November 20, 2003	Thursday	Ramazan 24, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 19: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has taken cognizance of corruption in the HDC Rabies and Tetanus Toxoid vaccines production unit of the National Institute of Health (NIH) to the tune of Rs40 million and has sought a detailed report from the health ministry by November 30, an official source told Dawn on Wednesday.

The prime minister secretariat has also directed the health ministry to take appropriate remedial measures in this regard, the source said.

“A serious note of the situation has been taken and it has been desired that apart from taking appropriate remedial action in the matter, a detailed report may also be sent to the secretariat preferably by November 30, 2003 for the kind perusal of the prime minister,” the direction said.

The action has been directed on an inquiry report held against a senior officer of the NIH in 1999, who according to the inquiry findings, despite being officer in charge of the HDC laboratory for more than 12 years, wasted more than Rs40 million by purchasing such items which were not required, never used and were not even taken on charge. The officer is still working in a senior position in the NIH, the source said.

The report had held the officer responsible for the failure of the HDC and TT vaccine production projects. The report also suggested implication of three more senior officers for their criminal negligence and silence during this entire episode.

The four-member inquiry committee in its findings had also stated that the said officer had failed to produce even five per cent of the HDC production target of 100,000 doses per year.

The report said the officer mishandled a number of pieces of expensive equipment in the Tetanus Toxoid (T.T) Laboratory causing damage of millions of rupees to the national exchequer.

The committee also accused the officer of mishandling sophisticated expensive machinery due to which a major portion of instruments like ultracentrifuge, boilers, pumps, cold room machine, aircondition plants, fermenters, water treatment plants and hot air oven went out of order.

In addition, many other machines were out of order and few had been got repaired from private sources, costing Rs3.2 million. The officer unnecessarily purchased a new rotor worth Rs2.8 million for ultra centrifuge, when the old one was functional and under-utilised because the production had already stopped. The new one has not been utilised for the last many years.

The officer even dislocated the fermenter without taking any expert advice, as he did not possess engineering expertise to carry out this change.

The inquiry report said the officer also cleared the inspection note regarding dust exhaust units in connivance with the contractor concerned despite the fact that the same had already been rejected by the respective officer in charge of the ORS production unit.

It said the officer cheated the administration by claiming to be an M.Phil degree holder at the time of publication of seniority list for the promotion of the offices, while in fact he was neither issued a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for M.Phil studies nor could he produce any degree before the inquiry committee.

The officer was also involved in a corruption by clearing an inspection note and passed 14 horses when as a normal procedure of NIH, he was not authorized to inspect the animals because he was not a qualified veterinary doctor.

Out of these 14 horses, 13 had been declared substandard by a committee of the two veterinary doctors of the NIH in their written report to the inquiry committee. Out of these 13 horses, one had died within three months.