LAHORE: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE), Punjab has registered a Rs800 million embezzlement case against seven doctors and four other officials of the Mayo Hospital.

The FIR was lodged after seeking approval from Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi.

The intervention of the chief minister was sought for lodging the case as a BS-20 doctor serving as professor of surgery was among those involved in the alleged embezzlement and only the CM was authorised to accord approval.

The doctors nominated in the FIR were members of the technical committee constituted by the institute to initiate the bidding process of procurement of medicines and other items for the hospital. They are Prof Dr Ahmad Uzair Qureshi, Associate Professor of Medicine Dr Imran Mehfooz Khan, Dr Khalid Mehmood, Dr Ghulam Farid, Dr Umar Nazir, Dr Tahir Qadeer and Dr Wajid Rana.

The case was lodged on the complaint of pharmacist Hussain Asif who alleged that the suspects had committed embezzlement of Rs800 million in the purchase of medicines and surgical equipment for the Mayo Hospital. The FIR stated that the corruption was carried out in terms of procurement process of annual bulk purchase of surgical disposables and miscellaneous items against the tender code A015 for the financial year 2022-23.

It added that the Punjab finance department had allocated Rs1,300 million as budget for procurement of drugs and surgical disposables for the Mayo Hospital which was required to purchase almost 6,000 items of medicines and surgical instruments to meet its requirements for the year. Accordingly, the hospital administration initiated the process of tender/procurement of surgical disposables and miscellaneous items which consisted of only 21 items out of 6,000 items including drugs.

The complaint further maintained that a total of 41 firms/ bidders participated in the bid and submitted their technical and financial bids when the tender notice was issued in the newspapers. Out of these 41 companies, four major companies were of former storekeeper Shakeel against whom multiple cases and inquiries had already been launched. The FIR said except these four mentioned companies, the other 37 companies were knocked out of the bid by the suspects.

The complainant further alleged that in order to accommodate the aforesaid entities, the 21 items were being purchased by these four companies under the disputed tender for Rs1,000 million out of the total budget allocated for the purchase of drugs and disposables. Moreover, he said, the purchase was made at a rate 100 times higher than normal ordinary market bulk rate.

He alleged that that the sole purpose of this collusive arrangement i.e excluding the other capable bidders and accommodating the blue eyed was to cause a loss of Rs800 million to public exchequer and earn illegal commission in millions of rupees by the hospital administration as well as personal benefits.

“This was a glaring violation of procurement procedure laid in the Punjab Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) laws,” reads the FIR. It stated that due to mala fide and corrupt attitude, the hospital administration did not put price comparison and price reasonability assessment exercise in motion, which was against the fundamental principles of procurement laws “value for money”.

Following an inquiry in the light of these allegations and evidence produced by the complainant, the Punjab ACE Lahore lodged the case.

On the other hand, sources in the Mayo Hospital said the FIR was a result of a rift between the firms who were disqualified for the tender and those approved by the technical evaluation committee. They claimed that the Punjab ACE officials completed the inquiry in a hurry despite the fact that the hospital’s medical superintendent and some other senior medics visited the inquiry officers and told them that the tender was awarded to 20 vendors instead of four and that some mafias behind the complaint were misleading the ACE officers to blackmail the administration to get undue favour in medicines the hospital arranged under the head of Local Purchase 9LP.

Sources said the institute’s senior doctors also submitted evidence and quoted relevant laws which allowed the committee to disqualify the firms. They also apprised the ACE officers that the complainant had earlier moved the Lahore High Court, the health authorities, the CM secretariat and other relevant forums on the same grounds he put up in the anti-corruption department but all the requests were turned down.

Sources said the institute had decided to challenge the criminal action/case against the doctors and other staff at the relevant forum.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2022