No theft found in dengue procurements

An accountability court on Friday said that no evidence had been presented of the alleged embezzlement of funds in the procuring chemicals and medicines to tackle the dengue virus in 2017.

In a detailed judgement of the case issued on Friday, the court noted that no complaint was on record about the items procured being substandard, nor could the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) chapter could present any analysis report which certified that the items procured were substandard.

According to the judgement the provincial government had declared a health emergency in 2017 as dengue virus cases soared past the 20,000 mark in July 2017 with over 56 deaths. As a result, emergency measures were taken to arrest the spread of the disease. This included the procurement of chemicals for a fumigation drive.

A tender in this regard had been awarded to Alpagen Enterprises who offered to procure the necessary chemicals in a short period of seven to 10 days for Rs70 million.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 15^th, 2020.