PESHAWAR, Aug 18: The annual medical expenses incurred by the employees of the PTV, Peshawar Centre, are increasing at an alarming rate, prompting the authorities concerned to suspect that the facility is being massively misused, official sources said.

The annual medical bills claimed by the PTV’s employees at the Peshawar centre are apparently causing financial losses to the corporation, the sources at the centre told Dawn on Thursday.

The PTV’s Islamabad headquarters had to release an additional amount of Rs7.3m after the initially allocated sum of Rs8.8m for the 2001-02 fiscal year got exhausted in Feb 2002.

The total money consumed under the medical head for the year 2001-2 thus reached a whopping Rs16.1m mark, according to the sources.

The employees consumed Rs10.23m, instead of the sanctioned sum of Rs7.28m in the year 1999-2000.

Similarly, the amount spent on the medical bills was Rs14.15m against the sanctioned amount of Rs9m in the 2000-01 financial year.

The PTV Peshawar, said the sources, had requested the headquarters to provide Rs19.18m during the 2000-01 financial year.

Keeping in view the ever-growing medical bills of the employees, the centre has demanded Rs22m for the current fiscal year (2002-03) to meet the expenses of the more than 550 employees, an official said, adding that the increase in the amount for medical bills has also been triggered by the ever-rising drugs prices.

This year, he said, in view of the 15 per cent GST imposed on drugs, the centre has demanded Rs2.5m more than what was spent during the year 2001-2.

There are also reports that ten top officials of the centre alone had claimed Rs4.4 million, out of the Rs16.1m consumed by all the employees put together during the last fiscal year.

But the authorities concerned are unwilling to furnish the details about who claimed what — which brings into question their own positions.

Some of the employees disclosed that they weren’t getting drugs they actually needed while others got them even when they didn’t actually need them.

Reports also say that the PTV employees force the PTV doctors to prescribe them expensive medicines. In some cases, they threaten the doctors in case they don’t oblige.

After all, the PTV is being run on taxpayers’ money and the lavish medical bills claimed by its employees need to be curbed to save the corporation from incurring heavy losses, an official said.

The official said the centre has retained seven doctors who examine the patients, including the family members of the employees, and as many medical stores in different parts of the city were required to issue them the drugs.

The centre pays bills to these medical stores on monthly basis. The cases which need expensive treatment like heart surgery or kidney transplant are being referred to the headquarters before the patients go for the treatment because the centre has to make payment in advance to the institution or the doctors concerned.