LAHORE: The Primary & Secondary Healthcare Department (P&SHD) Punjab has proposed major penalties/punishments of dismissal from service of the former chief executive officer (CEO) of the Mianwali District Health Authority, Dr Roy Mohammad Samiullah, and recovery of Rs58.9m from him for committing fraud, which led to a huge financial loss to the national exchequer.

Dr Samiullah was accused of multiple serious charges of fraud, corruption, financial embezzlement, misconduct and inefficiency while working as CEO health.

According to an official report (a copy available with Dawn), Dr Samilullah along with former accountant of the health authority of Mianwali and junior clerk Faisal Hameed Khan (already dismissed from service) and former storekeeper and dispenser Taj Muhammad (already removed from service) committed a fraud of Rs49.3m through duplicate, bogus and fake billing.

Samiullah was accused of committing fraud of Rs35.1m through bogus payments under the head of purchase of medicines, Rs3.3m against printing and publications, Rs2m against transportation of goods and Rs0.9m under the head of purchase of fixture and furniture etc.

Health dept seeks the former officer’s dismissal, recovery of embezzled amount

Dr Roy along with two employees mentioned above made procurement of the drugs, OPD pads and printing items, racks and other items at the exorbitant rates far more than the market prices that caused loss to the government of Rs9.6m.

“He procured different items without demand and made unnecessary procurement in the best interest of the vendor, causing loss to Rs10m,” reads the report.

Dr Samiullah and the then accountant purchased different items of Rs38m under object heads of expenditure without procurement planning through quotation in an untransparent manner and irregularly in violation of the Public Procurement Regularity Authority (PPRA) rules.

“He and ex-accountant with celebration of concerned auditor and assistant accounts officer of the district accounts office Mianwali attempted to draw further bogus payments of Rs12.6m but could not be materialized as the current CEO Dr Ameer Ahmed Khan withdrew these pending bills for the period of the ex-CEO, DHA Mianwali,” further reads the report.

It states that following the meticulous examination of available record, statements of the ex-junior clerk and ex- storekeeper who had served in the DHQ Mianwali, it has been established that the Dr Samiullah had allegedly embezzled Rs49.3m on account of procurement through duplicate, bogus/fake billing of bulk purchases of drugs & medicine from fake vendors/firms without original purchase order, original inspection reports, original DTL reports, stock entries in register and original delivery challans.

“The purchases were made through fake firms impersonating Akram Bros & Co, 89-Jail Road, Lahore, Al-Hamad Enterprises, Gulshan-i-Iqbal Karachi and KM Enterprises, Johar Town Lahore,” mentions the inquiry report.

It revealed that the fake bank accounts were opened with the two banks and were operated through a local resident Umair Malik who was pledged employment.

According to the report, the accused officer and his accomplices used the purchase orders issued to actual firms during previous financial years 2020-21. The bills were got cleared from the district accounts office reusing DTL reports of last year.

“On confirmation from original firms, it was confirmed that they have already received the payment of supplies against these purchase orders,” the report said.

It was a collaborative evidence to prove the charge of drawl of bogus payment along with confessional statement of ex-accountant Faisal Hameed, an accomplice of the accused officer, it said.

Similarly, fake bills showing purchase of drugs and medicines, printing & publication items, cost of other stores, transportation of goods, advertisement and purchase of furniture was done through quotations amounting to Rs14.1m.

The medicine stock registers were not properly maintained without page marking and certificate to the effect that his register was containing many pages and a lot of cutting/tampering.

“That is suggestive evidence that they adopted such a devious course of action just to avoid open competitive bidding process notwithstanding there was no state of emergency,” concludes the inquiry report that suggests some penalties.

The inquiry officer recommended penalties of forfeiture of one-year service and recovery of Rs58.9m against the then CEO DHA Mianwali.

Dr Roy Muhammad Samiullah strongly denied all the charges leveled against him without any documentary evidence and requested for ‘denovo inquiry’.

However, P&SHD special secretary Mohammad Iqbal as the departmental representative fully defended the findings of the inquiry officers. He proposed/added a major punishment of dismissal from service under section 4 (1) (b) (vi) of the PEEDA Act, 2006 of ex-CEO DHA Mianwali on account of massive corruption, embezzlement and financial indiscipline in addition to the recovery of the amount as recommended by the inquiry officer.

“Section 7 (0 (i) of the PEEDA Act, 2006 stipulates that where charges or charges of grave corruption are proved against an accused, the penalty of dismissal from service shall be imposed, in addition to the penalty of recovery,” Mohammad Iqbal concludes in the inquiry report.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2024