MULTAN: The EDO health office has allegedly purchased substandard medical equipment and other stuff and that too at high prices and without fulfilling the standard bidding and procurement process for the Shahbaz Sharif General Hospital.

The authorities made complete payments to the contractors but some equipment is still missing, say documents available with Dawn. Worse still, the purchases were made from the ‘blacklisted’ firms.

EDO Dr Iftikhar Qureshi said the procurement process had been completed and all material and equipment handed over to the hospital administration. The EDO finance rejected the claim, saying some equipment is yet to be received as Letters of Credit (LC) for these equipment have been opened and this process will take some time.

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The project was initially approved at a cost of Rs378.13 million but later it was revised up to Rs410.886 million by increasing the cost of revenue. The purchase process started in 2013-14; however, the department did not arrange the audit of the purchase.

Sources said the EDO office staff made excuses to avoid audit by saying that the purchase record of the hospital had been wasted due to rainwater accumulation in basement where the record was kept. They said Civil Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Raza Mohyuddin was given additional charge of the hospital on May 26, 2014 and he started the procurement process under the supervision of the EDO by deciding specifications for equipment and material.

However, when the quotations were produced before the District Tender Board, then District Officer Health Dr Shahid Bukhari (who was the secretary of the board) refused to sign the comparative statement despite various requests by EDO Dr Qureshi while saying that the purchases were being made on very high prices.

They said that on Dr Bukhari’s insistence it was decided in the meeting of the board that a three-member committee would verify the prices by visiting the market and the committee in its report confirmed that the prices in comparative statement were higher than the market rates. They said Dr Bukhari was transferred and Dr Shahid Magsi replaced him and he without any hesitation signed the statement while ignoring the findings of the price verification committee. The board invited bids from firms through advertisement in newspapers and each firm submitted two bids -- technical and financial. The purchases were made through blacklisted firms, they alleged.

They said irregularities were committed in the purchase despite the fact that the EDOs of finance, and works and service besides the technical consultants were members of the board. The DCO is the board chairman and EDO health its convener.

They said that after the purchase a committee makes physical and technical inspection of the purchased items before the payments but the inspection team received a massage from a senior officer of the district not to mention anything adverse regarding purchased items and their availability in their report.

They said that being pre-audit agency, it’s the responsibility of the district accounts office to verify the tender copy, supply order, inspection report and warranty letters but auditor Asad Magsi, who is a close relative of DOH Dr Magsi, did not demand the required documents before processing the payment of the purchased item.

They said that being drawing and disbursing officer (DDO) it was the responsibility of the EDO to provide the supply order, inspection report, warranty letters and issue voucher to the MS while handing over the purchased items but neither the EDO provided the required documents to Dr Raza nor did the latter demand these.

They said the issue surfaced after Dr Majeed Gill took the charge as MS on Feb 24, 2015, who wrote a letter to the EDO to provide him the required documents relating to the purchase. They said when the matter was brought before the DCO, he instead of sending the case to the anti-corruption department mediated between the EDO and MS.

Sources said bogus warranty statements and incomplete record were provided to Dr Gill who confirmed having received the equipment through a letter No (1065/MMSSGHM) on Sept 19, 2015.

Even the health secretary was aware of the embezzlement, he said, adding that he had blamed the EDO for being responsible for the purchases on high prices.

The EDO office is now claiming that all purchased items have been handed over to the hospital but according to documents, the material issued by the EDO office is not entered in the stock register. Where stock entries have been made, there is no signature of DDO/physical verification committee. “No warranty cards of electro-medical equipment are available with the staff of hospital, purchase of more than Rs90.4 million have been made through two blacklisted firms and a supply order that was given on Jan 13, 2015, for the purchase of CT Scan Machine remains in limbo.”

Dr Shahid Bukhari confirmed that he had objected to the high prices of some items but he was transferred.

Dr Raza said it was not his responsibility to receive gadgets and make stock entries though he had assigned duty to a team led by a doctor, while Dr Magsi said it was the responsibility of the EDO office to receive the purchased items.

Auditor Asad Magsi claimed that he released the payments after verifying the documents.

When contacted, EDO Finance Muhammad Ashraf said he had nothing to do with the purchase and the DCO or EDO could better tell about it.

DCO Zahid Saleem Gondal was not available for comment, while the EDO said all the purchases were made while fulfilling the standard bidding and procurement process.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2015

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