PESHAWAR: The Fata Secretariat has transferred a Rs160 million solarisation project meant for its headquarters in Peshawar to hospitals in tribal areas after three years into the project saying the headquarters don’t need the 500 kilowatts system.

The officials told Dawn that after purchasing 500kw solar system for the project in 2016, the authorities concerned realised that the building of the Civil Secretariat on Warsak Road, Peshawar, didn’t need solarisation in the presence of connections from two Wapda feeders and several diesel-fired heavy duty power generators.

They said Fata additional chief secretary Dr Fida Wazir, who was recently repatriated to the federal government, opposed the solarisation of the secretariat’s building and asked the relevant departments to abandon the project. The officials, who had designed the solarisation project, agreed with the ACS’s opinion and dropped the plan before preparing a revised PC-I.

Officials say it was realised after the purchase of 500kw system in 2016 that building doesn’t need solarisation

The original PC-I, which was approved in 2014, states that the civil secretariat’s building comprising 360 rooms needs efficient solar system to ‘increase efficiency and deliverance of services and reduce burden on the economy’.

It adds that the officials are facing problems in the smooth running of their official business due to the shortage of electricity.

“After the ACS opposed the solarisation of the secretariat, the officials concerned faced the issue of how and where to utilise this huge system,” said an official.

After deliberation, the lady luck smiled on few health units in Fata and the C&W department worked out the revised PC-I.

Currently, the system is being installed in five hospitals outsourced to the nongovernmental organisations, said an official of the department concerned.

Another official told Dawn that the health directorate had designed the solarisation plan for headquarters hospitals in seven tribal agencies in 2013 on need basis.

He said the estimated cost of the solarisation of seven major hospitals was Rs10 million but it could not be executed due to delay in the release of funds.

The official said the directorate had designed PC-I for the solarisation of AHQ hospitals not for those health units, which have been outsourced.

He however said the C&W department kept the Fata health directorate in the dark about the issue and started shifting the system to the outsourced facilities.

“Our plea is to solarise AHQ hospitals, not C and D-Type hospitals, handed over to NGOs,” he said.

The solarisation of the civil secretariat was included in the annual development programme 2014-15. After the procurement of expensive equipment was dumped at the warehouse of the Communication and Works (building), Khyber Agency, and the officials were looking for alternate options.

The solar system procured for the secretariat building has the capacity to run 30 air conditioners, split units, over 100 laser printers, fax machines, Photostat machines, over 2,000 bulbs, around 700 fans and 360 desktop computers in the entire building.

When contacted, C&W sub-divisional officer Engineer Hamayun said PC-I of the project had been revised and the solar system meant for the Civil Secretariat had been installed in five hospitals.

He said the shifting of the system from Peshawar to hospitals in tribal agencies didn’t require additional budget.

However, the revised PC-I shows that Rs176.2 million is required for shifting of the ‘subject’ scheme for the solarisation of five hospitals.

According to it, the solar system is being installed in three Type-C hospitals in Mishti Mela area of Orakzai Agency, Landi Kotal area of Khyber Agency, Wana area of South Waziristan Agency and two Type-D hospitals in Darazinda area of Frontier Region Dera Ismail Khan and Sholam area of South Waziristan Agency.

These hospitals were outsourced to NGOs under the public-private partnership programme, introduced for the first time in Fata without any legal provision or cover.

KP Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra reportedly approved the public-private partnership for the area and handed over health facilities to NGOs.

Under the agreement, the Fata secretariat will give Rs190 million annual grant to the NGOs in addition to regular budget. The civil secretariat’s bosses had started solarisation of the outsourced health facilities instead of the AHQ hospitals that cater to bulk of patients in the respective areas.

Fata director (health) Dr Jawad Habib told Dawn that the directorate had informed the secretariat about its requirements and demanded solar system for AHQ hospitals and not smaller facilities.

He expressed ignorance about the solarisation of the outsourced hospitals and said his directorate had yet to take over any hospital powered by solar system.

The official claimed that only one hospital had so far been outsourced.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2017