FEB, GIF Receives Thousands Of Application For Educational Stipend Reimbursement

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Aug, 2019 ) :The three Regional Boards of Federal Employees Benevolent and Group Insurance Funds (FEB & GIF) have collectively received 18,259 applications for fee reimbursement and educational stipend from January 1 to June 30.

Of the total 11,261 applications were received in Regional board, Islamabad, 5,334 applications were received in Regional Board, Lahore and 1,664 applications were received in Regional Board, Karachi during the period.

The statistics issued about number of applications here on Sunday revealed that 10,687 applications have been sanctioned in Regional Board, Islamabad, 4,689 applications were sanctioned in Regional Board, Lahore and 1,129 applications were sanctioned in Regional Board, Karachi.

Similarly, 3,301 applications were rejected in Regional Board, Islamabad, 67 applications were rejected in Regional Board, Lahore and 149 applications were rejected in Regional Board, Karachi while 1,386 applications are pending in Regional Board, Islamabad, 134 applications are pending in Regional Board, Lahore and 386 applications are pending in Regional Board, Karachi.

Regarding reasons for delay in sanctioning of claims, the data revealed these are, Receipt of huge number of cases on announcement of annual results, inflow of cases is increased in start and mid of each academic year which mostly starts in July and January of each year and incomplete/deficient cases are sent by employees/departments which amount to about 60 per cent of the total receipt. This causes delay due to extended correspondence with applicants for removal of objections.

The other reasons for delay are late as well as incomplete replies to queries raised by this office from employees/departments (of the applicants) and every year an amount of about Rs.

1.2 billion is disbursed on account of educational stipend/fee reimbursement as scrutiny of the applications along with required authentic documents is a time consuming process which is unavoidable in order to check any fraudulent/duplicate payment.

Moreover, applicants also submit claims of fee reimbursement of fee twice in a year, for two semesters separately. Whereas, under Rule 25-A of FEB & GIF Rules, 1972 "fee shall be reimbursed on annual basis" (means that fee is reimbursed after completion/passing of two semesters in an academic year). Thus such cases are returned to employees for re-submission of applications for reimbursement of fee after completion of academic year.

Steps have been taken to clear pending applications and these included, the applicants are sensitized about submission of cases on annual basis under Rule 25-A of FEB & GIF Rules, 1972 after completion of two semesters.

Scrutiny of cases has been started at time of submission and incomplete/deficient claims are being returned at spot to applicants for removing objections/deficiencies.

Prescribed application forms have been revised for better understanding of beneficiaries to curtail number of incomplete cases while separate officer for sanctioning of fee reimbursement cases has been deputed in Regional Board, Islamabad where about 70 per cent of all the claims are received.

The other steps included that after in process approval of revised FEB & GIF Service Rules, the process for fresh recruitment will be started to overcome shortage of staff to handle workload increasing every year.

The FEB & GIF is keeping its user friendly website http://www.febgif.gov.pk Default.aspx updated regularly which provides all information regarding filling and submission of complete application forms with required documents.