A recent BISP Audit Report for the fiscal year 2024-25 has uncovered major irregularities in Pakistan’s social welfare system, revealing that more than 600,000 ineligible individuals received financial assistance due to weaknesses in profiling, data management, and regulatory controls.
According to the audit conducted for 2025-26, serious flaws were identified in the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) Management Information System. The report highlighted deficiencies in spouse profiling and beneficiary verification processes, resulting in financial discrepancies exceeding Rs25 billion across 601,850 cases.
The audit findings showed that thousands of government employees, pensioners, and their spouses received payments under the Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) program despite being ineligible. Federal Cabinet directives issued on December 24, 2019, clearly excluded serving government employees and their spouses from receiving BISP assistance.
Among the beneficiaries identified, 673 serving government employees in grades 1 to 16 received Rs25.20 million, while eight grade-17 employees obtained Rs0.09 million. Additionally, 9,124 spouses of serving employees in grades 1 to 16 received Rs402.80 million, and 87 spouses of officers in grades 17 to 20 received Rs2.54 million.
The report also found that pensioners and their family members benefited from the program. A total of 218 pensioners in grades 1 to 16 received Rs7.41 million, while 22 pensioners in grades 17 to 18 were paid Rs0.70 million. Furthermore, 1,847 spouses of pensioners received Rs74.16 million, and 107 spouses of higher-grade pensioners collected Rs2.81 million.
Auditors noted that inadequate data validation, duplicate registrations, and weak monitoring mechanisms contributed significantly to the irregular payments. The findings have raised concerns about transparency and accountability within one of Pakistan’s largest social protection initiatives.
Following the audit observations, the Departmental Accounts Committee (DAC) directed authorities to immediately block all ineligible beneficiaries and initiate recovery of the improperly disbursed funds.
