The Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) has come under fresh scrutiny after the Auditor General’s audit for FY2024-25 identified irregular payments, weak verification procedures, and data deficiencies involving more than 600,000 beneficiary records, with a combined financial exposure exceeding Rs. 25 billion.

According to the audit report, BISP paid Rs. 515.7 million in unconditional cash transfers to 12,078 government employees, pensioners, and their spouses during FY2024-25 despite a 2019 federal cabinet decision declaring civil servants and their families ineligible for the programme.

The audit also found that 1,719 beneficiaries owning vehicles above the prescribed eligibility limit received Rs. 69.7 million in financial assistance. Auditors noted that the review covered only vehicle registrations in Islamabad, indicating the nationwide figure could be significantly higher.

In the education support programme, 165 schools fully funded by Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal were also enrolled under the Benazir Taleemi Wazaif scheme, resulting in duplicate stipend payments of Rs. 17.7 million. Separately, 278 government employees were found registered as higher secondary students and received Rs. 2.5 million in educational stipends.

The report highlighted major weaknesses in beneficiary data. It found 5,558 cases where a single spouse’s CNIC was linked to up to seven female beneficiaries, while 596,252 beneficiaries had no spouse CNIC recorded despite receiving payments totaling Rs. 25.46 billion.

Auditors also identified nearly 97,200 cases in which multiple poverty scores were assigned to the same household head. The discrepancies led to the irregular enrollment of almost 19,000 beneficiaries, involving an estimated Rs. 533.5 million in payments.

Following the findings, the Departmental Accounts Committee directed BISP to recover irregular payments, strengthen verification mechanisms, improve data sharing with NADRA and Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal, and carry out physical verification of high-risk beneficiaries.