A sub-committee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) headed by Mueen Aamir Wattoo, has discovered huge financial anomalies in the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), such as payments to dead beneficiaries and unpaid government workers. The Poverty Alleviation Division released audit reports in 2020-21, 2021-22, and 2022-23 which put forward irregularities of 96 billion rupees.
The results indicated that approximately in the last two years about Rs. 15 million BISP funds were paid to dead beneficiaries. This saw 842 paid in 2021-22 and 34 in 2022-23. BISP officials admitted the anomalies and added that there are recovery efforts being undertaken. Also, hundreds of governmental workers, as well as wives of senior officers in Grade 19 to Grade 22 were caught receiving BISP support unlawfully.
There are 878 FIRs that have been registered by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and 272 government employees have been arrested in connection to the fraudulent disbursements. The PAC sub-committee suggested that criminal action taken against officers between Grade 16 and 22 and the funds restored directly out of their salary be pursued.
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Audits also indicated that the 297,000 BISP accounts remained idle to as many as six months with more than Rs. 7 billion languishing in banks and no penalties. Authorities put a lot of the issue on the COVID-19 period but stressed that reforms have been put in place such that money would be refunded automatically in the event that accounts are not used within nine months. Members of the committee warned that the decisions must take into account ground realities of the beneficiaries.
BISP payments to ineligible dead beneficiaries will be reexamined, and tougher controls should avoid similar misuse in the future.
