IMF’s GCDA highly biased?

EDITORIAL: Chairman, National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Lt-Gen Nazir Ahmed Butt (retired), while presenting the laudatory achievements of the institution in its annual report labelled the International Monetary Fund (IMF) technical assistance (TA) report titled Pakistan Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Assessment (GCDA) as highly biased and inappropriate adding that “when you give these IMF people access, they simply enter your bedroom. ” Publication of the report by end August 2025 was a structural benchmark under the ongoing 7 billion-dollar Extended Fund Facility programme which was missed by two-and-a-half months and was finally uploaded once Pakistani authorities realised that without meeting this benchmark the second staff level agreement would not be reached and the tranche release would remain pending – a situation that may lead to non-renewal of the over 9 billion-dollar rollovers by the then three friendly countries. Additionally, the Fund also requires the selection process of the NAB chairman to be overhauled by January 2027 and a commission-led process instituted that would be represented by opposition members, judiciary and civil society. Two observations are critical. First, a TA requires government concurrence that grants the authors of the report access to critical information that would then lead to informed recommendations. And, secondly, administration after administration has acknowledged lacunas in the selection process of senior officials where merit is often held hostage to nepotism, and pledged that institutional heads must be selected on the basis of merit alone. Be that as it may, the GCDA focus on two major system flaws – the non-implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) and misuse or flaws in accountability. The former, the report notes, has a legal foundation, but its practice has yet to deliver on its intended transparency outcomes. The Information Commission has noted that significant portions of the RTI are either not acted on or simply rejected premised on exemptions. Supportive data provided in the report is rather damning: most of the appeals filed with the information commission were related to RTI requests in the period 2022 to 2024, involving the Capital Development Authority (21 under process with 68 closed), NADRA (20 under process and 66 closed), Ministry of Interior (26 under process and 40 closed), National Accountability Bureau (16 under process and 43 closed), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (21 under process and 38 closed), Federal Investigation Agency (15 under process and 43 closed), Federal Board of Revenue (23 under process and 31 closed), and National Assembly (16 under process and 30 closed). The report suggests a whistle-blower protection regimen and notes that the Special Investment Facilitation Council is “vested with substantial authority to facilitate foreign investments, operates with untested transparency and accountability provisions. ” Judicial reforms that pre-date the controversial twenty seventh amendment were also cited as areas of concern in the GCDA and its seven proposals appear compelling: (i) creation of standardized principles for judicial appointments and tenure for the appointment of judges and members of the Administrative Tribunals and specialized courts and the demonstration of compliance with those principles in all judicial appointments in courts, dealing with commercial cases; (ii) improving efficiency of the Federal Administrative Tribunals and Special Courts; (iii) strengthening integrity and conflict of interest provisions for all judicial grants to judicial personnel; (iv) initiating yearly public reporting on the steps taken to strengthen integrity, including statistics on a number of complaints received, and the redressal of complaints, and other actions; (v) enhancing Judicial Integrity; (vi) expanding and institutionalizing Alternate Dispute Resolution mechanisms by operationalizing ADR centres nationwide and enacting the Arbitration Bill; and (vii) preparing a multi-year judicial reform strategy to strengthen institutional performance and judicial service delivery in Pakistan. In addition, the report highlights the following weaknesses: (i) fiscal governance (public financial management, public procurement, management of state assets and tax administration and policy) with neither internal nor external auditors with sufficient authority to fulfil their mandates, including weak budget credibility; (ii) market regulation with regulatory bodies favouring select firms or entrenched cartels, and, thereby, raising concerns about impartiality and regulatory capture; (iii) financial sector oversight; (iv) anti-money laundering; and (v) rule of law with special reference to enforcement of contracts, protection of property rights, and maintained that judicial sector is organizationally complex and is not able to reliably enforce contracts or protect property rights due to problems with efficiency, antiquated laws, and the integrity of judges and judicial personnel. And perhaps what is the most damning observation in the report is that it was limited in its assessment to the federal level or, in other words, the extent of serious concerns would be massive if the TA had included an assessment at the provincial level as well. To conclude, globally corruption is estimated to cost 3. 6 trillion rupees or 5 percent of global GDP and Pakistan as a case in point is estimated to lose up to 6. 5 percent of GDP annually to corruption or around 20 to 25 billion dollars. It is time to implement rigid anti-corruption policies to mitigate its impact on the hapless people of this country. Copyright Business Recorder, 2026

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