Transparency International praises anti-corruption efforts of NAB

ISLAMABAD: Transparency International (TI) has praised the anti-graft efforts of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) under the chairmanship of Javed Iqbal, said a report released by the Berlin-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) on Thursday.

The report released today highlighted the 2019’s performance of the global countries against corruption. TI appreciated Javed Iqbal over best performance showed by NAB combined investigation team in different graft cases.

It is said in the report that the combined investigation team of Pakistan’s anti-corruption watchdog fulfilled all requirement of justice besides recovering Rs153 billion from the corrupt elements. TI said that 530 references had been filed by NAB, whereas, the overall ratio of conviction was witnessed up to 70 per cent from the accountability courts. The organisation has also praised the anti-corruption awareness campaign by NAB.

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Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) chairman Sohail Muzaffar said, “NAB under the current leadership of justice (R) Javed Iqbal has performed much better, and NAB been rejuvenated after it has taken various initiatives including Combined Investigation Team (CIT) System, in order to have collective wisdom in the conduct of inquiries/investigations on merits which is lending quality.”

“NAB has collected Rs. 153 billion from the corrupt elements and filed 530 references and its overall conviction ratio in the Accountability Courts is about 70%. Besides, NAB’s effective media campaign to aware people about ill effects of corruption are commendable,” he added.

The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, drawing on 13 expert assessments and surveys of business executives.

It uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. More than two-thirds of countries score below 50 on this year’s CPI, with an average score of just 43. Similar to previous years, the data shows that despite some progress, a majority of countries are still failing to tackle public sector corruption effectively.

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More than two-thirds of countries score below 50, with an average score of only 43. Since 2012, only 22 countries have significantly improved their scores, including Estonia, Greece and Guyana. Twenty-one have significantly declined, including Australia, Canada and Nicaragua.

“Frustration with government corruption and lack of trust in institutions speaks to a need for greater political integrity,” said Delia Ferreira Rubio, Chair of Transparency International. “Governments must urgently address the corrupting role of big money in political party financing and the undue influence it exerts on our political systems.”