PESHAWAR, Jan 2: Low-grade government employees are alleged to be getting fake medical bills prepared by some staff members in city hospitals to supplement their income, sources said.

"Government employees, especially those working on non-gazetted posts, are getting fake medical bills prepared to draw money from their departments," said a doctor of the Khyber Teaching Hospital.

Unlike employees in grade 17 or above, they are not provided free treatment in the hospitals. The federal and provincial government employees in grade 16 or below are given a fixed medical allowance of Rs210 per month, an amount too little to meet the cost of treatment of their family, the doctor said.

He added that the gazetted officers received free treatment and drugs at the hospitals which they (hospitals) got reimbursed from their departments. In case of seeking treatment at private clinics, the officers are entitled to get their money reimbursed. The low-grade employees have no such facility.

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

They added that some employees working in education, health and works departments and the Accountant General office are the biggest beneficiary of this racket, drawing millions under the head of medical bills by using fake signatures and stamps of doctors.

A staff nurse said that a house officer of a hospital's medical ward was given to preparing fake bills for several government employees every month. "This officer receives a share of 20 per cent. He prepares counterfeit hospital discharge slips in the name of any family member of government employees," she claimed.

According to her, the job was not an easy one because the officer had to obtain cash memos from medical stores and then put them in sequence with the prescription slips.

"He has got fake stamps of registrars of medical and surgical wards and the resident medical officer for the purpose," she added. "Many a time we are sure that the bill submitted is fake, but can't do much because the department concerned where the claim is submitted seldom sends us the bills for verification," an accounts officer at a teaching hospital said.

A senior teacher said that he got his wife admitted to a private hospital but the medical bills from there were rejected by his department. "Later, I met a dispenser at a teaching hospital who prepared bills of Rs50,000 for me.

I gave Rs5,000 each to him and an accountant in education department to get the bill passed," he said, emphasizing that there was no element of dishonesty in this, "as I had actually spent this much money".

"A senior auditor claims more than Rs200,000 every year. He prepares medical bills in the name of his father, mother, wife and children," said a junior clerk at the Lady Reading Hospital. A hospital's RMO conceded that some bills happened to be fake, but the people facilitating their preparation did their homework to prove they were 'genuine'.