LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has revised its policy on whistle-blowers, making it mandatory for a complainant to come up with some “solid evidence” to substantiate an allegation against an official so that a matter could be taken up.

Earlier, the NAB would take up complaints even in the form of anonymous letters providing details of alleged corruption of government official(s).

“We have revised our policy regarding taking up a matter merely on the basis of anonymous letters and complaints without any solid evidence. A whistle blower now needs to provide strong proof of corruption committed by official(s) to NAB to get initiated a probe,” a senior bureau official from Punjab told Dawn.

“The NAB had to revisit its policy as a number of corruption complaints it received turned out to be bogus,” he said, adding the NAB would ensure full protection to whistle-blowers.

A former NAB director, retired Brig Farooq Hameed, said the bureau should not out rightly reject anonymous complaints as sometimes they contained a tip-off about a big financial scam in an institution.

“In some cases in the past the NAB investigators got confused whether an anonymous complaint was fake or genuine. Though it is good that the bureau has declared it mandatory for a whistle blower to come up with solid evidence, discarding complaints with weak or no evidence is not a right policy,” Brig Hameed said, adding a whistle blower should not only be provided protection under the UN Convention against corruption but also be rewarded for the daring act.

Like many other complaints the NAB Punjab received the one without any ‘solid evidence’ from a whistle blower requesting it to probe “massive corruption” in the construction of new building of the in the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) in Jauhar Town Lahore and mentioned the name of a top official and some others. The letter was also sent to the Nadra chairman, Transparency International and the Chief Justice Supreme Court.

“Imagine if a few anonymous letters/complaints carrying truth about the corruption of some big guns in a government department but owing to the new policy it (truth) remains concealed. How will be responsible for this? ” the former NAB official argued.

NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry has already announced introducing Whistle Blower Protection Act to encourage people to stand up in the fight against corruption.

Will Mr Chaudhry also ensure that he has some competent officials who can scan through complaints without solid evidence and decide whether some of these deserve to be probed into.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2015

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