PESHAWAR: As Timergara Medical College is yet to become operational despite its inauguration in 2015, an interim inquiry committee has found massive-scale irregularities in procurement of equipments for its affiliated district headquarters teaching hospital, Timergara, Lower Dir.

The five-member committee, formed by the principal of Timergara Medical College (TMC) in November 2024, has found that most of the equipments were either non-existent or substandard. The report of the panel said that most of the items were still unpacked and their warranty period was already over. The record is missing, according to the three-page report available with Dawn.

The college has been approved by the provincial government and about Rs2.40 billion has been spent on it so far but classes are yet to begin in it.

The report has asked the medical superintendent of the hospital to instruct the storekeepers to provide record in line with the prescribed procedure and former project director should be instructed to provide the record so that the committee could proceed with smooth probe into the matter.

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The committee was formed after a sub-committee of Standing Committee on Health of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly ordered inquiry into the matter. Both the storekeepers of TMC and DHQ hospital have no record.

The committee found that no master file of equipment was available and there were missing documents, such as supply, purchase orders, standard bidding documents, installation reports and workshop engineer reports.

Equipment worth Rs1.4 billion has been channeled from TMC to DHQ hospital without record. Discrepancies in the purchase of urology equipment of Rs54 million were detected as the items was shown to be registered in the hospital stock register but head of urology department and storekeeper confirmed its unavailability due to which 90 per cent of urological procedures couldn’t be performed at the hospital.

The report said 83 out of 139 items were received by an ECG technician instead of the heads of relevant departments. Substandard items were purchased that went out of order within months with no facility of repairing available, it added.

It said that a CT scan machine was already available at the hospital, yet another was purchased for Rs250 million and it had been non-functional since its installation in May 2021. The warranty of the machine had already expired and its repair required Rs12 million, it added.

The report said that a much-needed MRI machine, costing Rs150 million, was not found while the mammography machine, costing Rs50 million, didn’t not have a printer connected so unable to provide films to patients.

It said that an incinerator machine, costing 35 million, was purchased but it had been non-functional since 2021. “It is now dumped beside the already functional incinerator donated by MSF,” it added.

During the visit, it was noticed that the new machine requires a gas supply to operate, yet there was currently no gas supply to the hospital. The already installed incinerator, which runs on electric power, is fully functional.

Equipment for skin department, costing 12 million, is dumped at skin OPD. “When inquired about its non-functionality, it was revealed that these items were dumped in skin department without any indent and no directions were given about the procedure charges, nor were they installed by the firm,” said the report.

It said that four anaesthesia machines were non-functional and according to senior anaesthetist Dr Saeed, they were being handed over to technicians. “He is not aware of machines’ specifications and other details, nor have they been installed properly,” it added.

The report said that two laparoscopic machines, costing 19 million as mentioned in PC-1, could not be found physically. “The total cost of orthopaedic equipment is RS54 million, but we were only able to verify a few of them,” it added.

It said that 300 beds were missing and of the 36 ventilators, 28 were uninstalled. TMC, which was supposed to be completed by 2023, is still far from admitting students as it requires faculty and 500-bed hospital as per PMDC’s requirements, which have not been fulfilled.

On August 8, National Accountability Bureau closed inquiry regarding corruption and misuse of authority in the case pertaining to TMC and DHQ hospital.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2025