Wing stopped from reporting corrupt tax officials: 'integrity management' no more FBR priority

The 'integrity management' of the tax officials is not the priority of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), as the tax authorities are no more obtaining any clearance from the Vigilance Wing of the Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation FBR before transfers and postings of tax officials on key positions in the field formations.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Sunday that the Vigilance Wing of the Directorate of I&I, FBR, still exists but it has stopped working on the 'integrity management' of the tax officials. The said Vigilance Wing had played a key role in identifying corrupt tax officials to check transfers and posting of such officials on important positions in the field formations.
In 2005, the Vigilance Wing of the directorate I&I FBR started working, following a decision of the FBR's Board-in-Council to exclusively deal with the cases of corruption of tax officials and reports of the Vigilance Wing formed basis before transfers of tax officials on important positions. The Vigilance Wing worked from December 2005 till June 2009 and submitted inquiry reports and investigation reports of nearly 200-250 tax officials (Grade 14 to Grade 21) under the 'integrity management' plan of the FBR. During this period, one of the reports of the Transparency International-Pakistan had declared FBR as one of the government departments where corrupting was reduced during 2009.
This Anti-Corruption Wing was effectively dealing with the issues of internal controls and checks in the tax machinery to identify corrupt tax officers with the help of team of expert intelligence officials. A small but dedicated team of honest tax officials, including one Additional Collector and two Deputy Collectors, was primarily responsible for handling the affairs of the Vigilance Wing of the Directorate I&I FBR. The Vigilance Wing had given inquiry reports on the corruption of tax officials, which helped the tax authorities in taking prompt decisions on transfers of tax officials on important slots.
During the period from December 2005 to June 2009, the results of the inquiries and investigations conducted by the Wing were obvious and corruption was reportedly reduced due to check placed by the Vigilance Wing of the Directorate I&I FBR, sources said.
Suddenly, the FBR stopped the Vigilance Wing from carrying out most important task of 'integrity management' in 2009 and the Wing was not allowed to investigate the integrity-related issues of the tax officials working in the field formations. As a result of the Board's decision, it stopped working on the integrity management across the country. Taking its own initiative, the officials of the Wing had started investigation of the income tax cases as their main responsibility was taken away in 2009. The Vigilance Wing of the Directorate I&I FBR is no more doing the job of integrity management due to the decision taken in 2009 at the Board's level.
The Vigilance Wing still exists in the Directorate I&I FBR, but instead of doing its primary job of integrity management the Wing is checking income tax refund frauds, concealment of income and under-reporting of taxes, etc, of registered persons. This is evident from different reports of the agency send to the FBR on regular basis. Interestingly, the Vigilance Wing does not have mandate and skills to check income tax frauds as it was mainly established for the 'integrity management' of the tax officials. As Vigilance Wing was stopped from framing integrity reports of the tax officials, the corruption seemed to be not reduced after 2009 and any of the new reports of the TI-Pakistan has not talked about reduction in corruption in tax machinery since 2010.
Sources said that the FBR can effectively utilise the services of the Vigilance Wing of the Directorate I&I FBR by restoring its main function of 'integrity management' of the tax officials. If the Wing is manned by proper people with the prime job of 'integrity management', it can again become the most important tool of the FBR to check corrupt practices among the tax officials, sources added.