Efficiency and effectiveness: Forensic Science Lab still a drain on public funds

Project deadline extended for fourth time to September 2011.

LAHORE:

The Punjab government project to build a modern forensics lab near Thokar Niaz Beg, which recently missed a fourth deadline for completion, is continuing to cost large sums of money in the form of wasted wages and inept organisation.

The lab was initially scheduled to be completed in July 2010 at a cost of Rs2.5 billion. It will now be completed at the earliest by September 2011.

The Punjab government has had to pay millions of rupees in demurrage on imported equipment that is lying at the dry port, an official told The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity.

This includes a heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, elevators, generators and other equipment. The installation of a laboratory information system has also been held up, he said.

Equipment for conducting DNA, toxicology and narcotics tests that was imported in 2010 lies uninstalled in the basement of the building, he said. The kits and chemicals that came with the equipment for test runs have now expired. During a recent spell of rain, water seeped into the basement and damaged the machinery, said the official.

Dr Ashraf Tahir, a forensics scientist who had been acting as a consultant for the project, was recently hired as director general of the lab on a salary of Rs1.1 million per month. He officially started the job on July 4. Thirty-two other forensic scientists who were recruited in August 2009 and then trained in the United States, at a cost to the Punjab government of $685,000 (Rs58.794 million), are also drawing big salaries, though the lab is not yet functional.

Shahid Latif, deputy director of the project implementation unit for the Forensics Science Laboratory, said that the machinery had not been picked up from the port because there had been a delay in the civil works. He did not comment on the expired chemicals and kits.

Hamid Ashraf, the contractor for the project, said civil works had been completed and the machinery could be installed when the equipment was picked up from the dry port. He said that the chief minister had set up a committee headed by the planning and development chairman to find out why the project had been delayed and to decide a fine. “The delay was only due to modifications and alterations in the design,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2011.