PESHAWAR, Feb 12: The Provincial Health Department has swept under the carpet the findings of an inquiry report relating to dumping of substandard and expired medicines, medical supplies, equipment and vehicles.

On the directives of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, the establishment department had constituted a three-member committee in Dec 2010 to conduct inquiry into dumping of the consignment worth Rs602.15 million in two basic health units on the outskirts of the provincial capital.

The committee’s mandate was to fix responsibility and submit its report within 10 days, but instead of taking action the report was put in cold storage. Medicines and non-pharmaceutical items, including vehicles and over 600 motorbikes and cycles, were bought under the federal government-funded National Programme for Family Planning and Primary Health Care.

The expired medicines and non-pharmaceutical goods were found at two abandoned basic health units in Chamkani and Phandu localities.

The countrywide programme costing Rs21.53 billion was executed between 2003 and 2008. Its main objectives were to develop the necessary network of health manpower by selecting and training 100,000 lady health workers across the country; address primary health care problems in the community; bring about community participation; and expand family planning services and availability in urban slums as well as rural areas.

Sources said that the committee had completed its inquiry report in March 2011, but it was yet to see the light of day. They said that files containing details of the inquiry report had been dumped and the health department was also adopting silence about the matter.

Special secretary health Prof Noorul Iman, when approached, said that the fact-finding committee had finished its work and the next step would be to take permission from the competent authority to take appropriate disciplinary action against the responsible officers.

“We are burdened with workload and can’t recall,” replied Prof Iman when asked about reasons for the delay in taking action.

However, sources said that officers who were allegedly involved in the dumping of medicines and other items had strong affiliation with the ruling Pakistan People’s Party and that was why the matter was being hushed up.

MPA Saqibullah Khan Chamkani who had unearthed the issue in the assembly in Sept 2010 told this correspondent that he had submitted an adjournment motion to discuss the inquiry report in the House and fix responsibility.

Earlier, a four-member committee of the assembly, headed by health minister Syed Zahir Ali Shah, had visited the sites and found medicines and other machines lying unused. The minister had promised stern action against the responsible persons.

After visiting the sites the house’s special committee had proposed further investigations into the scam and expired medicines were sealed in warehouses.

The establishment department’s committee had observed that prescribed rules were violated which resulted into consumption of substandard and expired medicines by the patients.

It was observed that the Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL), Karachi, and Drugs Testing Laboratory (DTL), Peshawar, had declared the medicines and non-pharmaceutical items expired and substandard. Initially, part of these drugs and other items were distributed among thousands of patients, mainly infants, children and pregnant women through the LHWs free of cost.