An Underfed Watchdog

By Amir Zia

December 2018

Monthly Newsline

The institution assigned the task of recovering looted wealth from money launderers, loan defaulters and the corrupt, has itself been facing an acute shortage of funds for the past several years, as the former elected government first whittled down, and then suspended what had hitherto been allocated to it: a share of the recovery and reward fund. Additionally, NAB was stopped from conducting reviews of any project worth more than Rs 50 million.

According to sources in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), former finance minister Ishaq Dar first lowered the share of the anti-corruption watchdog to two percent from the eight percent allocated to it when the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government came to power in 2013, and then suspended payment even of this approved amount. The reward money was from the around Rs 1,600 million recovered to date from the loan default cases referred to NAB by the State Bank of Pakistan.     

The irony is that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, which vows firm action against the corrupt and the return of looted money, has not reversed this decision of its predecessor, the PML-N government. 

The former finance minister and his bosses were apparently unhappy with NAB because of the lingering corruption cases against them, including the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case, and the ones regarding their ownership of assets beyond their known sources of income. Thus, according to NAB sources, they wanted to choke the organisation’s funds, to curtail their activities and stymie investigations. 

Government sources say that Chairman NAB, Justice (retired) Javed Iqbal recently had a one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan, who publicly announced that his administration would strengthen this anti-graft body and provide it with all the necessary funds for its smooth operations. 

However, as per documents available with Newsline, the PTI-led finance ministry rejected the plea for the resumption of the hitherto sanctioned recovery and reward fund. 

“We have recovered over 297 billion rupees of the country’s stolen wealth, which has been deposited in the national exchequer,” said a NAB official, adding “Even if we get what is our due after the fund was cut – i.e. two percent of the recovered amount – it would be in the billions and help us improve our operations without any extra government support.” 

The NAB mandate authorises it to use the recovery and reward fund to hire experts – from leading lawyers to those who specialise in forensic, financial and white collar crime. A portion of this fund is also apportioned for the repair and renovation of NAB buildings, infrastructure and vehicles.

Earlier, when it received eight per cent of the recoveries, NAB would pay two million to the family of an employee if he died while in service, and gift 55,000 rupees for the wedding of the children of employees serving from grade 1 to 14. These, the immediate release of funds for the funerals of NAB workers, and one month’s basic salary for them as an annual honorarium, disclose NAB officials, have all been stopped now. “This considering it is the government’s top anti-graft body and it is the government’s responsibility to take care of its employees,” said one official.

He added that NAB’s senior officials, especially those assigned to investigations and prosecution, as well as those in senior management positions, have to operate within strict disciplinary measures, which include diligently following a security protocol, given the threats to NAB and its employees. “But even our hardship allowance remains suspended since 2013,” he claimed.

“We have to inform the bureau about our movements; we can’t even go out to have lunch, unlike other government servants,” he added, conceding however, that lunch is served to NAB employees at a subsidised rate of 20 per cent.

The official continued, “There appears to be a continuing deliberate discriminatory attitude towards NAB employees by successive political governments who probably feel that we are, or will be, going after them. How can we attract the best minds if a NAB prosecutor’s maximum gross salary is 120,000 rupees?”

It is true that compared to NAB, finance ministry officials get six to seven additional basic pays annually, as do Federal Board of Revenue employees. And this unofficial discriminatory attitude towards NAB continues, despite the fact that Pakistan remains the only country in the world, which, according to Transparency International, improved its corruption perception, recently rising to the 116th position from the 175th.

Yet, NAB officials say that they have high expectations from the PTI government. They are hopeful it will support efforts to improve NAB’s human resources and provide them better facilities. This cannot, however, be done without an added allocation of funds – and therein lies the rub.

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