LAHORE, Dec 1: Proper working of the Anti-Corruption Establishment and the National Accountability Bureau can effectively check corruption by state officials, says Punjab Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Azeem Nuri Ghumman.

He was speaking at a press conference on the two-year performance of the committee here on Thursday.

He agreed to a questioner that strong and independent institutions were a must to help control corruption in society.

Mr Ghumman said the ministers and officers involved in corruption should not be appointed against executive posts, and legal action should be initiated against them.

He told a questioner that the PAC had not so far initiated action against any administrative secretary.

Replying to a query about making the PAC more effective, he said he had written to the chief minister for authorizing the body to take suo moto action like the federal PAC.

The committee, he said, had taken action against around a dozen audit officers who had instituted audit paras without any justification.

The departments doing good work were also being appreciated as appreciation letters were being issued to them by the committee, he said.

He said performance-wise food department was atop the list followed by excise and taxation department, while irrigation department proved itself as the worst.

He said the committee held 124 meetings during the last year to take up a total of 6,676 audit paras, of which 3,064 were settled, while 1,594 were pending with directions.

The body recommended administrative action, suspension or termination from service, against 401 responsible officials, most of them of the rank of Xen and SE, while a sum of over Rs440 million was recovered during this period, he told the journalists, and added that recovery of more amount was in the pipeline.