IMF comes again

This time, it has a new focus on corruption

 The IMF review team will land up first in Karachi on February 25, moving to Islamabad on March 2, with its visit to conclude on March 11. It is supposed to engage in the standard quarterly review for the release of the next tranches under two loan programmes, the $6.6 billion Extended Fund Facility, and the $1 billion Sustainability and Fund Facility, totalling $1.2 billion. Apart from the standard expressions of disappointment that Pakistan’s revenue collection is not on track, the IMF review team is expected to go after corruption in a big way, with a large number of steps agreed against corruption falling due, and the review team asking about implementation.

The logic appears to be that the ability of Pakistan to achieve its revenue goals depends on the honesty of Central Board of Revenue officials. That requires a clean-up of government generally, and it was towards this end that the IMF conducted a Governance and Corruption Assessment Report last year, which resulted in a number of steps which the government had promised to take. They included both federal and provincial officials above a certain level having to file reports of assets owned. This is one of the steps officials are doing their best to avoid. Who better than taxmen would know the result of such declarations? The IMF has not used this to target the CBR alone, but all forms of government, almost as if it believes that unless corruption is controlled in all departments, it will not be possible to control it in any one. This may seem a little like the PTI’s policy of ‘thorough’, but it should be remembered that it was the PTI government which developed problems with the IMF over issues of sovereignty.

The government has pledged frequently enough that this present IMF programme would be the country’s last. However, all that would mean is that while receiving no money, the country will follow the reforms introduced. The opposition held its feet to the fire over the governance and corruption diagnostic report, and there is no reason to expect that it will refrain with respect to the actions. However, the IMF may be coming too close for comfort, but the government should remember that there is no justification from failing to act against corruption, except to spare the blushes of senior officials who should know better.