PAC urges forming BoGs for Sindh’s medical colleges and universities

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in the Sindh Assembly has recommended the Sindh government that Boards of Governors (BoGs) be formed in medical colleges and universities across the province because these institutions are operating without any BoGs, adversely affecting their working.
PAC Chairman Jam Tamachi Unar ordered the Sindh Health Department to take steps for preventing substandard and fake medicines to be supplied to and stored in the government hospitals.
Unar said that most medicine-supplying companies are from the Punjab. “Make sure that medicines from these companies are being used in the Punjab as well or not,” he ordered.
These orders were issued by Unar during a meeting to review audit reports of the Health Department for the years 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09. In the meeting, 35 paras came under discussion, five of which were settled and 30 deferred.
It was also discussed in the meeting that the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences Jamshoro, People’s Medical College Hospital Nawabshah, Expanded Programme on Immunisation, Civil Hospital Karachi, Public Health School Sukkur, Sindh Government Hospital Liaquatabad, Health Secretary’s office, and Ghulam Muhammad Mahar Medical College Sukkur have spent Rs 126.09 million without keeping any account of it.
Moreover, the same institutions, as well as the Sindh Services Hospital, awarded different types of works and orders worth Rs 117.52 million without issuing tenders.
Irregularities worth Rs 49.071 million in awarding of contracts were found in the Institute of Chest Diseases Kotri, and Chandka Medical College Hospital Larkana.
Officers of these departments have kept an amount of Rs 19.502 million in their personal accounts rather than government treasuries.
The same institutions have wasted resources of government worth of Rs 12.283 million and Rs 10.904 in non-recovery of government funds.
PAC also ordered issuing show-cause notices to the officers responsible as well as to submit their reports within a month. The committee also recommended Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah to take action in this regard.