Government To Soon Publicly Disclose Assets Of Bureaucrats And Civil Servants For IMF Compliance

The federal government has met another IMF condition by proposing 13 anti-corruption amendments, including stringent monitoring and publicizing of civil servants’ assets, hiring expert lawyers for corruption cases, and relocating FIA officers from airport immigration duties.

“Anti-Corruption Task Force on Review of Institutional Framework of Anti-Corruption in Pakistan,” revealing that the highlighted directives align with IMF recommendations aimed at enhancing the functionality of Pakistan’s anti-corruption framework.

After conducting a comprehensive review of the existing anti-corruption framework and gathering input from executing agencies, practitioners, judges, and stakeholders from Civil Society, the task force unanimously recommended the following:

1. FBR should issue draft rules regarding the declaration of assets of civil servants serving in Basic Pay Scale 17-22 and their spouses.
2. Amend the Civil Servants Act, 1973 to allow for the publication of assets and liabilities of civil servants.
3. Amend the Elections Act to mandate non-elected advisors and special assistants to the Prime Minister to submit their statement of assets and liabilities.
4. Make necessary amendments in the NAB Ordinance and the FIA Act to define clear mandates, establish coordination mechanisms, and prepare a joint offense list.
5. Provide training on jurisdictional boundaries to officers of NAB, FIA, and Provincial ACEs.
6. Reassign the responsibility of immigration processing at airports from FIA to another force.
7. Invest in technology, capacity building, and training of FIA, NAB, and provincial ACE investigators.
8. Conduct awareness campaigns to promote integrity among officials and educate the public about their right to seek disclosure of public information under the Right to Information Act.
9. Appoint lawyers based on specific expertise through open advertisement for quality prosecution, and appoint independent members of the legal fraternity in special courts.
10. Empower Provincial Anti-Corruption Establishments to handle money laundering cases at the provincial level.
11. Establish a central coordination forum for investigation assistance, intelligence sharing, and addressing jurisdictional issues.
12. Ensure the appointment of Chief Internal Auditors within Ministries/Divisions as required by the Public Finance Management Act.
13. Ensure strict compliance with the State-Owned Enterprises (Governance and Operations) Act, 2023, and ensure that Government entities adhere to section 36 of the Public Finance Management Act, 2019.