KARACHI, Oct 31: In view of massive irregularities in the Sindh Employees Social Security Institution, drastic changes have been proposed in its structure. The proposed changes include review of recruitment, contract-system, promotion rules & salary structure, performance-based remuneration and privatization of the institution’s medical care network.
“The institution has about 2800 employees and its annual income is around Rs500 million, of which Rs.270 million are spent on salaries alone, leaving a meagre amount for welfare programmes and development work which has almost come to the zero level”, said Ameer Ali Burq, commissioner SESSI and newly-posted provincial secretary health, at a briefing to newsmen at the office of the institution.
Mr Burq told that he had detected misuse of entitlement, lack of budgetary control, inefficient financial reporting, poor accounts keeping, non-existence of external audit since 1996-97, medicine laundering, sale of SESSI benefits and medical facilities in the market. He said he had immediately banned the local purchase of the medicines except at the risk and cost of defaulting suppliers of the medicines. Holding SESSI doctors responsible for prescribing such items, he said the step was a must as SESSI already had medicines worth Rs60 million in its stocks.
Mr Burq disclosed that in two SESSI hospitals a racket was unearthed in which certain doctors had consumed the yearly budget of medicines in four months, declaring that about 40 patients of Hepatitis B and C were under their treatment. The monthly expenditures of such patients were shown as 3,65,933 rupees.
When the hospitals’ authorities were asked for submission of details of the patients with photographs, and were informed that WHO teams would be visiting those patients, all of sudden the monthly statement of expenditures came down to Rs85,233.
He also talked about the liabilities on SESSI and told that it owed Rs12 million to SITE Limited, Rs8.5 million to the KDA, Rs155 million to the income tax department, Rs2.5 million to the Karachi Water & Sewerage Board.
“During the last seven months I have taken several steps to improve the situation in SESSI, with the result that its bank balance and investments have gone up to Rs691.376 million from the previous year‘s Rs653.305 million. All the loans outstanding against the employees for the last several years have been recovered and unnecessary expenditures curtailed”, he said.—PPI