KARACHI, June 6: Governor Sindh, Mohammedmian Soomro, taking serious note of the improper use of funds collected by medical colleges in Sindh under the self-financing scheme, has ordered thorough inquiry of the matter.

He issued the orders at a meeting here on Thursday at the Governor’s House and called to discuss the funds collected by the public-sector medical colleges under the self-finance scheme.

The meeting was attended by the provincial health minister, Ehsan Ahmed; chief secretary, Javed Ashraf Hussain; principal secretary to the governor, Akhtar Zamin; secretary health, Chaudhry Khalid Latif; secretary finance, Fazal Rahman and other high officials.

The governor issued directives for identifying the persons involved in the improper use of such funds in the past and taking disciplinary action against them. The directives were issued after the governor received substantial evidence of irregularities in the funds through initial inquiries conducted on his instructions.

The meeting accorded approval to SOP so that these funds could be utilized properly and in a transparent manner in the future. The governor stressed that these funds be utilized for upgrading the laboratories and promoting medical education and research.

It was further decided to maintain the accounts of these funds in a proper way and get them audited regularly. Moreover, 30 per cent of the funds will be earmarked for teaching hospitals. The meeting also discussed a proposal to raise admission fee under the self-finance scheme.

Official sources, quoting a report prepared by the Sindh Governor’s Secretariat, said that experience showed that ever since the inception of this scheme, none of the principals of any medical college, in his capacity as the Drawing and Disbursing Officer, devised any system or conducted financial audit to ensure proper maintenance and up-dating of financial records.

According to the secretariat report, the number of seats and fee in all the five medical colleges of Sindh are — foreign nationals: 8 seats, US$7,500 per student per year; overseas: 4 seats US$5,000 per student per year and local students: 25 seats, Rs150,000 per student per year.

The estimated income of each medical college for eight foreign students, four overseas Pakistanis and 25 local students gives an approximate income of Rs8.71 million per year.

The report added that funds were never audited during the last ten years by the audit team of the Auditor General Sindh and Inspection Team of Finance Department of Sindh, except to the extent that a portion of the fee that was deposited with the local treasury.

Taking cognizance of these irregularities, the health department temporarily suspended usage from these funds in August 2001, and appointed M/S Hasnain Murad and Company to conduct audit for the period 1991-2000.

The audit revealed that each college is operating several bank accounts without approval of the competent authority and without establishing a fund management committee. The audit reports shows that Sindh Medical College maintains 19 bank accounts, Dow Medical College six accounts, People’s Medical College 24 accounts, Liaquat Medical College (now university) 13 accounts and Chandka Medical College 21 accounts.—PPI