ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has issued its annual report-2012 showing an upward trend in recovery of plundered national wealth.

According to the report released on Friday and sent to President Asif Ali Zardari and caretaker Prime Minister retired Justice Mir Hazar Khan Khoso, NAB’s total recoveries through voluntary return and plea bargain schemes stood at Rs25 billion last year, compared to Rs1.5bn in 2011.

NAB filed 95 references in different accountability courts last year, making a total of 719 cases, including 624 already pending in trial courts.

The report said NAB had worked with bureaucracy for its re-structuring, strengthening of regulatory mechanism and removal of rule violations to prevent corruption in procurements and projects. A number of committees comprising bureaucrats were formed in major areas of governance to improve the performance on a sustainable basis.

NAB spokesman Ramzan Sajid said: “Different projects and procurements amounting to Rs1.5 trillion were processed to save over Rs200bn, involving planning and pre-tendering irregularities.”

The bureau faced a tough time in the NRO implementation case under which it was to write a letter to the Swiss authorities to re-open a money laundering case against President Asif Ali Zardari. Another case which put the bureau under pressure was about the rental power projects scam in which former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf is allegedly involved.

NAB processed 7,889 complaints, completed 392 inquiries and filed 95 references in accountability courts. It received 7,565 complaints, increasing the tally to 9,353, including a backlog of 1,788.

A total of 392 inquiries were finalised (including closures and conversion into formal investigation) and 586 were under process.

NAB recommended placing the names of 192 accused on the exit control list through the interior ministry.

The bureau started the process of induction and training of over 250 investigators in local and foreign faculties last year.

The report quoted NAB Chairman retired Admiral Fasih Bokhari as saying that for 65 years and through 59 legislations, ‘enforcement’ being a primary anti-corruption tool had not worked. “Pakistan’s absolute corruption index was unchanged at 2.5/10 since the beginning of Transparency International Corruption Perception Index,” he said.

The report said focus on the private sector was not the best starting point to weed out corruption from society because the sector was the engine of growth.

“It is the function of businessmen to make maximum profit and the duty of the state’s regulatory mechanism is to control the level of profit,” the NAB chief said.