The Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology remained a distant dream, while the mid-annual development review report showed that the Health Department lagged behind the expected progress by at least six percent, Pakistan Today learnt on Tuesday. The development work of the department is reviewed quarterly to gauge the progress and the target of 8 percent progress is set each month. However, after the first five months of the fiscal year have passed, the progress has achieved 34 percent progress instead of 40, despite the fact that the Planning and Development (P&D) Department had released half the amount for completion of more than 100 ongoing schemes.
A P&D high official said that the other half of the funds had also been recently released by the government for prompt completion of the projects. However, sources privy to the department revealed that certain projects have been very slow in development, the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology being one of them. It is among the most crucial health care projects but could not be completed yet, despite a lapse of many years. The Rs 2.9 billion project was started in June 2009 and was set to be completed in June 2010. The sources said that the Health Department had not been able to complete the purchase of equipment yet, showing the inefficiency of the department. “Previous health secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad had finalised the equipment purchase but it was not completed and once again the matter has been advertised and started anew, while the building was near completion,” they said, adding that the RIC could share the burden of the Punjab Institute of Cardiology. The sources said further that from the Rs 14.8 billion allocated in the Annual Development Plan (ADP), Rs 10 billion was for health schemes and projects that had still not been completed. Health Secretary Jehanzaib Khan was unavailable for comments.
