March 26, 2003	Wednesday	Muharram 22, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, March 25: The army officials working with civil departments on secondment will be accountable to the National Accountability Bureau for their acts, a NAB spokesman said on Tuesday.

The spokesman told reporters at a news briefing at the bureau headquarters that army officers, who had returned to army after serving with the government’s civil departments would also be accountable for their acts during the period they worked with these departments.

However, he said that army and other armed forces did not come within the NAB purview because they had their own accountability system.

It is for the first time in the country that army officials working on secondment will be accountable to a civil organisation, presently headed by a lieutenant general.

Talking about the recently-formulated National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS), the spokesman said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had been asked to monitor assets declared by politicians on a regular basis.

“Not only of the politicians but the asset declarations of civil servants and bureaucrats will also be monitored,” he said.

“The assets of politicians and bureaucrats have been declared for last many years, but unfortunately there is no monitoring mechanism in the country to check them on a regular basis,” he said.

The NAB official said it was proposed in the National Anti-Corruption Strategy to establish vigilance units at all levels to monitor both the asset declarations and corrupt practices.

He said assets of politicians would be put on the National Accountability Bureau’s website but it would be difficult to do the same with asset declarations of bureaucrats, who totalled 2.8 million, including 0.9 million in federal government departments. Similarly the assets of the army officials would also not be put on the website, he said.

Replying to a question about the National Anti-Corruption Strategy the spokesman said the strategy would be sent to the federal and provincial cabinets for approval.

He declined to answer a question regarding the suitability of seeking approval of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy from the federal cabinet, some of whose members had been declared absconders by courts.

“The names of some 18 politicians, including members of federal cabinet, have been removed from the Exit Control List and now they are no more absconders,” he said.

Talking about the well-known case of Pakistan People’s Party secretary-general and former minister Jehangir Badar, the official said the case was being pursued by the NAB but owing to several reasons some 58 hearings of the case could not take place.

Responding to a question about the amount so far recovered by NAB from convicts, he said that Rs2.61 billion had been recovered, of which Rs530 million had been given to the NAB as reward and Rs10 million had been spent on the bureau’s employees.

“According to the NAB Ordinance, 25 per cent of the total recovery goes to NAB,” he said.

The spokesman said provinces and departments were not fully cooperating with National Accountability Bureau to fulfil the NACS requirement of getting a clearance for all projects costing more than Rs50 million.

He said government departments had to comply with the section 33-B of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, which states that copies of all public contracts of more than Rs50 million have to be sent to NAB after being finally concluded and signed.