RAWALPINDI: The Punjab government on Saturday formed a three-member committee to probe irregularities in the purchase of medicines for the financial year 2021-22 which violated the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules.

The committee is led by Dr Asadur Rehman, Rawalpindi’s director of health services, while Dr Saadat Ali Khan, medical superintendent at Wah General Hospital, and Mohammad Aqib Jan, finance manager of the directorate of monitoring and evaluation, Director General Health Services Office, Lahore are the members.

The committee will start investigations on January 16 and it will submit a report to the secretary of the Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department by January 30. The team will check all records available with the District Health Authority and objections made by the audit team during the audit of annual accounts.

A senior official of the District Health Authority told Dawn that the former chief executive officer of the authority was posted in Bahawalnagar and the former district health officer (Medical Services) had joined Benazir Bhutto Hospital as the deputy medical superintendent.

Committee to submit report to health secretary by Jan 30

He said that the committee would prepare a report after getting the stance of the officials named in the audit report and documenting evidence in favour of their stance. He said the report of the audit team and minutes of the Departmental Audit Committee meeting would also be a part of the investigation report.

When contacted, District Health Authority Chief Executive Officer Dr Anser Ishaq said that the committee had been formed to investigate the irregularities in the purchase of medicines during the initial stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said that the DHA officials had been asked to coordinate with the investigation team and the report will be forwarded to the audit department by end of this month.

Audit report

The District Health Authority had recommended an inquiry against its former chief executive officer and purchase district health officer after irregularities worth Rs274.4 million were detected by the Departmental Accounts Committee in the authority’s accounts during the fiscal year 2021-22.

On the directions of the provincial audit department, the primary and secondary health secretary was asked to fix the responsibility within 30 days so that the facts could be ascertained and shared with the audit committee. The meeting of DAC was held on Dec 7-8 while the DHA CEO wrote the letter to the provincial healthcare department on Dec 30.

It said that irregular expenditure in the purchase of Covid-19 items while bypassing the PPRA rules caused a loss of over Rs140m.

The audit also objected that the health authority procured different items and medicines which caused damages to the tune of Rs4.882 million. The authority faced a loss of Rs21.199m due to violations of PPRA rules in procurement as well.

The health authority purchased medicines and other healthcare items for tehsil headquarters hospitals and rural health centres even though the district health officer was not authorised to purchase anything for tehsil hospitals without directions from the provincial government.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2023