ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has abolished the Lahore and Karachi directorates of internal audit.
As per FBR’s SRO on September 20, 2019, two directorates of Customs Internal Audit in Lahore and Karachi have been abolished while the countrywide task for the same would be managed by a single directorate in Islamabad.
Meanwhile, a serving FBR officer has filed a complaint with Advisor to PM on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and FBR Chairman Shabbar Zaidi regarding the abolishment of the internal audit.
He alleged that the decision has taken away from the Customs Internal Audit its capacity to detect custom officers’ corruption.
According to the complaint, FBR has purported to act under certain provisions of the Customs Act and Sales Tax Act, which do not give the FBR any power to abolish any field formations.
It has been further alleged that the abolition of two directorates and the subsequent overburdening of the single directorate in Islamabad is a measure against FBR’s statutory obligation to improve productivity in field formations. “It is also a measure against the FBR’s statutory obligation to control corruption and to maintain a system of performance accountability of its officers and employees.”
He alleged the Directorate of Internal Audit Karachi has been abolished to shelter the custom officers who are normally responsible for 90pc of corruption that takes take place throughout the country in a year.
“The Lahore directorate has been abolished for various reasons, all directed towards protecting the corruption from audit detections,” he added.
The FBR chairman and spokesman did not immediately reply to queries of this scribe.
