PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department has asked the chairpersons of the board of governors and hospital and finance directors at the medical teaching institutions to respond to the observations of the external audit of their respective hospitals.

In a letter, they all were instructed by the department to attend a meeting scheduled to be held at the health secretariat on July 17 regarding an external financial audit of MTIs conducted by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Care Commission (HCC).

Senior officials told Dawn that the audit was actually conducted by a private firm, with the HCC just facilitating the process for lacking the relevant expertise. They said the firm would present the audit report in the meeting.

“The HCC is an autonomous body established under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Care Commission Act, 2015, to regulate public and private healthcare establishments across the province through registering and licensing healthcare facilities, setting and enforcing healthcare quality standards,” an official said.

Minister to examine audit report in meeting today

He said the commission investigated complaints about healthcare services, acted against quackery and illegal medical practice and promoted patient safety and quality of care and had nothing to do with financial audits.

The official said the meeting would be held with health minister Khaliqur Rehman in the chair to discuss the findings of the external audit.

He said the MTIs had been directed to attend the meeting fully prepared along with the relevant audit reports, supporting financial records, compliance status, explanations of audit observations, and proposed corrective action plans to facilitate a comprehensive and productive discussion.

However, sources said that the audit was carried out by a private firm instead of a widespread demand by stakeholders and lawmakers for getting the process done by the auditor general of Pakistan like other departments.

Officials said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa enforced the Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act, 2015, which had, so far, been extended to 11 hospitals and their affiliated colleges and institutions.

They said the MTI-covered institutions were run by respective boards of governors, which took all decisions without the government’s involvement despite receiving a budget from it.

The officials said the budget for MTIs had been increased from Rs65 billion in 2025 to Rs80 billion this year.

They said the MTIs made appointments, purchases and procurements on their own and utilise one-line budgets as per their needs.

The officials said there were allegations of top appointments at MTIs in violation of “merit” as well as the utilisation of funds they got directly from the government, generated from the income of Sehat Card Plus, user charges, admissions and OPD registration fee as well as the institution-based practice.

They said several attempts by the health department to carry out an audit of MTIs had failed as the MTI-Policy Board, which was leading all MTI BoGs, had been insisting on external help to do the audit itself.

The officials said in January, the finance department released Rs10.5 million to the health department for conducting the financial audit of all 10 MTIs in the province during the current financial year to ensure transparent utilisation of the taxpayers’ money but that wasn’t done.

They said that the recent MTI financial audit by the private firm was an exercise in futility as utilisation of public funds needed to be audited by the government like other departments.

The officials said all BoG members were retirees who spent the government’s funds without the involvement of the health secretary and director-general (health services) who had been managing the administrative, financial and clinical matters of 2,600 hospitals and 90,000 employees.

They added that of late, the chief minister asked the health secretary to regularly inspect MTIs over reports of declining patient care.

The chairman of the MTI-Policy Board didn’t respond to a message sent by this correspondent for a version on the matter.

Health minister Khaliqur Rehman told Dawn that the external audit of MTIs was conducted by Rafaqat Babar and Co, a private accountancy firm.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2026