ISLAMABAD:The International Monetary Fund has inquired about the accountability mechanism of civil servants having discrepancies in their asset declarations, as the overwhelming majority of the government employees still remains exempted from public declaration of assets.
The global lender also sought to implement a risk-based verification of the information disclosed by the civil servants and possible penalties and investigation of those officers whose assets exceed their declared sources of income, according to the government sources.
However, due to a very narrow definition of a “civil-servant”, it is estimated that hardly 25,000 civil servants’ assets can be disclosed even after an amendment in the Civil Servants Act as part of the IMF condition for the $7 billion package, the government sources added.
The officers of the autonomous bodies, regulatory bodies like the State Bank of Pakistan, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and the provincial civil services will still remain exempted from digitally filling the returns and their subsequent public disclosure.
Majority of the financial decisions are taken by the government employees working in these organizations, which is also reflected in the numbers and the value of the audit objections printed by the Auditor General of Pakistan.
The visiting IMF delegation met with the Establishment Division and discussed the issues related to promotion, posting and the accountability of the civil servants serving in the basic scale of 17 to 22, according to the government sources. The delegation’s emphasis was beyond just the disclosure of the information and taking concert action against the corrupt officers, said the sources.
A new clause 15-A Declaration of Assets in the old law has been introduced aimed at enabling the declaration of the assets of the civil servants. The government has also relaxed the Right to Access to the Information Act of 2017 to enable the public disclosure of this information.
The new clause, approved by the cabinet, states that “notwithstanding anything contained in clause g of section 7 of the Right of Access to Information Act 2017, the declaration of assets of a civil servant of BS-17 and above, his spouse and dependent children, including domestic and foreign assets and liabilities, as may be prescribed, filed with the Federal Board of Revenue and same shall be publicly available, through FBR, in accordance with the rules as may be prescribed.
