Response: BISP clarifies report

In response to a story titled “BISP management pockets Rs975m: audit report” published in The Express Tribune on August 5, The Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) stated that under its agreement with banks, BISP was required to issue quarterly installments in advance for each beneficiary, which banks would retain for thirty days. This one-time float was adjusted at the end of every month.

BISP clarified that payments were only made to verified beneficiaries and the expenditure of Rs46.38 billion was accepted by the AGPR. BISP said there is no chance of duplicate payments, that data was shared with auditors every step of the way, and that the Asian Development Bank also conducted an audit and were satisfied with it.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2013.