PESHAWAR: A high-level inquiry committee fixed responsibility on 16 people, including a former caretaker adviser of health department, for placing orders for medicines in 2023-24 illegally that caused Rs1.9 billion losses to government.

The inquiry report said that the former caretaker health adviser replaced the additional director administration at directorate general of health services to pave way for massive corruption in procurement of medicines for government hospitals. It said that the health adviser facilitated corrupt officials instead of taking action against them.

It said that former health secretary reconstituted purchase committee in violation of policy and continued to move summary after summary for getting funds from finance department without taking into consideration the supply and demand situation.

The report held responsible former director-general of health services for causing losses to national kitty by ignoring legal procedures for purchase of medicines. It said that the former director-general of health services failed to follow legal course with regard to issuance and award of tenders. It said that without conducting market surveys, he continued to pay to vendors and pharmaceutical firms in violation of the prescribe law.

Inquiry report says they caused Rs1.9 billion losses to govt

It said that he suspended the transparent process of procurement of medicines and began the process afresh to pave way for corruption.

The report said that another doctor, who was not part of the procurement process, continued to advise the committee to buy unnecessary medicines. It said that the same person was later made part of technical committee, which enabled procurement in line with the wishes of the committee.

It said that another doctor, who was district health officer at that time, was made member of various inspection and purchase committees.

In Sept this year, the government notified a committee consisting of additional chief secretary, establishment and finance secretaries and adviser to chief minister on anti-corruption retired Brigadier Mohammad Musaddiq Abbasi to probe the allegations of misappropriation of medicine funds during the last caretaker government.

The committee sent its report to Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur, recommending disciplinary action against the people, who were found guilty.

The report said that the former director-general of health services, who was suspended in April, placed orders with different firms for supply of medicines worth Rs4.44 billion without seeking demands from hospitals.

The medicines were unnecessarily procured, it said. Commonly, procurements takes place only after all hospitals furnished demand lists. It said that different medical items worth Rs1.91 billion were procured in violation of government’s policy.

It said that records showed that the drugs kept in the main store valued at around Rs800 million but the suppliers were paid Rs3.17 billion. Many of those irregularities had been detected during an earlier fact-finding inquiry by health department. The findings of the inquiry were sent to chief secretary for action.

The report said that Drug Testing Laboratory (DTL), which was required to test all medicines before being bought, cleared the bills of medicine suppliers without having reports of technical and other committees.

It said that the value of drugs shown in record as Rs2 billion was actually Rs500 million, less than the actual amount. It said that district health officers of Peshawar, Bajaur and North Waziristan told the inquiry committee that they neither received medicines nor did they request for supplies and all documents about medical supplies were fake.

The report said that most letters were sent from districts, using fake stamps and signatures to justify procurements, which existed on paper only. It said that initially 81 firms were selected but drugs were purchased from 14 only. According to it, medicines worth Rs50 million were purchased from a firm already blacklisted for supplying substandard goods. The drugs were purchased at market rate in contrast to the company rate, causing financial losses to government.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2024