Ombudsman: Inquiry ordered at Sargodha health centres

LAHORE:

Ombudsman Javed Mahmood has ordered the chief secretary to immediately set up a high-level inquiry committee to investigate why 10 maternity and child health centres in Sargodha have not been completed despite the release of Rs38.091 million for them in 2006-07.

The committee must visit the building sites, check the quality of material used, fix responsibility for the construction delay, hand down punishments to the officials concerned, and submit a compliance report to the ombudsman’s office in a month, the ombudsman ordered, according to a spokesman.

Zameerul Hasan of Pindikot, Bhalwal tehsil, had lodged a complaint to the ombudsman’s office, saying that the centres were still incomplete and the Finance, Health and Communications and Works Departments were blaming one another for this.

The ombudsman directed the finance secretary to sanction the hiring of staff for the health centres upon the Health Department’s requisition so that they could start to function as soon as possible.

The ombudsman, in his order, declared the non-completion of the health centres a result of maladministration and inefficiency on the part of the Sargodha district government, the Buildings Department and the Health Department.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 22^nd, 2013.