ISLAMABAD: The International Cooperation Wing (ICW) of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has been asked to seek assistance of Interpol in nabbing accused taking refuge in other countries.

The decision was taken on Tuesday in a meeting held to evaluate the performance of different wings of the bureau. NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry is chairing the two-day meeting which will end on Wednesday.

The number of people who have escaped abroad and the nature of their corruption cases were not shared with the media.

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However, according to an insider account, some main accused in Modaraba scams have fled the country.

A NAB spokesman said the ICW had been directed to expedite corruption cases of people hiding abroad with the assistance of Interpol and other agencies.

The meeting also evaluated performance of the operations, human resource, information technology and administration divisions of NAB.

Performance of the awareness and prevention, training and research and prosecution divisions will be focused on Wednesday.

The chairman of the Inspection and Monitoring Team presented a report highlighting the strengths and weaknesses in various divisions.

Mr Chaudhry said the NAB headquarters had played a pivotal role in the overall achievements of regional bureaus.

He said points raised by the chairman of the CI&MT would help in improving the capacity and efficiency of all bureaus and divisions.

The NAB headquarters in Islamabad, it was stated, received 7,286 complaints last year which were all disposed of. The number of complaints was the highest in the bureau’s history.

NAB received 80 Suspicious Transition Reports (STRs) from the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) of State Bank of Pakistan during 2014. The bureau authorised 46 inquiries, two investigations and filed three references in accountability courts.

NAB last year recovered Rs400 million out of Rs2.7 billion and also arrested 53 accused in different cases.

The meeting asked the human resource DG to complete verification of academic degrees of officers by March 31.

It further decided to initiate recruitment of officers through the National Testing Service.

Published in Dawn March 4th , 2015

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