QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch and senior officials of the provincial government have complained about ‘massive corruption’ in the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and lack of job opportunities for the province’s youth in the organisation.

They were talking to BISP Chairperson Marvi Memon during a meeting here on Saturday.

An official informed the meeting that most of the money meant for deserving families in Balochistan was misappropriated by ‘middlemen’ because of the complicated computerised and bank/ATM system.

“Uneducated people registered with the BISP do not know how to use the ATMs to draw the money. They are also deprived of the money at the post offices and the BISP offices by the staff who pay them only Rs2,000 out of the Rs4,500 released to each beneficiary every three months,” he said.

According to sources, a financial manager criticised some BISP schemes planned to be launched soon, saying that corruption being committed in the already available funds of over Rs104 billion could not be controlled.

The Chief Minister’s Adviser Kaisar Bengali, who headed a four-member team which designed the BISP, said: “There are several shortcomings in the BISP plan pertaining to educational institutions, internship and small loans which may cause failure of their implementation.”

Ms Memon told the chief minister that financial assistance to deserving families was given through post offices in remote areas where banks did not exist. She admitted that some reports of misappropriation had been received about the post offices system. “We are investigating the reports of misappropriation and action will be taken against those involved,” she said.

She requested the chief minister to help set up the BISP offices in the districts of Balochistan which lacked the facility.

The CM said that deputy commissioners would be asked to provide rooms in their offices for the purpose.

He, however, underlined the need for a re-survey to overhaul the database of deserving families and including new beneficiaries in the BISP lists.

Ms Memon visited the Agriculture College and presented the concept of ‘agro buddies’, asking the students to help the poor beneficiaries of the BISP learn modern techniques and come up with income generation projects which could later be funded by donors to help them overcome poverty. She also launched the scheme at the Sardar Bahadur Khan Women’s University.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2015

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