The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has placed a growing number of higher-grade officers under performance monitoring, a move that comes after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) flagged concerns in its Corruption and Diagnostic Assessment Report. Financial integrity has now become a central factor in deciding which officers get promoted.
During a background briefing with a small group of reporters on Friday, FBR officials confirmed that integrity checks now weigh heavily in promotion decisions across the organization.
How Many FBR Officers Are Under Watch?
Citing internal figures, officials said the proportion of officers placed on a performance watch list, relative to those actually promoted, jumped from just 2% in 2023 to nearly 40% in 2025. The increase was especially sharp for officers moving from grade 17 to 18 and from grade 18 to 19, while higher grades also saw a rising share of officers flagged for scrutiny.
One official put it plainly: roughly two out of every five officers up for promotion in 2025 were also placed under review, compared with about one in fifty just two years before.
The Rating and Reward System Behind the Numbers
This performance monitoring is driven by the FBR’s Rating and Reward System (RRS), an internal scheme introduced for officers of BS-17 and above that combines competence assessments with multi-rater feedback and financial incentives. It marks the first time such a structured performance management mechanism has been rolled out at the FBR, with mandatory peer reviews reaching completion rates of 97.4%, 99.5%, and 100% across the last three evaluation cycles.
FBR leadership maintains that this system now gives them a dependable way to gauge officers’ integrity and professional ability when making decisions on postings, promotions, and rewards.
The impact shows up clearly in staffing data. In Inland Revenue, the share of officers holding low integrity ratings (graded C, D, or E) in critical positions fell from 74% in July 2023 to just 11% by June 2026, meaning 89% of those posts are now filled by officers rated A or B. Customs saw a similar shift, with low-rated officers in critical roles dropping from 71% in January 2023 to 9% in June 2026.
Rewards under the RRS are tiered by performance ranking: the top 20% of officers receive four basic salaries as a bonus, the next 20% get three, and the bottom 20% receive nothing. Officials acknowledge the system has both strengths and drawbacks, but say it remains a working tool for now.
A Broader Self-Accountability Push
Alongside the monitoring list, the FBR points to a sustained self-accountability campaign. Disciplinary cases resulting in major penalties nearly doubled, climbing from 38 in FY2023-24 to 49 in FY2024-25 and 75 in FY2025-26. Suspensions of Inland Revenue Service and Customs officers across grades BS-16 to BS-21 also rose sharply, from 33 in FY2023-24 to 106 in FY2024-25 and 105 in FY2025-26.
As of April 2026, the FBR reported that 32 officers with questionable reputations, 14 from Inland Revenue and 18 from Customs, had been sidelined and denied new postings, with most holding BS-20 rank or above. The crackdown has also led to criminal cases against two officials, registered by the Federal Investigation Agency, along with two Preventive Officers named in separate cases.
Taken together, these figures suggest the FBR’s performance monitoring push is reshaping how promotions and postings are decided, with integrity now sitting alongside competence as a core requirement for career advancement.
