Audit reveals Rs28.61b irregularities in Sehat Card

PESHAWAR: An audit report by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department has revealed financial irregularities in the Sehat Insaf Card programme between 2018 and 2021.

According to the audit, financial discrepancies worth Rs28.61 billion were found in the Sehat Card and other health projects.The report stated that private hospitals were unnecessarily included in the Sehat Sahulat Card panel, while several private hospitals not on the panel were paid billions of rupees.

In 10 districts, 17 out of 48 hospitals were not registered under the Sehat Sahulat Card panel.The audit report revealed that non-registered hospitals received payments under the programme, including over Rs1 billion each to two private hospitals in Swat.

Moreover, 32 district headquarters hospitals made excessive recruitments, causing a loss of Rs824 million to the treasury.The Central Management Information System was to be introduced on March 1, 2022, but was not implemented.

This system was to be launched jointly by the Health Department and NADRA for the Sehat Sahulat Programme.The audit report noted that complete data of patients benefiting from the Sehat Sahulat Card was not available.