LAHORE: The auditor general has found the extension to re-employment contract of two senior officers of the Punjab Health Facilities Management Company (PHFMC) unlawful/irregular and in violation of the government policy and regulations.

The two officers were Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Saleem Ahmad and Deputy Manager Operations (DMO) Hassan Akhtar. The PHFMC was functioning under the administrative control of the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department.

During the audit, it was observed that Saleem Ahmad had attained the age of superannuation on Oct 18, 2019, but the board of directors extended his contract for three years.

Quoting the Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) from June 16, 2003, the report, a copy of which is available with Dawn, stated: “All cases of re-employment on contract after the age of superannuation must be examined by the provincial re-employment board/ provincial re-employment committee in accordance with the policy and recommendation of the Board/Committee should be then submitted for orders of the Punjab chief minister.”

During the audit of the PHFMC for 2019-20, it was observed that Mr Ahmad was appointed as the CFO on contract for three years on Oct 25, 2017 on a monthly salary of Rs500,000. “It was observed from the record that he attained the superannuation age on Oct 18, 2019 and instead of following the instructions of the S&GAD and obtaining approval from the competent authority, the management continued his contract till Nov 5, 2020.

“On expiry of one-year period, the contract was renewed for… three years i.e from Nov 16, 2020 to Nov 5, 2023 by ignoring the instructions of administrative department of the Punjab government,” the report further read.

A finance department letter dated Oct 22, 2019 said the case for extension of such contracts must be placed before a selection board that will comment whether the continuation of the contract would bring value for money for the government. Hence, the PHFMC Board of Directors allegedly violated the above points and granted extension to the officer without considering the government instructions.

“Keeping in view the above facts, the extension in contract… was held irregular and payment made to him on account of pay and allowances amounting to Rs8.2 million from Nov 2019 to Dec 2020 held unlawful/irregular in the audit,” the report added.

About the DMO, the report stated that Mr Hassan Akhtar was appointed on contract for three years on May 6, 2017 at a salary of Rs125,000. “After expiry of his contract…, the competent authority regretted to extend [it] on the basis of his performance and he was informed accordingly vide letter dated May 18, 2020,” the report further read.

However, later his contract was extended for a year from July 1, 2020. In the absence of any approval from the competent authority, extension to the contract was held unlawful.

“…the payment of pay & allowances worth Rs1.8 million for one year of extended period was also unlawful,” reads the auditor general’s report.

He recommended that the officers responsible for this violation be fixed, services of the officer concerned terminated immediately and irregular pay recovered either from the officer concerned or person(s) held responsible.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2021