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Substandard drops provided during dengue outbreak in 2017, claims NAB report

By Akhtar Amin
July 12, 2019

PESHAWAR: A report of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has revealed that a private company in connivance with the officials of Health Department had supplied substandard drops during a dengue outbreak in 2017 in the provincial capital and other parts of the province, resulting in the death of several people and affecting of thousands others.

The anti-graft body claimed in the report submitted before the Peshawar High Court that the supply of the substandard vaccines (drops) caused a loss of Rs70 million to the exchequer. The NAB KPhad launched an inquiry into that matter after the complaint that substandard medicines and items had been provided to the government by the company.

It had stopped the release of the remaining amount till inquiry report of the NAB. The company had moved the high court for the recovery of the money. The Al-Abtageen Enterprises, contractor who provided dengue control items to the Health Department, is now seeking recovery of money from the government.

However, counsel for the company submitted that the company provided medicines to the KP Health Department in 2017, but it stopped payment of Rs17.5 million to the company. Additional Advocate General Syed Sikandar Shah, representing the provincial government, submitted that the government stopped the payment to the company due to the NAB’s inquiry. “The procurement committee violated its mandate specified in Terms and Reference (TOR) and approved ineligible bidders for supply of dengue control items. The bidders were not evaluated on the criteria mentioned in the Standard Bidding Documents,” the NAB claimed in the report, adding that the financial bids were called ahead of technical bids. Subsequently, it said, the lowest financial bids were rejected on the basis of delivery time, instead of any valid technical ground.

“It must be noted that other participating firms were genuine authorised dealers of World Health Organization (WHO) approved manufacturers,” the report stated. On the contrary, it said, the firm (M/S Al-Abtageen Enterprises) approved by the procurement committee are general order suppliers.

The anti-graft body claimed that the said firm did not possess authorised dealership of any of the WHO-approved manufacturers. Furthermore, it said the import documents provided by the contractor and accepted by the purchase and inspection committee as genuine are in fact fake and bogus.

Moreover, the bureau claimed that the authorised dealer of the manufacturing firm (BASF Ltd) denied import of the supplied chemical during the last four years. “The petitioner company in connivance with other accused persons supplied substandard drops and caused loss of Rs70 million to the public exchequer. In addition to the financial loss, dozens of innocent citizens lost their lives due to greed, wilful negligence and incompetency of the accused,” the NAB claimed in the report.

In the report, the bureau stated that during investigation proceedings, it appeared that the members of the purchase committee illegally awarded contract to the company on the pretext of minimum delivery time, whereas better options were available to them that could have met both emergency requirements as well as saving the public money.

It revealed that during inquiry/investigation, a number of illegalities were found in the process of request for quotations, selection of the bidder, inspection and verification of the products supplied. The high court fixed July 30 for the next hearing into the case after submission of the NAB report in the case.