BISP scam: FIA lodges cases against 24 govt employees

Some 155,767 were removed from BISP database as their spouse(s) paid Rs1,000 or more in their telephone bills

PESHAWAR:

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) chapter of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Thursday completed its investigations against government employees who were allegedly involved in a scam where they abused the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).

After completing their investigations, the agency lodged cases against 24 government officials for misusing their authority to steal from the programme which was meant to offer a financial lifeline to the poorest of the poor.

A government audit of the programme had found that out of the 820,165 beneficiaries who had been disqualified, 14,730 were government employees. Those employed by the government are not eligible to receive cheques under the programme. The data further showed 127,826 beneficiaries were those whose spouses were government employees. Moreover, 153,302 other beneficiaries had travelled abroad at least once and 195,364 were those whose spouses had travelled abroad at least once.

The number of beneficiaries who travelled abroad more than once stood at 10,476. Similarly, spouses of 166,319 beneficiaries had travelled abroad more than once.

The BISP also removed 692 people who owned at least one or more vehicles, while 43,746 were culled from the list because their spouses owned one or more cars.

BISP rules stipulate that anyone who can pay an Rs1,000 telephone bill every month is not “eligible” to get the monthly stipend from the programme. Hence, 24,546 people were removed under this category.

Likewise, some 155,767 were removed from the database as their spouses paid Rs1,000 or more in their telephone bills (landline or mobile). For applying for passports via executive centres, 666 beneficiaries were removed and 580 were dropped as their spouses applied for passports via executive centres.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10^th, 2020.