ISLAMABAD, March 1: The government has dismissed 32 officers of the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) on the charges of corruption, with immediate effect.
Informed sources told Dawn here on Friday that the Ministry of Finance had approved the dismissal of 32 officers after having found “serious allegations” of corruption against them.
CBR Chairman Riaz Malik has been directed by Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz to remove corrupt officers of the organisation from their services with a view to effectively implement the joint recommendations of the World Bank/IMF, the Ministry of Finance and Shahid Hussain Committee on Reform of Tax Administration.
Earlier, the government had dismissed 1,000 employees of the CBR, many of whom had since been reinstated as charges of corruption against them could not be proved.
“But this time there are irrefutable ‘corruption charges’ against these 32 officers, therefore, there is no question of taking them back,” said an official source.
The source said the CBR officials had been told to complete the restructuring of the organisation as early as possible so that revenues could be increased by 23 per cent of the GDP compared to present 14 per cent of the GDP as had been proposed by the World Bank and the IMF.
The purging in the CBR, sources said, was being done on the directives of President Gen Pervez Musharraf who had said that element of corruption and misappropriation of funds could not be tolerated.
