all over the country for sensitizing the future leaders of our country against corruption.