PESHAWAR, Jan 7: The trend of submitting fake medical bills by government employees is causing huge losses to the exchequer, according to sources. Government employees, especially non-gazetted officials, get bogus medical bills prepared by the staff of city hospitals to draw money from their departments, a doctor working for the Khyber Teaching Hospital claimed.

Unlike those in Grade 17 or above, employees of Grade 16 and below are not entitled to free treatment in hospitals. They are rather allowed a standard allowance of about Rs210 per month – a meagre amount, the doctor added.

He went on to say the gazetted officers receive free treatment and medication from the hospitals and the hospitals get these bills reimbursed from relevant departments, while those treated at private clinics get their bills reimbursed on their own. No such facility exists for low-cadre employees, the doctor said.

However, making fake bills has become a lucrative business for some unscrupulous staffers, the sources claimed. Recently, the provincial government placed a ban on free treatment of officers working under the federal government departments. These officers were alleged to be getting fake medical invoices by paying commission to the hospital staff, the sources said.

Employees of the education, health and works departments and the Accountant General’s Office are main beneficiaries of this racket by drawing millions under the head of medical receipts. Fake signatures and stamps of doctors are used in such documents.

A staff nurse confided that the House Officer of a hospital's Medical Ward is assigned the task of preparing such bills for several government employees every month on 20 per cent share. He prepares counterfeit hospital discharge slips in the name of any family member of government employees, she claimed.

According to her, it is not an easy job as the officer has to obtain cash memos from medical stores which he puts in sequence to prescription slips. He has fake stamps of the registrars of medical and surgical wards, and the resident medical officer, she added.

An account officer at one teaching hospital said that many times we feel pretty sure that the bill submitted is faked but are helpless as the department where claims are submitted seldom sends us the bill for verification.

The wife of a senior teacher was admitted to a private clinic whose medical claims were rejected by his department. The teacher met a dispenser at one of the teaching hospitals who readily made a bill of Rs50,000 with Rs10,000 commission – Rs5,000 for himself and an equal amount for the accountant in Education Department to get the bill passed. The teacher justified his act by saying that there was no element of dishonesty in it as he had actually spent this much of money on the treatment of his wife.

A senior auditor claims more than Rs200,000 every year for preparing medical bills in the name of his father, mother, wife and children, said a junior clerk at the Lady Reading Hospital. An RMO conceded that some bills are bogus but those facilitating the preparation do excellent homework by making it look 'genuine'.

Most such bills are prepared by school teachers who pay a certain percentage of commission to officers for getting these passed, sources in the education department said.