GUJRAT: Hundreds of local health authority employees, including senior doctors and paramedics, have not been paid their salary for the last month (July) as the disbursement cheque issued by the accounts office was dishonored by the National Bank of Pakistan.

According to a senior doctor working for the authority in BS-19, as many as 300 employees, mostly doctors and paramedics, were denied their salary for July.

He said many health employees who visited the NBP main branch were told by the bank staff that their salaries had not been transferred to their accounts from the provincial government’s account.

He said usually the salaries got transferred to the employees accounts by the first two days of every month.

He blamed the district health authority officials for delay in transfer of salaries who failed to timely inform the provincial government about the amount required for the purpose.

District Accounts Officer Fazal Elahi told Dawn that his office had timely issued the salaries’ cheque but it was dishonoured because there was insufficient amount in the NBP’s relevant account.

Admitting the glitch, the local health authority officials said the Punjab government had transferred at least Rs20 million less than the budget required under the salary head due to which the employees could not get paid for July.

Health authority Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Abid Ghauri said the provincial government had issued Rs76 million instead of the required amount of Rs96 million in the salaries head due to which some employees could not get the salary in time.

However, he said that he had already written to the Punjab government to release the remaining amount of Rs20 million for the payment of salaries.

He said the request had been approved, hoping the remaining amount would be transferred to the bank account within the next few days.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2017