To right its historical wrongs, NAB releases new SOPs

The NAB acknowledged that processing non-cognizable complaints wastes valuable time and resources and negatively affects the Bureau’s operations, thus it has issued revised standard operating procedures (SOPs) to all of its offices for the fair handling of only legitimate complaints.

The new SOPs resolved and streamlined the complaints acceptance and processing framework with the aim of discouraging genuine and frivolous complaints; making such complaints a criminal offense; laying down fundamental considerations for handling complaints against lawmakers, public officials, and businessmen; introducing greater transparency into NAB operations; and ensuring respect for human rights. “Discretion in handling of complaints requires course correction to dispel growing perception of fear and intimidation in different segments of state and society both.”

The SOPs state that different instructions are being published for handling complaints against elected officials. However, the following guidelines have been published for strict adherence in the event of complaints against government employees: i) No anonymous complaints against public servants will be accepted; ii) The identity of public servants will be kept completely secret throughout the complaint verification process; iii) Regional DGs will authorize complaints against officials up to BS-19, while the NAB chairman’s approval will be necessary for BS-20 and higher officers; iv) During the stage of complaint verification and inquiry, NAB shall not personally summon government officials to its premises; v) Accountability Facilitation Cells (AFCs) shall be established in each civil secretariat by regional DGs in cooperation with the corresponding provincial Chief Secretaries to provide the necessary assistance; vi) All correspondence and information sharing will take place via AFCs.

The following SOPs apply to the processing of complaints against businessmen: i) No anonymous complaints against businessmen will be accepted; ii) Businessmen’s identities will be kept strictly confidential; iii) No businessman will be called to the NAB during the complaint verification stage; iv) A separate Business Facilitation Cell (BFC) will be established at regional NAB offices for the dignified conduct of investigation. Representatives from the relevant chambers of commerce and industry, the “Realtors’ Association,” and other business associations (if necessary, on a case-by-case basis) will make up the BFC.

With immediate effect, all complaints will be handled in accordance with the following priority order, per the revised SOPs: The following sources of complaints have been reached: i) the federal, provincial, and ministry-level governments; ii) honorable courts; iii) the National Assembly, Senate, and Public Accounts Committee; iv) government departments, regulatory bodies, Pakistan’s auditor general, banks, etc.; v) intelligence agencies; There are several ways that complaints can be referred: (vi) through the chamber of commerce, business houses, and corporate bodies; (vii) through the chairman of the NAB authorized complaints; (viii) through regional DGs of the NAB; (ix) complaints about NAB officials; (x) complaints about the general public being deceived; (xi) complaints made by an individual.

All complaints that are still pending and do not fit the requirements will be handled by the appropriate regional Bureau offices. If anonymous or pseudonymous complaints are still being filed and there is evidence to support them, the regional bureaus will be able to track down the complaints first. Once this is confirmed, they will request approval from NAB Headquarters to proceed with the complaint verification procedure.

“An objective assessment of NAB performance since its inception reveals that conviction rate can be exponentially improved through more focused handling of legally-cognizable complaints,” the NAB acknowledges in issuing the revised TORs. The primary cause of the problem is the absence of clear regulations and standards that would allow legitimate complaints to be distinguished from fraudulent or baseless ones. As a result, reviewing non-cognizable complaints wastes valuable time and resources and negatively affects NAB operations. Errors in complaint handling must be corrected in order to eliminate the developing sense of intimidation and fear among various state and social groups.