FBR’s deceased workers’ heirs await grants

LAHORE: Orders of the federal ombudsman for releasing the grants to the families of deceased employees of the internal audit department of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) have not been implemented.

The federal ombudsman on January 15, 2020 issued orders to the FBR to release the grants to the bereaved families within one month as the grants were not released to them for the last six years.

The employees’ deceased families have been knocking every door for the last six years but the authorities concerned paid no heed. Interestingly, step-motherly treatment was meted out to the internal audit wing of the FBR while the grants of the Prime Minister Assistance Package for deceased employees’ families of other wings such as regional tax offices and others for 2019 year were released.

On the other hand, families of the deceased employees of the internal audit wing of the FBR did not get the grants since 2015. After the orders of the ombudsman, the FBR further delayed the release of funds for the deceased families while kept releasing funds under the head of technical supplementary grants, procurement of machinery, vehicles and other office equipment. However, on May 15, the Revenue Division through surrender order F.no. 2(8) Exp.Customs/219 surrendered the required amount of Rs97.555 million from the Customs Department for the release of funds to the bereaved families in the light of ombudsman's orders to the Accountant General of Pakistan with title ‘surrender of funds from demand No 46-Customs to demand No 44-Revenue Division for the current financial year 2019-20’.

The Revenue Division did not issue advice to the Finance Division for the release of funds to the bereaved families of the internal audit wings of the FBR.

The family members of the bereaved families pursuing the case for the last five months feared that the amount could lapse due to closure of the financial year in June while the Revenue Division was not issuing the grant funds release advice to the Finance Division.

Meanwhile, additional secretary of Revenue Division said he doesn’t know the status of deceased families cases for giving them grant under the PM’s package but the Revenue Division is handling the cases diligently.