Govt to release key report ahead of IMF board meeting
0
ISLAMABAD: The government has given an undertaking to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that it will publish the much-delayed Governance and Corruption Diagnostic (GCD) Assessment Report before the Fund’s upcoming executive board meeting that will consider a $1.2 billion disbursement for Pakistan.
Under the $7bn Extended Fund Facility (EFF), publication of the IMF-prepared GCD report and a subsequent action plan to address governance weaknesses across federal and provincial tiers is a key structural benchmark.
The deadline, initially end-July and then reset to end-August and end-October 2025, remains unmet owing mainly to technical and factual disagreements between Pakistani authorities and the IMF team.
“We have reaffirmed the structural benchmark and, with mutual understanding with the IMF, have committed to publish the report before the [IMF executive] board meeting” later this month or early next month, an official said.
Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Assessment is a structural benchmark under $7bn bailout package
He said it was a very comprehensive exercise conducted by the technical and legal teams of the IMF in consultation with other global organisations like the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Drafts were exchanged repeatedly with Pakistani counterparts — including anti-corruption bodies, the superior judiciary, investigation agencies and the finance and law ministries — to secure “the best outcome” from international expertise covering more than 100 rules, the official added.
He said there had been serious disagreements on the interpretation of rules in the local and internal context, “for the best advice and implementation plan”. The official claimed the disagreement phase was now over and a final draft had been shared with IMF headquarters in Washington for a final review before publication.
The two sides are believed to have discussed reducing the time gap between the publication of the GCD Assessment Report and a resultant governance action plan based on its recommendations for reform measures to address critical governance vulnerabilities.
Earlier, the GCD report was set for publication in July and the action plan rollout was scheduled for a gap of three months by the end of October. The latter may now be rolled out before December to become subject for the next biannual review.
There are compliance gaps around asset declarations by public servants. While the overarching civil servants’ law has been amended to mandate electronic filing by Grade-17 and above officials, including beneficially owned assets and those of family members, for access by relevant institutions, tax authorities and banks, implementation remains uneven.
An IMF scoping mission had visited Pakistan early this year and held meetings at the Supreme Court, the Law and Justice Division, the Auditor General for Pakistan, parliamentarians, the National Accountability Bureau, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the State Bank of Pakistan.
It produced a comprehensive report identifying gaps and weaknesses in public finance management, FBR’s tax system, and the Accountant General Pakistan Revenues’ efforts to identify loopholes.
Under the existing governance mechanism, the majority of government officers have not been disclosing assets of their own and those of other family members to the tax authorities or the Establishment Division, and there was an insufficient institutional mechanism for accountability.
On top of that, many institutions, including regulatory bodies, have exemptions from such requirements of scrutiny and disclosures. No wonder there have been widespread reports of corruption and corrupt practices across the bureaucratic and political landscape, and Pakistan has been ranking high on the various international corruption perception indexes.
The IMF has been pressing for data-based red flags, due diligence, safeguard mechanisms and guidelines against corruption and misuse of public offices, resulting in sub-optimal decision-making and compromising the country’s business and growth potential. The Paris-based FATF had also identified a series of weaknesses and made recommendations for course correction.
Pakistan and the IMF reached a staff-level agreement on the second review of $7bn bailout package and the first review of $1.4bn Resilience and Sustainability Fund (RSF) on Oct 14.
Under the agreement, Pakistan will get $1bn disbursement under the EFF and $200m under RSF upon approval of the IMF executive board. The board meeting has not been announced yet, but authorities suggest this would be convened any time after Nov 15.
Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2025
