World Bank pushing to bypass accountability in BISP, says architect of program

[Naveed Yaseen]

World Bank may make BISP corrupt, Bengali

Tuesday, May 12, 2009
By Khalid Mustafa

ISLAMABAD: Interference of World Bank in the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) would make it corrupt as the system being proposed by the bank would have no accountability process, eminent economist Qaiser Bengali said.

Bengali, the architect of BISP but now not part of the programme, stated this at a seminar titled “Is economy in or out of woods”, organised by the Centre for Research and Security Studies here on Monday.

“Prior to joining the World Bank, parliamentarians were distributing forms among the poorest, and if any member of parliament recommends wrong people for Rs1,000 per month facility, then media and other sources were their to expose him. But now in the new scenario, the bank has initiated a poverty census across the country apparently to ensure transparency, but if unjustified families are included in the said system, there will be no mechanism to check any irregularity which will make the Benazir Income Support Programme corrupt,” he said. “I fear that the process, which is very good on paper, could be corrupt if MNAs and senators, who distribute forms among the needy, are not formally held accountable,” he said. He, however, clarified that MNAs or senators had no role in selecting deserving persons because the National Database and Registration Authority verified applications. “The assumption is incorrect that all the MNAs are corrupt and the whole civil population is honest.”

The World Bank basically wants a comprehensive analysis of poverty incidence in the country for which a poverty census has been kicked off, which will determine the number of people living in the loop of poverty.

However, Bengali refused to approve the role of World Bank in BISP and its drive to identify households. When asked in case any one who deserved BISP facility but had no access to any member of parliament, then where should he go, Bengali said in that scenario the person would be out of the scope of the programme.

“Yes, there exists deficiency in the programme, but it does not mean that BISP will cover all poor people as the number of the poorest is too big.” To a question, he said that rejection rate of forms was high in Sindh than in Punjab.

Dr Ashfaq Hasan Khan, Dean and Professor in NUST Business School, Islamabad who was one of the important members of the economic team of Shaukat Aziz and former president Gen Pervez Musharraf, said ruthless borrowing would serve no purpose, rather it would create issues of debt sustainability. “At this point in time, there is no need to bring more areas in the tax net as the authorities concerned need to increase compliance rate as only 44 per cent taxpayers are paying taxes and the Federal Board of Revenue should increase the tax base.” Khan said “he is not opposed to introducing new areas in the tax net, but at this point of time, the FBR needs to exploit the potential of collecting revenue under the existing tax base at 80 to 90 per cent compliance rate.”

To a question, he said the increase in wheat support price from Rs625 per 40kg to Rs950 was sheer injustice to end consumers as they would be left with no option but to purchase the commodity at 40 per cent more price compared to international prices.

Dr Salman Shah, former finance minister, stressed the need of a single digit discount rate as it held the key to boosting economic activities. “Once economic activities commence in the country, the FBR will be able to collect more revenue which will provide fiscal space for the government to go for development.

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