ISLAMABAD: The audit, conducted by the Auditor General of Pakistan, observed material weaknesses in the BISP Management Information System (BISP-MIS) in spouse data profiling, identifying a total financial exposure of over Rs25 billion across 601,850 compromised cases.
The audit report 2025-26 of BISP for fiscal year 2024-25 reveals billions of rupees in irregular disbursements to over 600,000 ineligible individuals, including government employees, vehicle owners, and duplicate beneficiaries, primarily driven by compromised profiling and system control weaknesses.
According to the official audit document, BISP distributed Rs515.712 million to 12,078 government employees, pensioners, or their spouses under the Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) Programme during FY 2024-25. This occurred despite a December 24, 2019, federal cabinet directive explicitly excluding civil servants and their spouses from the program.
The breakdown of these irregular payments includes: 1) Active Government Employees: 673 beneficiaries (Grades 1–16) received Rs25.20 million, and 8 beneficiaries (Grade 17) received Rs0.09 million. 2) Spouses of Active Employees: 9,124 beneficiaries (Grades 1-16) received Rs402.80 million, and 87 beneficiaries (Grades 17-20) received Rs2.54 million. 3) Active Pensioners: 218 individuals (Grades 1-16) received Rs7.41 million, and 22 individuals (Grades 17-18) received Rs0.70 million. 4) Spouses of pensioners: 1,847 beneficiaries (Grades 1-16) received Rs74.16 million, and 107 beneficiaries (Grades 17-20) received Rs2.81 million. The Departmental Accounts Committee (DAC) has directed the immediate blocking of these beneficiaries and initiated recovery operations.
Furthermore, a test-check of 275,000 vehicles registered in Islamabad revealed that 1,719 beneficiaries owning motor vehicles exceeding the prescribed threshold continued to receive UCT payments, totaling Rs69.744 million in irregular disbursements.
More interestingly, the audit noted that because Islamabad represents only a fraction of national registrations, the nationwide volume of irregular payments to vehicle owners could be substantially higher. The audit report highlighted coordination gaps between social protection programs. A total of 165 fully sponsored schools under the Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM) were simultaneously enrolled under BISP’s Benazir Taleemi Wazaif programme, resulting in duplicate stipend payments amounting to Rs17.690 million.
Additionally, 278 government employees were irregularly enrolled as higher secondary students under the Taleemi Wazaif programme, drawing Rs2.546 million in conditional transfers for their families. A random field verification of 22 selected schools across Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa further confirmed that all 23 sampled beneficiaries in those institutions had either completed their studies or were no longer enrolled, rendering the disbursements irregular.
A single spouse Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) was found linked to up to seven different female beneficiaries in 5,558 cases, involving Rs239.035 million. 2) Missing Data: A total of 596,252 beneficiaries were recorded without any spouse CNIC, involving disbursements of Rs25,459.960 million.
System design limitations also led to multiple Proxy Means Test (PMT) scores being registered against identical Heads of Household in 97,179 instances. This control deficiency resulted in the irregular enrollment of 18,964 beneficiaries during FY 2024-25, with an estimated misallocation of Rs533.536 million.
Additionally, Rs104.734 million was disbursed to 7,020 women whose marital status was incorrectly registered as married since 2017, but who were later confirmed to be unmarried via the 2023-24 Dynamic Survey.
The audit also identified statistically improbable anomalies in the Dynamic Registry where 5 to 10 married female beneficiaries were recorded under a single household. This lack of anomaly thresholds and validation controls resulted in disbursements totaling Rs17.374 million during FY2024-25.
In response to the findings, the DAC has ordered BISP management to execute a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal to establish API integration and prevent duplicate benefit disbursements.
BISP has also been directed to obtain data clarifications from the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), implement independent verification mechanisms for spouse relationships, conduct comprehensive inquiries to fix responsibility, and subject 10% to 15% of high-density married female households to physical field verification.
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