An investigation report submitted to the Supreme Court’s Lahore registry on Tuesday highlighted the immense irregularities and favourtism plaguing the newly established Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute (PKLI) in Lahore.
The forensic report, prepared by forensic expert Kokab Jamal Zuberi on the orders of the Supreme Court, highlighted that authorities offered contracts for the institute at rates that were forty percent higher than market rates.
The report revealed this information during a Supreme Court hearing on allegations of corruption in the institution.
The investigation revealed that the initial contract for purchasing medical equipment stood at Rs. 13 billion, but had later ballooned to Rs. 19 billion, with the contractors demanding an additional four billion.
The report also revealed that the private company ZKB had acquired the contract illegally.
The report also highlighted that most of the institute’s staff was hired on nepotism and not on merit. Most doctors, for instance, were taken from Al-Shifa Hospital without much emphasis on merit.
The report also highlighted another oddity in the project, when it revealed that former Chief Minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif had inaugurated the project three times, with the government spending nearly Rs. 100 million on publicising the ceremony.
The hospital was also slated to have 131 beds, but by 21st December 2017, the institute only had 16 beds.
Shehbaz Sharif was also the Chairman Board of Governors for Infrastructure and Development Authority–the body responsible for installing the beds–and the PKLI, the forensic report revealed.
On the 3rd of June, the Supreme Court had ordered a forensic audit of expenditures worth Rs 20 billion by the PKLI.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar, while hearing a case on public welfare institutions on April 29, moreover, had taken notice of the exorbitant salaries at PKLI, and had ordered the chief secretary to submit a detailed structure of the employees of the hospital.
The CJP had also expressed his ire on the discrepancy that existed between the salaries of the doctors at PKLI and at other government hospitals, with the former earning far higher incomes.
The CJP also criticised the practise of paying foreign educated doctors more than locally educated doctors, and demanded that doctors working in all government institutions be paid more.