ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has demanded that the federal government’s powers to issue supplementary grants be restricted.
According to sources in the Ministry of Finance, an IMF technical mission has arrived in Pakistan to review progress on targets related to the budget process. It has also called for a special audit of supplementary grants issued over the past 10 years.
The IMF team will review the implementation of objectives related to public finance management (PFM) and budget process reforms. A high-powered committee will be established to oversee the digitized master plan for public finance management.
Sources stated that the IMF delegation will provide crucial technical assistance for more than a week. The mission will assess the “Digital Public Finance Management Assessment Tool” to enhance transparency in the budget process.
They said that, prior to the next budget, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning will jointly issue the budget call circular. To make the supplementary grant mechanism more transparent and effective, the Auditor General will conduct an audit. Some redrafting of the Public Finance Management Act is also being carried out to align it with the new reforms.
