Confiscated records: Anti-corruption team knocks on Civil hospital doors

Accuses hospital management of embezzling money while purchasing medicines

KARACHI: A team of the anti-corruption department knocked on the doors of Civil Hospital, Karachi, on Friday to seize records of medicines procurement.

The 12-member team visited several departments in the main administration block of the government-run health facility and interrogated some officials over the purchase of medicines in the past few years. During the investigations, the administration block was locked and no one was allowed to enter or leave the building. Records from the past five years were also seized.



Civil hospital's additional medical superintendent Dr Abdul Qadir Siddiqui said that the anti-corruption team just wanted to get records of different departments. The hospital administration fully cooperated with the team. "All the doors of the administration block were locked and no one was allowed to go outside," he said.

"The investigating team remained in the hospital premises for around four hours," said Siddiqui. Other officers in the hospital claimed that neither was the administration informed nor were any letters requesting for the records sent to them before the raid.

According to anti-corruption department director Nazar Muhammad Bozdar, the raid was conducted after several citizens complained of embezzlement. "Besides embezzlement in the purchase of medicines, we have also received reports that the employees and staff are getting twice their salaries by working in other departments or hospitals in addition to Civil hospital," he told The Express Tribune.

"The raid was actually conducted for multiple reasons, such as embezzlement in the purchase of medicines, illegal medical stores and double jobs by hospital employees and staff," he explained, adding that they will arrest the accused employees after the records have been scrutinised.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2015.