KARACHI, June 26: The National Accountability Bureau is conducting an inquiry into irregularities of over Rs146 million in the Sui Southern Gas Company.

Well-placed sources told Dawn on Thursday that a senior investigation officer of the National Accountability Bureau was recording evidence regarding what are being considered inflated hospital bills and transport charges.

“There are some hospital bills which are believed to be inflated. For instance, there are some bills of City Hospital, Malir, of Rs25.68 million; Rajput Hospital, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, of Rs12.37 million; Sindh Medical Centre, Quaidabad, of Rs15.726 million; Healthcare Centre, Nazimabad, of Rs15.35 million; Hillpark General Hospital, of Rs6.107 million; Institute of Surgery and Medicine, of Rs1.227 million and other hospital bills of Rs6.373 million.”

The sources said that Mohammad Gul, an official of the SSGC, incurred a total bill of Rs97,300 from Malir City Hospital. “The first bill was issued dated Oct 29, 2000. The second bill was issued dated Nov 7, 2002. Interestingly, the third bill was dated Nov 1, 2000.”

Similarly, his father, Ali Gul, incurred a total bill of Rs80,800. “There is the same discrepancy about dates. The first bill was issued dated Oct 17, 2000. The second bill was issued dated Oct 30, 2000. But the third bill was issued dated Oct 22, 2000.”

The sources said that so far nobody had been officially nominated as accused by NAB. They added that the inquiry drew on the audit report prepared by the SSGC.

They said that airline charges of Rs21.414 million were also being looked into by NAB. “These charges were apparently incurred by the SSGC while airlifting its employees from Sui to Karachi,” they explained.

The sources said that the SSGC claimed to have spent Rs42.5 million on the treatment of 1,618 employees of the PPL. “But the PPL says that about 1,000 people of those who were treated were not its employees,” they added.