PHOTO: APP
ISLAMABAD:
The controversy over ghost pensioners has further deepened as the government’s premier accounting office has given two sets of data of the total pensioners, highlighting a flawed pension system that is causing billions of rupees annual losses to the exchequer.
In a presentation to the Senate Standing Committee on Finance on Monday, office of the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) said there were 2.572 million pensioners in the country – a figure that was 218,335 less than the one the CGA quoted in its documents submitted in the same meeting.
The difference between the two figures highlights the flawed pension and its tracking system. Throughout the meeting, CGA Asif Ahmad kept on saying that the total number of pensioners was 2.572 million.
Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Saleem Mandviwalla had called the committee meeting to probe the National Bank of Pakistan’s (NBP) last month’s claim that there were 600,000 ghost pensioners.
The parliamentary committee held the office of Auditor General of Pakistan and the NBP responsible for not performing their duties of regular verification of the pensioners, which allowed the ghost pensioners to draw billions of rupees annually.
Under the pension rules, it was the responsibility of the bank to verify the pensioners and give periodic reports to the department, said CGA Asif Ahmad while citing rules.
The major discrepancy in the CGA data was on account of Punjab pensioners. There was a difference of 167,229 pensioners in both the set of figures. Similarly, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) pensioners’ figure varied by a margin of over 20,000 and the federal government’s by over 19,000.
After the committee meeting when CGA Ahmad was inquired about 2.79 million pensioners’ figure that his office quoted in the documents, the CGA replied, “It was two days old number”. However, both the sets carried the same date of August 20, 2015.
The data of military pensioners, which has the highest pensioners of 1.298 million, was the same in both sets. The parliamentary committee appreciated the Military Accountant General for transparency and robust pension system that minimises chances of ghost pensioners.
The committee members were not happy with the NBP President Iqbal Ashraf’s statement that he was not interested in retaining the accounts of pensioners. Out of the total pensioners, as many as 1.6 million receive their monthly cash from the government-owned bank.
In order to dig out the ghost pensioners, the panel asked the bank to submit details of 600,000 pensioners who used to receive pensions from the NBP but are no more receiving the money.
“It is a matter of concern where 600,000 people have gone and whether they are still receiving the pensions from any other source,” said Saleem Mandviwalla.
NBP’s views
Iqbal Ashraf insisted that the NBP was a paying agent on behalf of the government departments and the management every month sends the details of reconciled paid amount to the parent departments. He requested that with the figure of 600,000 the word ghost should not be used as it was the difference of reduction in numbers of persons, who were receiving pensions between 2012 and 2015.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 8th, 2015.
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