LAHORE, Jan 15: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) will replace the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the Punjab in six to 12 months. This was stated by ACE director Brig Mohammad Aslam Ghumman (retired) while talking to Dawn here on Thursday. He said the proposal had been discussed in the National Anti-Corruption Strategy, and the ACE was all geared up to take up the new job.
Another ACE official said the NAB had not been very active as was the case in the past. "The NAB role will be advisory after being replaced by the ACE," he said. The ACE would require a huge financial support from the provincial government and manpower after replacing the NAB, he said.
Brig Ghumman said the impression that the ACE could not undertake high-profile cases was misplaced as at present it was dealing with some 50 such cases. It registered cases against 96 gazetted officers of various departments on different charges in 2003, he said.
He said the working of the ACE and the NAB was similar in nature. Some 15 officers of the ACE were already working with the NAB. The ACE would get 68 more officers who would be recruited through the Punjab Public Service Commission to ensure transparency, he said.
He said the autonomy to the ACE was also in the pipeline to extend its future role. The ACE did not believe in political victimization, and he would give his best to restore the confidence of people in it, he said.
At present, the ACE has a staff of 700 employees, including six additional directors, 30 deputy directors, 70 assistant directors and 40 inspectors. Its 13 additional directors and two deputy directors have been working with the NAB on deputation.
The ACE receives 300 applications daily with a maximum number of complaints against police and revenue departments. It has recently established a vigilance wing to monitor the activities of its staff. It is to be said that the vigilance wing was inevitable as a number of employees involved in corruption often got scot-free due to no check on them.
The ACE has four circle offices in the province. The Lahore division office covers Kasur, Okara and Sheikhupura; the Rawalpindi division handles the cases from Jhelum, Attock, Chakwal, Mandi Bahauddin and Gujrat; the Faisalabad division covers Sargodha, Khushab, Mianwali and Toba Tek Singh; and the Multan division deals the cases of 13 districts, including Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar and Dera Ghazi Khan. It has a budget of Rs80 million.