Introduction of e governance to minimize chances of corruption: NAB Chairman

Introduction of e governance to minimize chances of corruption: NAB Chairman
Introduction of e governance to minimize chances of corruption: NAB Chairman

ISLAMABAD, Aug 22 (APP): National Accountability Bureau
(NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry has said that e governance is an important step to check corruption to digitize connection between public officials and communities, leading to accountable and inclusive decision making.

An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based
Monitoring and Evaluation System (MES) in NAB has been introduced to automate all functions of operations division, he said while addressing the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) on “Prevention of Corruption” at Vienna, Austria, according to a message received here.

He said now complaint verification, inquiry, investigation
and filing of reference have been automated as software has in built Executive Dash Board (EDB) functions which reflects day to day work right up to field level.

These efforts have been duly acknowledged by international
community and Pakistan’s Global Ranking in ICT over the years have improved as per world economic forum report published in year 2015 which was in 2013 at 105th position, in 2014 at 111th position and in 2015 at 97th position, he added.

The NAB Chairman said corruption not only undermines development of any country but also deprives people from their due rights and considering these facts, NAB was established as Pakistan’s apex anti corruption institution with responsibility of elimination of corruption through a holistic approach of awareness, prevention and enforcement.

Qamar Zaman said realizing importance of Information
Technology in good governance and prevention of corruption, the government of Pakistan established a full fledged Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT) which is a national focal ministry dedicated to planing, coordinating and execution of IT and telecommunications programmes.

He said in order to control the menace of corruption, the
government has adopted preventive measures with help of ICT and has introduced Information Technology to bring transparency and minimize the chances of corruption and corrupt practices in government departments’ employment and procurement.

He said introduction of ICT in important government
organizations e.g. law enforcement agencies (NAB, Police etc.) District Administration and Regulatory Authorities etc. has greatly helped transparency and merit.
The Chairman NAB said NAB was essentially a complaint driven
organization which was established to eradicate corruption and chalked out a comprehensive operational methodology for proceeding of cases, inquiry and investigation.
NAB’s investigation officers strictly follow Code of Conduct
and Zero Tolerance Policy on basis of evidence as per law. The year 2014 which we can be called basically a year of re invigoration, he said.
He said to close possibility of any single NAB
officer/official influencing the discharge of official business, the concept of a “Combined Investigation Team” (CIT) was introduced where two investigation officers and a legal consultant are working as a team for a fair and transparent inquiry/investigation which has started yielding good results.

The Chairman said NAB has recovered Rs 277.909 billion since its inception and received 3,21,318 complaints which were all disposed off according to law.

NAB has authorized 7124 inquiries, 3616 investigation and
filed 2610 cases in respective Accountability Courts to proceed against allegedly corrupt people since its inception, he added.

He said Transparency International has rated Pakistan in 2014 from 175 to 126 and in 2015 from 126 to 117. This is because of the effective Anti Corruption Strategy of NAB.

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