LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Saturday grilled Primary and Secondary Healthcare Secretary Ali Jan Khan for more than two hours about his alleged involvement in the illegal procurement.

Mr Jan appeared before the three-member combined investigation team who questioned him being a signatory authority in the procurement of medicines and other equipment at ‘exorbitant’ rates.

An official privy to the development said the NAB summoned Ali Jan as he was a member of board of directors and the health secretary as well.

Mr Ali Jan Khan is said to be among influential government officers of Punjab for having close association with the chief minister.

He was already facing NAB inquiries in some other ‘faulty’ health schemes, the official said.

The NAB officials gave him a questionnaire but he failed to satisfy the investigators pertaining to the procurement matters.

The official said the NAB is probing the alleged embezzlement of billions of rupees in 56 companies of Punjab.

The NAB launched probe into the mega scam in the Punjab Health Facilities Management Company (PHFMC), after detecting a series of irregularities.

Many ‘shocking’ revelations surfaced during a probe into the PHFMC and Ali Jan’s [alleged] major role in the irregularities was found.

He said the PHFMC was established in June last year after rolling back the Punjab Rural Support Programme (PRSP) making its registration under the Security Exchange Commission.

The PRSP was managing basic health units (BHUs) and rural health centres (RHCs) of 14 districts of the province.

The chief minister appointed grade-20 official Mohammad Ali Amir Malik as chief executive officer (CEO) of the company and Mohammad Zulqernain as its chief operating officer (COO).

The government also formed a board of directors for the in-question company making primary health secretary Ali Jan its member.

The one-line budget was allocated to the PHFMC which meant the utilisation of the budget would not fall under PPRA or any other rules.

The official said the scandal detected when Ali Jan, who was also signatory authority being health secretary, allegedly misused his authority and expanded the scope of the company from 14 districts to other health facilities in sheer violation of laid down rules.

He curtailed the powers of CEOs and transferred authority of transfer and posting of employees to his office.

He said Mr Jan included six government hospitals of Lahore - Samanabad Hospital, Sodiwal, Shahdara, the government Sawami Nagar Hospital etc in the company.

Besides these health facilities, he also included 26 mobile health units of South Punjab in the same company without following laid down rules, the official said.

During the tender process, the NAB found out illegalities and irregularities of hundreds of millions of rupees in the procurement of medicines and other equipment.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2018