Nawaz Sharif hospital: Inquiry committee gives clean chit

Allegations of funds embezzlement by the Nawaz Sharif Social Security Hospital proved baseless in inquiry.

LAHORE: Allegations of funds embezzlement by the Nawaz Sharif Social Security Hospital, Lahore, have proved baseless in an inquiry conducted by the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE), The Express Tribune has learnt.

Director-General ACE Punjab Kazim Ali Malik has sent the inquiry report to Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who had ordered an inquiry into the matter.

Punjab Labour Minister Muhammad Ashraf Sohna had alleged that the hospital’s management misappropriated Rs30 million in the procurement of an angiography machine. The CM constituted a three-member inquiry committee, headed by Malik, and ordered it to submit a report within three days.

Malik told The Express Tribune that the committee scrutinised the records of the transaction made by the hospital and the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), and also recorded the statements of Sohna and other government officials who were said to be involved.

According to the inquiry report, three angiography machines were purchased from a firm named Med Equips Pvt Ltd. Two were bought for the PIC at a cost of $0.467 million each, while one complete package, including an angiography machine, was bought for the hospital costing $0.926 million.

Sohna had alleged that the hospital had procured the same machine as PIC at double the rate that the PIC had paid.

The committee thoroughly checked the rates of angiography machines and other additional equipment purchased by the hospital, such as generators, beds and tables. The rates of the machines purchased by the hospital and the PIC were proved the same. The difference of price was only due to additional accessories that had come with the package acquired by the hospital.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2010