Pakistan has pledged that it will publish the long-delayed Governance and Corruption Diagnostic (GCD) Assessment Report before the IMF’s upcoming executive board meeting, which will review a $1.2 billion disbursement for the country, Dawn reported, citing official sources.
The GCD report, a key structural benchmark under Pakistan’s $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF), is crucial for assessing governance weaknesses across both federal and provincial levels. The initial deadlines for publishing the report — end-July, end-August, and end-October 2025 — have been missed due to disagreements over technical and factual details between Pakistan and IMF authorities.
The GCD Assessment is a comprehensive exercise conducted by the IMF in consultation with global organizations like the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
The report, which has undergone several revisions, focuses on over 100 governance and anti-corruption rules, with input from Pakistan’s key institutions, including anti-corruption bodies, the judiciary, and the finance and law ministries.
Despite progress, there had been disagreements over the interpretation of certain rules in the local context. However, the officials noted that the differences had now been resolved, and the final draft has been submitted to IMF headquarters in Washington for a final review before publication.
The report’s publication will be followed by an action plan to address governance vulnerabilities, with a focus on improving public finance management, transparency, and accountability mechanisms. The IMF had previously proposed a three-month gap between the report’s release and the implementation of the action plan, but this may now be expedited, with the plan expected to roll out before December.
A key issue highlighted in the IMF’s findings is the lack of asset declaration compliance among public servants. Although the law requires officials to electronically file their assets and those of their family members, the implementation remains uneven.
Additionally, many regulatory bodies have exemptions from such requirements, contributing to corruption and inefficiencies in governance.
