BISP fraud and govt action

The exclusion of 820,165 fraudulent recipients from the Benazir Income Support Programme i.e. the BISP will save the government Rs16 billion annually. Let’s have a look at what this amount means to our cash-strapped government. The amount is 3.5 times more than the Rs4.5 billion that the government had saved by abolishing Hajj subsidy last year. The amount is nearly twice as much as the total allocation (Rs7.57 billion) for the new and ongoing schemes of the Climate Change Division under the ongoing public-sector development programme. These climate schemes also include Prime Minister Imran Khan’s 10 Billion Tree Tsunami. The amount saved from the removal of undeserving BISP recipients is exactly equal to what has been earmarked for the new and ongoing schemes of Pakistan Railways that caters to roughly 70 million passengers a year.

It’s mindboggling that 820,165 fraudulent beneficiaries of the social welfare programme, which is meant for the poorest of the poor in the country, included 2,548 government officers in grade 17 to 21 before they were removed though a screening process carried out under the supervision of Dr Sania Nishtar, the BISP Chairperson and PM’s Special Assistant. Moving forward, the government has referred more than 2,000 of these fraudsters to FIA for registration of criminal cases against them. It has also written to the chief secretaries in all provinces as well as the Establishment Division for taking departmental action against the government officers who benefited from the BISP and recovering funds from them. It’s a straightforward case of fraud, as remarked by PM’s Special Assistant on Accountability Shahzad Akbar, and deserves to be probed thoroughly.

It is hoped that the government action will serve to keep the social welfare programme safe from any fraud and misuse, and help the authorities maintain transparency in the criteria for doling out sums under what is described as the largest social safety programme catering to about 5.1 million poor and needy people.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2020.

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