Daily Times

BAHAWALNAGAR: Despite corruption being proved for over-pricing of medicines and fake billing worth Rs19.5 million and a first information report against the Bahawalnagar DHQ medical superintendent (MS), 13 health officials and seven vendors, no departmental action had yet been taken against any one of them despite the passage of a month.

On the other hand, millions of rupees have also been released to the vendors by the health authorities as payment for the same dubious bills.

According to sources, on June 11, an FIR was registered against DHQ MS Dr Inamullah Jamali, four former medical superintendents, two former AMS, two procurement officers, admin officer, three lady pharmacists, and seven vendors by the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE).

The ACE had sent a copy of the FIR to the health authority`s CEO and health secretary.

It is pertinent to mention here that MS Jamali on May 5 had declared bills with more than Rs20m of three firms, RA Treaders, Abdullah Traders, and Chaudhry Trading, as untrue. He also referenced the ACE FIRs in his report, a copy of which is available with DailyTimes, and sent it to Primary and Secondary Healthcare Secretary, District Accounts Officer (DAO), and other officials.

However, taking a U-turn against his own report, the MS termed the documents of these firms true and, in a letter (a copy available with daily times ) on June 22, directed the accounts office to release their payments.

The accounts office released payments of Rs8,391,810 to RA Traders, Rs9,311,683 to Abdullah Traders, and Rs574,750 to Chaudhry Trading.

DAO Inamullah told DailyTimes that clarification regarding the report number 5687 by MS about the cases and allegations of documents being forged was sought on June 22 via letter number 743(a copy available with DailyTimes) and the MS office responded on the same day via letter number 6862 terming the documents complete.

The accounts officer said the MS and CEO were called to the Accounts Office for an explanation where the MS and a representative of the CEO explained that the documents provided by the firms were cleared by the inquiry committee constituted by the health CEO.

Health CEO Dr Shahid Saleem said it was the responsibility of the health secretary to take departmental action against those named in the FIR. He said only MS was responsible for releasing the payments to vendors.

ACE Circle Officer Abdul Qayyum said that FIRs were registered against RA Traders and Abdullah Traders for corruption and inquiries were going on. He said the MS had been called several times but neither he nor any representative appeared for the inquiry.