BISP audit flags Rs 25.7bn paid on missing spouse records; 12,078 govt employees got Rs 516m

BISP news: an Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) audit of the Benazir Income Support Programme for 2024-25 has flagged Rs 25.7 billion paid in 601,850 cases where the beneficiary's spouse details were missing or did not add up, The Express Tribune reported on Saturday. The same report found 12,078 government employees, pensioners and their spouses were paid Rs 515.7 million although a December 2019 cabinet decision bars them from the programme.

BISP had 10.02 million active beneficiary households in the year audited, so the flagged spouse-record cases cover about one in every 17 families on the list.

The audit findings, in numbers

The Rs 25.7 billion headline figure is the first two rows together. An audit objection is not a finding of fraud: it means the payment could not be verified against the rules, and the department is asked to explain it. The AGP has asked NADRA to explain the spouse records and recommended independent checks of marriages on file.

How far off target BISP's list is

The audit puts BISP's inclusion error at 6.8% (people on the list who should not be) against a permitted 5%, and its exclusion error at 13.27% (eligible families left out) against a permitted 10%. In other words the list is wrong in both directions: too many ineligible people in, and more poor families missing than the programme allows. Auditors blamed weak data checks, poor information sharing with other departments and loose enforcement of the eligibility rules.

What it means if your family gets BISP

Nothing in the report stops payments to eligible families. But the audit's recommendations point to more verification, and the cases it lists show what the checks look at:

1. Spouse CNIC on record. If your husband's CNIC is not linked to your BISP record, or your marital status has changed, update it at a BISP tehsil office or NADRA, since this is the largest gap the audit found.
2. One household, one PMT score. A family should have one current poverty survey. Re-surveying the same household under a different head is the pattern the audit flagged.
3. Government jobs, pensions, cars and foreign travel are among the exclusion tests. A family member taking a government job or buying a car can affect eligibility.

Check your status by sending your CNIC to 8171, as explained in our BISP 8171 eligibility and payment guide. Only use the official 8171 code and BISP website: our story on fake NADRA, FBR and BISP websites shows how scam pages look. BISP also plans to carry the electricity subsidy from January 2027, which makes an accurate household record matter more.

Diamer-Bhasha Dam audit

A separate AGP report for 2025-26, also reported by The Express Tribune, found the Diamer-Bhasha Dam project at 19.95% physical progress against 39.67% financial progress by June 2025, and objected to more than Rs 73.31 billion in land acquisition funds being held in the Chilas deputy commissioner's bank account between 2010 and 2021 instead of the treasury. It also noted the main civil works contract of more than Rs 442.4 billion was 31.47% above the project's PC-I allocation.

BISP had not publicly responded to the report when this story was published.