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| January 26, 2002 | Saturday | Ziqa’ad 11, 1422 |
Over Rs49m Zakat fund for hospitals embezzled
ISLAMABAD Jan 25: An embezzlement of Rs49.431 million was detected from a total amount of Rs79.201 million allocated to seven major hospitals of Lahore during 1995-97 from the Zakat fund, a special audit report revealed.
Irregularities were found from an audited amount of Rs79.2 million allocated to Lady Wellington Hospital, Mayo Hospital, Inmol Hospital, Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Gulab Devi Hospital, General Hospital and Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital.
The break-down of the amount embezzled is as follows: Rs0.238 million as accounting errors, Rs0.739 million due to negligence, Rs6.708 million misused by violation of rules, Rs36.392 million embezzled by violation of propriety, Rs2.264 million as recoverable amount, Rs0.165 million and Rs2.92 million were spent without proper record.
An amount of Rs0.238 million was shown in the record of Sheikh Zayed Hospital as being refunded to the deserving patients.
A difference of Rs0.738 million was found in the cashbooks and bank statements of two health welfare committees dealing with two hospitals which deemed as accounting error.
Similarly, the audit observed that expenditure of Rs2 million allocated to Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital for treatment of cancer patients were shown through a simple plain paper against relevant Zakat rules.
The matter was brought in the notice of the hospital’s administration in June 1999, but, no response was received till June 2000.
In a case of negligence, Rs6.707 million were spent on irregular purchase of medicines. In examination of Zakat funds allocated to Gulab Devi Hospital for the year 1996-97, the audit found that no terms and conditions were laid down for the tender, nor agreement was signed between the hospital and the suppliers, nor any record of sealed tenders was available.
While issuing medicines worth Rs2.26 million, no identity card copies of patients were attached. In another case, Rs2.7 million were embezzled in the purchase of medicines without calling open tenders. Medicine bills worth Rs0.14 million were not verified by the pharmacist concerned.
An amount of Rs0.28 million were misused on the unauthorized a