PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department launched the Human Capital Investment Project, which now faces major problems after an audit discovered financial irregularities and mismanagement that totalled Rs 16 billion. The project which was intended to enhance healthcare services in four districts, now faces investigation.
The World Bank-backed project which began in March 2021 received 24 billion rupees in funding. The project aimed to improve essential healthcare services across four districts in Peshawar, Nowshera, Swabi and Haripur. The audit report found financial mismanagement issues together with excessive spending problems and ineffective management of resources.
Key Issues Found:
The audit showed that the two selected companies received nine construction contracts which were awarded after the 2022 floods at prices that exceeded actual costs, which resulted in a financial setback of 7.8 billion rupees.
Irregular Purchases: The project spent 1 billion rupees to acquire medical supplies and family planning products which it bought without conducting any bidding process because those items fell outside the project’s original operational boundaries.
Overpriced Equipment: The hospital purchased furniture and solar energy systems at prices that exceeded their actual market value by 10 times, resulting in a financial loss of 2 billion rupees.
The audit discovered that 700 ghost employees had been hired, which resulted in the company paying out 51 crore rupees for non-existent workers. The company lost 78 lakh rupees in OPD receipts while it made a 20 crore rupee payment to another company through deceptive methods.
Ghost Employees: The audit discovered 700 ghost employees who received payments for non-existent work, which resulted in the company losing Rs 51 crore because of these non-existent employees. The company lost Rs 78 lakh because of missing operational daily fees, and they lost Rs 20 crore when a company executed a scheme to defraud their organization.
The organization spent more than Rs 57 crore on medicine purchases which they failed to record and they kept some of these medicines in places that were not permitted to be used as storage including girls’ hostels and parking lots.
No measures have been taken against officers who bear responsibility for the severe violations that have been proved through evidence. The project monitoring expert lost both their job and their contract when the organization decided to dismiss him without providing any prior notification. The audit recommendations that need to be followed have been completely disregarded, and nobody has faced consequences for their responsibility in operational failures.
The report raised doubts about the project because it misused public funds and failed to achieve its established objectives. The public welfare initiatives of the province face growing public skepticism because officials did not show they managed their projects with transparency and proper management standards.
