ISLAMABAD – The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is likely to extend contract with M/S Agility, vendor of Pakistan Customs Computerised System (PACCS), the automated customs clearance software, which has already been declared security risk by the office of Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) and the FBR itself. “The FBR has almost decided to extend the contract with M/S Agility and a notification in this regard will be issued within a few days,” an official source revealed on Saturday.
It is pertinent to mention here that the office of the AGP had already declared M/S Agility, a Kuwait-based firm, a security risk as it had the ability to alter the data of defense imports because it retained codes of the system. The FBR had also conceded that the PACCS being faulty system was a security threat and the vendor Agility was involved in fraudulent activities regarding defense supplies from the US.
Declaring the country’s automotive trade clearance system a security risk, the AGP had asked the government of Pakistan to purchase proprietary rights and codes from the vendor as their control by the vendor could pose a grave threat to the secrecy of sensitive defense imports. The AGP had also objected on the cost of the PACCS as it had been completed with a cost of Rs 116.1 million against its approved budget of Rs 55 million.
