ISLAMABAD: A cell to monitor life style of officers of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and compare with their asset declarations is likely to be formed with the financial assistance of the World Bank (WB) and the British Department for International Development (DFID).
The objective of the cell is to trace out corruption by comparing life style of officers with their income and asset declaration. A well -placed source at the FBR Monday confided this scribe that presently the name of the proposed cells was under discussion; the officials concerned were discussing on two proposed names; Asset Declaration Unit and Integrity Management Unit. The source said that the World Bank and DFID had committed an expenditure of $ 1 million on the said project. This project is being disused to be kept with the Human Resource Division. However, historically such units are kept under the Administration Department.
The source said that with the help of the proposed cell, corrupt officer who have different life styles than their income as well as their asset declarations, would be traced out and disciplinary actions would be proposed against them. However, although the formation of the said cell is under discussion, the source said that a severe tug of war between honest and corrupt officers on the preparation of nature of terms of reference of the cell had kicked off. “The officers with the least good repute and fame are struggling to get the TORs as mild which will affect the performance of the said cell, whereas, honest officers are pushing forward for having a strong and result-oriented unit with strict rules and regulations,” the source further added.
The source said that honest officers were desirous of having the unit operative and effective in real sense and officers against whom the unit would prepare fact-finding report regarding their involvement in corrupt activities, would not be declared as ‘Honest and Above Board’ in their annual performance reports. The source further said that officers who have good repute were of the viewpoint that the sitting FBR chairman Tariq Bajwa was also an officer of integrity. Therefore, the proposed unit would definitely create desired impacts regarding rooting out corruption from FBR’s circles.
