ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said to have been told about illegal deductions by the agents and other fraudulent activities from Prime Minister’s Flood Relief Fund’s cash disbursement.

Sources said that a presentation was made to the finance minister by the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) on the operation of the Prime Minister’s Flood Relief Fund, wherein, it was disclosed that around 5 564 complaints were received by the BISP. The meeting on flood relief fund operation presided over by the finance minister was also informed that 589 FIRs were registered against agents and POS and 1,056 retailers were blocked.

Sources further stated that the BISP stated despite the multiple controls built by the BISP, due to the last mile human intervention, major issues are being faced in terms of illegal deductions by bank agents and certain fraudulent activities. The POS agents’ illegal deduction from the actual payment of the beneficiary is a persistent challenge as higher amounts have been deducted and reported where the beneficiary withdraws the funds after two tranches.

Despite reporting and blocking by the BISP, bank field staff re-registers such agents in different names/CNIC against the true spirit of the contract signed with BISP.

Cash aid to flood-hit people: Complaints of malpractices irk Dar

Additionally, the BISP field teams have observed regularly that ATM facilitators are prevalent in the market and charge illegally from the beneficiary to facilitate them in withdrawal from ATM due to their lack of financial literacy. The meeting was said to have been informed that no mitigation measure was seen from bank side to counter the practice. There was also lack of support from field staff agents BISP complaints.

The finance minister was informed that all identified issues are non-compliance of the contract clauses.

The meeting was told that the issues managed by BISP included, POS agents were identified in deduction from beneficiaries and operations were moved from retail to campsites. The BISP staff moved from other areas to Sindh and Balochistan to manage the operations and agent strike was managed by the BISP staff.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022