Pakistan’s General Auditor (AG) reported the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly (PAC) on Thursday of more than 37 million rupees for funds from the Funds of the Benazir government support program.
PAC members were told that a total of 324 officials from grade 1 to the 22nd grade are involved in the scandal.
The committee decided that the AG should receive all the data from these government employees and that money should recover from their salaries. The FIA must perform the investigation quickly and present criminal cases, the members of the committee think. The guilt officers must be fired, they added.
Bisp officials informed the committee of another error, where 84 people who received money were, in reality, deceased. They told the committee that they were in contact with the banks to review how such payments were made.
Another case of fraud arose, costing the BISP RS13.72m. The amount was disbursed through false biometric verifications in multiple Tehsils, it was told to the committee.
Read: RS141B BISP fraud exposed in audit
According to reports, more revelations of financial bad management were disbursed such as RS80.508m in BISP funds to people not eligible. Bisp officials assured the committee that the recovery efforts were underway.
Meanwhile, the audit reports of the poverty relief division for the 2020-21, 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 years, revealed financial irregularities worth the value of RS96B, the committee was informed.
It was concluded that many recipients of the funds had inactive accounts. The members of the committee decided that from now on if there is no activity in the beneficiary account for nine months, then the amount sent must be recovered.
People with Bisp have been involved in financial fraud many times over the years, with a fraud that amounts to RS141B that is discovered earlier this year. In 2020, an investigation against 2,700 BISP officers for financial crimes began.
