A World Bank spokesperson while responding to a question by this correspondent stated that the Bank is satisfied with the overall performance of BISP: "As per the current Implementation Status Report of the World Bank's support to the BISP through the Pakistan safety net project, the overall performance of the BISP against the project development objective is satisfactory".
The World Bank further stated that, "the BISP is using the services of Pakistan Post for delivery of payments to its beneficiaries under a bilateral agreement, which provides adequate measures to control any irregularities in the payment process. There have been instances where punitive actions were taken against the staff of Pakistan Post involved in any irregularities, which also included suspension of concerned Pakistan Post staff and reimbursement of disputed payments to BISP".
The spokes person added, "As a step forward, to promote transparency in the payment process, BISP is now increasingly using technology based payment mechanisms, the Debit Cards payment system in partnership with commercial banks being the predominant mechanism. To date, more than 50 percent of its beneficiaries are being paid through the Debit Cards whereas the remaining are being enrolled and expected to be completed by June 2013".
Informed sources in BISP told this scribe that the programme administration requested AGP in November to convene a meeting of the Departmental Accounts Committee (DAC) to finalise the audit report of 2009-10 of the Program. "Now it is likely to be received by BISP before the end of the calendar year 2012", sources said.
BISP sources while commenting on the final investigation report on irregularities of millions of rupees by the postal departments of FATA and KPK said, "it has been more than one and a half months and the final investigation report being compiled by the postal departments of FATA and KPK and the BISP administration has not been completed so far and it may take another 15-20 days."