LAHORE: The monitoring and evaluation department of the Punjab government has raised some serious observations over the construction, renovation and quality work of various blocks and wards of the Services Hospital.

One of the key observations was that only 25 per cent of the total work was completed by Dec 31, 2023. The Rs3.3bn project was started on Oct 28, 2023 and the completion deadline is Jan 31, 2024.

The ‘inordinate’ delay has caused interruption in the provision of treatment facilities to the patients at one of the largest public sector teaching hospitals of the city.

According to an official report, the other serious issues raised by the government departments were about the quality of work and a gross negligence of starting the project without a resident engineer.

Rs3.3bn project likely to miss Jan 31 deadline as only 25pc of work is complete

The report surfaced a few weeks after a multi-storey building/block of the Services Hospital collapsed and the government is yet to make the investigations into the incident public.

As per the scheme, the government was to construct, upgrade and renovate surgical, medical and admin blocks, provide heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, five lifts, fire alarms and fire fighting system etc.

“During the course of the visit, it was observed that no resident engineer was hired yet and work was in progress without supervision of resident engineer due to which quality of work may breach”, reads the official report. (A copy is also available with Dawn).

The monitoring and evaluation DG has stressed the executing department to hire the resident engineer to avoid breach in quality of work.

“As per information provided by the executing department, the approved cost of the project was Rs3.3bn while only Rs500 million funds were released and utilised,” reads the report.

The monitoring department observed that the project was behind the schedule as 72pc of the work was to be completed by Dec 31.

The director general expressed his reservations in the report for not providing the quality test reports to the visiting teams of his department, raising doubts over the standard of work.

“The poor occupational safety and health conditions were observed at the site as labourers were working at height without personal protective equipment (PPE)”, reads the report.

Another serious mistake pointed out by the team was about the feasibility study report of the project.

“It was observed that feasibility study was not conducted by the sponsoring department prior to initiation of the project”, according to the report.

The department further said that, in facade work, stirrup spacing was not according to approved structural drawing, seepage at roof and honeycombing in concrete slab was observed in the corridor of radiology department.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2024