The reference said, on appraisal of the material and evidence available, this is a just and proper move to proceed further against the accused persons, as there is sufficient material to justify the filing of the reference. PHOTO: REUTERS
The reference against the former programme managers, Dr Abdul Majeed Chutto and Dr Ayaz Ali Memon and the managing director of Roche Pakistan Limited, Ahmed Faraz, was filed before the Accountability Court-VI in Hyderabad on May 19, this year.
The bureau had received a complaint regarding involvement of the three accused in corruption and purchase of sub-standard vaccines, kits and medicines for the provincial programme, which meant to eliminate the disease, and subsequently an inquiry was initiated in June, 2015.
The investigation revealed that in year 2012-2013 a clause of federal drug agency (FDA)/European Medical Association (EMA) approved specifications was introduced by the accused persons in the tender process of 2012-2013 to favour a specific distributor. This deprived the local manufacturers from participating in the bidding process, the reference states.
It alleged that the technical proposal was not evaluated as per the approved point-based criterion, as mentioned in the bidding documents for the year 2008-2009 to 2011-2012. It claimed that Dr Chutto and Dr Memon, being the programme managers of the Sindh Hepatitis Prevention and Control Programme, changed the evaluation criteria with mala fide intentions to award the contract to their favoured company in the year 2012-2013 and 2013-2014.
According to the reference, the investigation also revealed that the procuring agency had violated the Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority Rules — Rule 45 which relates to the announcement of the evaluation report and Rule 50 which relates to the publication of the award of the contract.
It claimed that the FDA has nothing to do with the Pakistan businesses directly, as there is no Memorandum Of Understanding between the two. Inclusion of the FDA requirement in the tenders discourages the national pharmaceutical business in the country.
The NAB claimed that it has been established that Dr Chutto and Dr Memon in an unauthorised manner and in connivance with the Roche Pakistan included the discriminatory condition of FDA/EMA compliance in the evaluation of the technical proposal just to restrict an open competition in favour of Lab Link Enterprises, distributer of Roche Pakistan, which has been winning the tender since the inception of the programme.
The probe further established the violation of the Rules 45 and 50, which caused loss to the government exchequer in the shape of exorbitant rate of around Rs79 million. Thus, the accused committed the offence of corruption as envisaged under the Section 9 (a) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, which is punishable under the Section 10 of the ordinance. The reference said, on appraisal of the material and evidence available, this is a just and proper move to proceed further against the accused persons, as there is sufficient material to justify the filing of the reference.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 10th, 2016.
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