Data mismatch may cost finance minister his job

BISP spending in previous financial year was Rs14 billion less than what was claimed in the budget.

ISLAMABAD: During the previous financial year ending June 30, the spending under the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) had remained at Rs32 billion, which is Rs14 billion less than what has been claimed in the annual budget, data contained in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper 2009-10 showed.

While delivering the budget speech on June 5 last year, the finance minister said: “…Rs46 billion would be disbursed in the outgoing year (under the BISP)”.

“The matter will be taken to the government assurances committee with a request to thoroughly investigate why the finance minister misled parliament,” said Marvi Memon of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q).

Talking to The Express Tribune, she said if found guilty, the committee may recommend removing the finance minister from his position.

Marvi said she would move a motion in this regard early next week.

Contrary to the minister’s claim, the annual progress report of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper 2009-10 showed that under the BISP the actual spending stood at Rs32 billion, which was 45 per cent of the total budget announced in June 2009.

The Pakistan Peoples Party-led government had allocated Rs70 billion for the BISP to disburse through Rs1,000 monthly cash grants to the poorest of the poor. That year the actual number of beneficiaries stood at 2.29 million against a target of five million.

The declining pro-poor spending trend continues in this financial year.

For the current financial year, the government has allocated Rs50 billion to be disbursed under the BISP. Nonetheless, the actual disbursement during first half of the year stood at just Rs16 billion, indicating that this year again the BISP will not be able to reach all the targeted families.

The BISP official spokesman said: “The BISP has not set any interim targets. The only target it has set is to enhance the number of registered families up to five million by June 30, 2011”.

However, this goal-post of the BISP’s is again over ambitious, economists believe. The targeted beneficiaries can only be achieved after completion of a poverty survey, they said.

So far “70 per cent survey has been completed”, said the spokesman.

A finance ministry official said the government has decided to cut the BISP budget in the wake of the current financial constraints but the government may not announce it to avoid criticism. He said like in the past, the government will prefer to “manage releases” instead of announcing a cut.

Due to allocating a significant amount for the BISP the provisions for other pro-poor programmes were slashed down. The annual progress report states that Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM) disbursements declined by 34 per cent in 2009-10 due to merger of its flagship programme, the Food Support Programme, into the BISP. In 2008-09 under the PBM the government spent Rs3.5 billion that dropped to Rs2.3 billion next year, states the report.

Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh might face a probe by a parliamentary committee for allegedly misleading the Parliament on pro-poor spending during the last financial year – a possible move that can cost him the prized post.

The disclosure may land the finance minister into trouble as a sitting member of the National Assembly has decided to take up the matter at the floor of the government assurances committee to investigate the “false claim”.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 21^st, 2011.