MULTAN, Feb 27: The on-going exercise to reconcile the accounts has so far confirmed Rs220 million expenditure by the Health Department under the head of commodities and services during the financial year 1995-96.

Following publication of reports alleging Rs600 million without authorization, the department had recently directed the executive district officers (Health), to reconcile the expenditure statements for the fiscal 1995-96 in their respective districts in the C&S head.

Some departmental officials, including a former deputy secretary, are said to have embezzled the amount by claiming expenditure overruns. The amount was re-appropriated from the budgetary allocations in the salary head. A sizable portion of the salary budget had remained unutilized owing to the protracted ban on recruitments.

By transferring savings in the salary head to the C&S expenditure, the officials claimed compliance with the overall allocations for the year. The finance rules, however, provide that the budget allocated for the salaries can not be spent on C&S without the prior approval of the government and the Finance Department. A senior Health Department official said: “Only the Finance Department can allow this, that too, in circumstances amounting to national emergency.”

The most glaring irregularities were said to have been committed in Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur and Sargodha divisions. The authorities had reportedly placed Rs80 million at the disposal of the then health services directors of Dera Ghazi Khan, Rana Abdul Ghaffar, without specifying the amounts allocated for C&S and salaries.

The budget for local procurement of medicines for the Bahawalpur district health officer was Rs7.8 million. Sources said the then drawing and disbursing officer and a deputy secretary were involved in the embezzlement.

Sources said in the initial stage of the reconciliation exercise a sum of Rs220 million had been found as over-expenditure under the C&S head.

The authorities have reportedly started examining the case to decide whether it is fit for a probe by the National Accountability Bureau.