IMF all-praise for govt’s efforts towards corruption assessment

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has commented on Islamabad’s dedication to the Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Assessment (GCD), appreciating the federal government’s efforts and planning to continue the ongoing partnership with the cash-strapped nation.

According to reports, the IMF recently sent out a scoping mission to Islamabad to go over the foundations of the GCD at the behest of the federal government. The mission was led by Joel Turkewitz, senior counsel at the IMF’s legal department, who was in Islamabad from February 6 to 14.

The mission, IMF said, aimed to study corruption and governance weaknesses surrounding six core state functions. Reports revealed that these core state functions were anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML-CFT), central bank governance and operations, financial sector oversight, market regulation and rule of law.

IMF’s official statement said that its delegation collaborated with several officials and entities from Pakistan, including the auditor general, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Finance Division, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) and the Ministry of Law and Justice.

However, reports said, IMF’s interactions were not limited to state entities only as it also collaborated with business associations and global partners.

Despite the global lender’s appreciation, Pakistan is not yet in the clear as IMF’s team is set to once again visit Pakistan within the year to collect additional information regarding weaknesses negatively impacting the country’s governance and corruption metrics.

In 2024, Pakistan scored an abysmal 27 points on the corruption perceptions index. For reference, the index ranges from 0 to 100 with a score of 0 indicating rampant corruption and 100 reflecting the complete absence of corruption from institutions.

According to data, Pakistan’s ranks as the 135th most corrupt country in the world. This helps explain the IMF’s interest in reforming the country’s systems to pave the way for a fairer and more transparent system. The IMF also intends on exploring the possible economic effects of these vulnerabilities in their assessment.

Currently, two IMF “policy-level” delegations are set to visit Pakistan. The first of these will go over the climate resilience project that could unlock $1 billion in funding for the project. The other delegation will visit the cash-strapped country to review the $7 billion Extended Fund Facility Program that Pakistan is currently a part of.

The IMF is also supposed to review Islamabad’s proposal to slash the extortionately high power tariffs. However, a similar proposal was recently rejected by the IMF.