ISLAMABAD: Member Inland Revenue (Operations) will directly receive complaints against corruption in order to provide secure channel of lodging complaints and in this regard SOP has been devised for handling of complaints.
The Circular No. 10 of 2021 – Operations issued on Monday, stated that in order to allay the fears of business community and citizen taxpayers, a convenient, and protected mechanism of filing complaints against corruption is being devised whereby all complaints would be received by Member IR Operation himself on an especially dedicated cell phone +92-0345-5555507; the cell phone would be in his own possession, exclusively.
“The complaints would be opened, acknowledged, and treated as per law in a highly confidential manner.”
The identity of the complainants would be immediately masked and encoded to safeguard them against any undue consequences.
The standard operating procedure (SOP) for lodging and handling of complaints against field functionaries is as under:
i. Complaints would be lodged through text message at cell No.. +92-345-5555507 – on Whatsapp, preferably.
ii. In Whatsapp text option, the complainant would identify himself by writing his name, address, CNIC the case particular and his cell phone number.
iii. The complainant would write the name(s) of the official(s) against whom the complaint is directed along with his/their designation, place of posting, and any other particulars, if available.
iv. The complaint must be supported by some evidence such as audio or video recording, text message exchange with the FBR functionary or any other documents, which could be attached with the text message, or subsequently sent by hard mail. If no such evidence is readily available, and affidavit on a legal paper, clearly spelling out the allegation and the person against whom the allegations are leveled would suffice.
v. Upon receipt of the complaint, a code number would be allotted to each complainant and his back-end identity data would be hidden beyond the access of field officers. This code number would help a complainant track progress on his complaint and the outcomes on it.
vi. Depending on the nature of the complaint and the evidence provided, the matter would be taken to logical consequence in the shortest possible time.
vii. Non-specific, unsupported or generalized complaints may not be processed.
The FBR said that taxpayers could not lodge complaints of corruption, rent-seeking and unethical conduct against any FBR functionary without any fear of reaction or revenge. However, in order to maintain the integrity of the system and achieve its intended objectives, the complainants would not level generalized allegations, and instead, file solid complaints, duly supported by evidence, and affidavits against the delinquent functionaries so that the malaise of corruption could be eliminated from the revenue functions of the state.
