Accountability time: Anti-corruption team goes after BIEK, Larkana hospital

Team seizes 10-year records of education board

SUKKUR/ KARACHI: The anti-corruption establishment raided Board of Intermediate Education, Karachi, (BIEK) on Tuesday and seized 10-year records pertaining to appointment, promotions and utilisation of development budget. Its Sukkur branch cracked down on Chandka hospital in Larkana a day earlier.

Official sources in the anti-corruption said that they raided BIEK on a complaint received against the board. Anti-corruption assistant director Ghulam Shabir, who led the team, said they had asked the board's chairperson to provide record of the appointments, but they did not give any response.

"There are massive irregularities in the accounts of the intermediate board and they have violated the rules in appointments and promotion of employees," Shabir said. The anti-corruption official added that cases will be registered against those officials who are found involved.

Anti-corruption establishment had also conducted a raid at the Board of Secondary Education, Karachi, not too long ago. The anti-corruption director had told the media that the board appointed more than 600 employees by violating the rules. Some of the employees were also given jobs in grade-17 and grade-18 that was the domain of public service commission, he added. "All these employees were initially appointed on contract and daily-wage basis, before the board regularised them."

Chandka hospital records

The anti-corruption team  in Sukkur raided on Monday Chandka Medical College Hospital (CMCH) in Larkana and scanned its records of the purchases of medical equipment and medicines.

The raid was conducted after the Sindh High Court Larkana circuit bench took sou motu notice of the corruption.

Officials privy to the developments claimed that the anti-corruption team, led by Larkana deputy director Zakir Hussain Samo, took away the records pertaining to development works and purchase of equipment and medicines since 2007

The team went around the medical store of the hospital, its kitchen and various other departments including, urology and dental. The team discovered that equipment worth millions of rupees had been kept idle, since its purchase, at the hospital.

The team also held a meeting with the newly appointed CMCH medical superintendent Dr Muneer Ahmed Jokhio. The anti-corruption team will submit its report to the high court, an official added. Jokhio was not available for comments.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 21^st, 2015.