MULTAN, Jan 24: A Rs600 million embezzlement committed in 1995-96 has been swept under the carpet by some senior officials in the Finance and Health Departments, a senior Health Department official has told Dawn.

The official said the then deputy secretary (Budget and Accounts), Muhammad Arshad, had released the amount directly to the district health officers and medical superintendents. The amount was in addition to the budgetary allocations for the financial year. It was for the first time that the funds were provided directly to the DHOs and the MSs. Until the introduction of district governments, the funds were always released through the directorates concerned.

The fraud was detected when a senior Health Department official found fake entries in the expenditure statements. He also discovered that savings in the salary allocations had been reappropriated for commodities.

The official said that the matter was brought to the notice of the then Health Department secretary. The secretary later headed the Finance Department and the matter was hushed up.

CONVOCATION: The fifth convocation of the Bahauddin Zakariya University will be held on February 16, 2001.

A press release of the university issued here on Thursday, says Governor Khalid Maqbool will be the chief guest of the convocation.

Degrees will be awarded to successful candidates of the examinations of second annual 1998 and first annual 1999 in the fields of social sciences, science, engineering, agriculture, Islamic studies, linguistics, commerce, law, business administration, pharmacy, medicine and dentistry.

Apart from this, some 22 professors will be conferred with doctorate degrees in their respective subjects.

Meanwhile, the vice chancellor of Fatima Jinnah Women University, Prof Dr Najma Najam will inaugurate the classes of MSc in applied Psychology and MSc in Sociology at the Bahauddin Zakariya University of Multan on Friday (Jan 25) in a ceremony to be organized at the executive centre of the BZU Institute of Management Sciences.