Audit finds Rs14 billion discrepancies in federal social safety programmes

An audit of the government's social safety net programmes, including the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal, the Employees' Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI), and the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety, has uncovered financial discrepancies exceeding Rs14 billion, along with unadjusted balances and internal control failures, according to the latest Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) report.

The bulk of the flagged funds relates to 17 cases of recoverable amounts totalling Rs13,382.684 million. Auditors said these recoveries stem primarily from irregular payments, overpayments, ineligible disbursements, and unadjusted advances carried over from previous financial years. Authorities managed to recover and verify Rs1,452.458 million prior to the report's finalisation, leaving the remaining balance under active pursuit.

A second category of concerns involves serious internal control weaknesses, with 13 reported cases exposing public funds totalling Rs448.546 million to risks of irregularity, misuse, and weak oversight.

The audit also identified 10 separate cases of irregular expenditure and payments amounting to Rs247.987 million, which breached applicable rules and statutory regulations.

According to the audit, internal control systems within many of the audited entities were not consistently updated, while internal audit functions lacked sufficient capacity, independence, and risk-based planning needed to detect systemic vulnerabilities.

The report recommends that Principal Accounting Officers diligently pursue all uncollected funds, regularise unauthorised expenditure through competent authorities, and institutionalise independent internal audit mechanisms to safeguard social safety spending.