Foreign travel: 261 spouses of BISP beneficiaries continue to receive payments: AGP
ISLAMABAD: As many as 261 spouses of the Kifaalat beneficiaries of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) continued to receive the stipend payments “despite having undertaken international travel to destinations outside the Middle East, Gulf countries, and South Asia.”
This has been unearthed by the Auditor-General of Pakistan (AGP) in its audit report on BISP for the last financial year 2024-25.
“The audit examination revealed that, during FY 2024-25, 261 spouses of Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) beneficiaries continued to receive payments despite having undertaken international travel to destinations outside the Middle East, Gulf countries, and South Asia,” the audit report referred to Kifaalat beneficiaries who received quarterly stipend of 13,500 rupees per beneficiary in the last financial year.
This resulted in irregular disbursements amounting to Rs 13.041 million, in contravention of the federal cabinet’s decision dated 24th December 2019, which approved the exclusion of beneficiaries or their spouses from eligibility upon undertaking foreign travel, the audit report reveals.
In its response, the BISP management submitted that the BISP Board, in its meeting held on 2nd August 2023, had approved the removal of the foreign travel exclusion filter.
“It was, however, pointed out that a decision of the BISP Board cannot override or supersede a policy directive issued by the federal cabinet, which constitutes the superior executive authority in respect of the programme’s governing policy framework,” the report notes.
Audit examination revealed that despite the enrolment of over 10 million beneficiaries under Kifaalat programme during FY 2024-25, payments amounting to Rs 515.712 million were made to 12,078 government employees and pensioners, or their spouses.
These disbursements were in contravention of the federal cabinet’s approval dated 24 December 2019, which explicitly excluded civil employees of the federal and provincial governments, including their spouses, from eligibility under the programme, revealed the audit document.
The AGP observed “material weaknesses” in spouse data maintained in the BISP’s Management Information System (MIS). Spouse computerised national identity cards (CNICs) were frequently missing, inaccurately recorded, or duplicated, the report reveals.
It further revealed that Rs 25.45 billion were distributed in 596,252 cases to beneficiaries who did not provide spouses CNICs. Over Rs 239 million were distributed in 5,598 cases involving “one spouse CNIC linked with up to seven female beneficiaries,” according to AGP.
Furthermore, audit examination revealed that during FY 2024-25, Rs 104.734 million were disbursed to 7,020 women whose marital status had been incorrectly recorded as married since 2017.
The 2023-24 Dynamic Survey subsequently confirmed that these beneficiaries were unmarried, the report noted.
“As eligibility under the UCT programme is restricted to ever-married women holding valid CNICs, the payments were irregular and were later blocked upon correction of the data,” the report observes. The AGP, in the audit report, recommended to “consolidate BISP’s operational, financial, and governance frameworks, enhance accountability, and ensure that public resources are utilised efficiently, transparently, and exclusively for the benefit of eligible beneficiaries.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026