ISLAMABAD, Feb 10: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Monday launched a programme to broaden its network and to ensure elimination of not only corruption but causes of corruption from all federal and provincial governments’ departments.

To be called the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) and financed by Department for International Development of the United Kingdom, under the programme all federal and provincial governments’ projects worth Rs50 million and above would be approved by NAB.

Highlighting aims and objectives of the NACS, NAB Chairman Lt-General Munir Hafiez told Dawn on Monday, that the plan had been made in Feb 2002 after NAB realised that the institution would fail to reduce corruption from the country on a permanent basis, unless causes of corruption were removed.

The NAB chief said that the strategy had also been approved by President Gen Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali.

He said the federal and provincial cabinets would also be briefed on the NACS.

“We hope to get support from all lawmakers, media, intelligentsia, students and women on the issue,” he said.

“We would not check all projects to be sent to NAB, but conduct a random checking to examine a few of them,” he said.

He said unless there was a political will to take tough decisions and public servants were not paid reasonable salaries no anti-corruption strategy would succeed.

“It is understandable that the government cannot increase salaries of all employees a once. However, the NACS recommends beginning with prioritised sectors. Privatisation can be done on the basis of job description and vulnerability of corruption,” he said.

In the last 10 to 12 years under-development had been identified in the country as the outcome of the governance paradigm. “Corruption itself is a symptom of mismanagement, or poor governance. Unless the entire set of causes of corruption is addressed the menace cannot be effectively combated and without reducing corruption a good governance model cannot be developed,” he said

The NACS, he said, was about good governance which covered a wide area.

“We are not just looking at getting hold of individuals for corruption, we are aiming at reducing the incidence itself,” he added.

He said NAB was initiating an awareness campaign against corruption to make a coalition against corruption comprising public sector, private sector, civil society and media.

Giving details about the formation and implementation of NACS, NAB spokesman Brig Tayyab said the short-term objective of the strategy was to set in motion systemic improvements that would strengthen the national integrity system.

About the long-term objectives of the strategy, he said, it was to eliminate corruption by engaging all stakeholders through a programme which was holistic as well as progressive.

He said an implementation committee consisting of key stakeholders had been created to involve them in the implementation stage. The stakeholders are: federal and provincial bureaucracies, business community, public accountability bodies, media, academics, civil society and NGOs.

NAB, he said, would act as a secretariat to the committee and implementation would be undertaken by respective stakeholders themselves.