Former health secy could head ACE next

Fawad has not taken charge as Public Prosecution Dept secy since April 23.

LAHORE:

The provincial government may appoint former health secretary, Fawad Hasan Fawad, to the office of director general of the Anti-Corruption Establishment.

The Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) has sent a summary to the chief minister in this regard.

Fawad was nominated secretary of the Public Prosecution Department on April 23 in the wake of the Young Doctors’ Association’s strike. He, however, did not take charge of the office. He is currently attending a senior management course at the National Management College –a requirement for promotion from BPS-19 to BPS-20.

The Health Department, last year procured Rs8 billion worth of equipment, medicines and ambulances in disregard of the Punjab Procurement Regulatory Authority rules. The irregular procurements were used in the flood-affected areas and for six mobile health units set up in remote areas of the province. Some senior officials see a potential conflict of interest if corruption complaints are made against these purchases and an inquiry is referred to the ACE.

The appointment to the ACE if approved by the chief minister will be Fawad’s fifth posting since 2008. He had joined the Punjab’s bureaucracy as the S&GAD secretary in April 2008. He was transferred to Communication and Works Department in November 2008.

He was sent on leave in February 2009 then posted to the same office in March 2009. During his tenure as C&W secretary, several engineers and contractors of the department had gone on a strike. He was posted as the health secretary in February 2010.

The Population Welfare Department’s secretary, Javed Ahmed, currently has the additional charge of ACE DG. The office has been vacant since the resignation of Kazim Ali Malik in February this year. Malik had to resign following a Supreme Court verdict against re-employment of retired officials on contract basis.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2011.