Payments of Benevolent Fund: Centralized mechanism to be put in place

Sindh Government will put in place a centralized mechanism for making the payments of the Benevolent Fund to the beneficiaries of the Headquarter and Districts of Provincial Government of Sindh.

In this regard, the provincial government is seeking the services of a consultant firm for devising this mechanism so that the payment of the Benevolent Fund is disbursed to the beneficiaries of the provincial and districts boards under the Sindh Government Servants Benevolent Fund Ordinance, 1960 & the Rules, 1960.

The Benevolent Fund is deducted from the salary of employees of Government of Sindh at the rate specified by the Government of Sindh.

The total size of the fund is Rs 3.5 billion. Monthly contribution to the fund is Rs 154 million. The estimated number of provincial beneficiaries is 4,500 and districts' beneficiaries are 41,532 from District Benevolent Fund Boards.

Total deductions are credited in the Public Account of the Government of Sindh on monthly basis and paid through the cheque to the Provincial Benevolent Fund Board in succeeding month on prescription of the bill by the Board.

The Provincial Benevolent Fund Board further releases the required funds to the District Benevolent Fund Boards.

The firm will conduct assessment of the existing system of Benevolent Fund disbursements to districts as well as provincial beneficiaries and will propose a centralized and digitized mechanism for payment to the provincial as well as beneficiaries of 29 districts of Sindh.

The firm will conduct assessment of the existing reconciliation and accounting system and will propose a mechanism through which payments may be reconciled and cash books may be maintained as per requirement of audit conducted by the Directorate of the Local Fund Audit.

The mechanism is part of Sindh Public Sector Management Reform Project (SPSMRP), which was rolled out by Finance Department (FD), Government of Sindh in collaboration with World Bank with the aim to strengthen the Public Sector Performance through improved revenue generation and expenditure management.

The project supports government in improving government systems, hence resulting in better policies and service delivery through two objectives a) improved Sales Tax on Services (STS) collection; (b) Transparency in budget formulation, allocation and execution.