Audit finds PMC guilty of unlawful college recognitions

Islamabad:The federal government’s auditors have found the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) to be guilty of irregularities for the recognition and affiliation of medical and dental colleges and registration of faculty members and foreign graduates.

In the audit and inspection report for the financial years 2018-19 and 2019-20, the federal directorate general (audit) pointed out that the regulator for medical education recognised five medical educational institutions, including Abbottabad International Medical College, Abbottabad; Fazaia Ruth Pfao Medical College, Karachi; Swat Medical College, Swat; Watim Medical College, Rawalpindi and Khairpur Medical College, Khairpur Mirs, and five dental ones, including Dow Dental College, Karachi; Muhammad Dental College, Mirpurkhas; Shifa College of Dentistry, Shifa Tameer-e-Millat, Islamabad; Azra Naheed Dental College, Lahore and Dental Section of the Rawal institute if Health Sciences, Islamabad during the period without fulfilling the pre-requisites as prescribed in the Medical and Dental Institutions (recognition, eligibility criteria for enhancement in annual admissions and accreditation standards) Regulations, 2018.

“Recognition of these medical and dental institutions [by PMC] without fulfilling the required criteria was unauthorised,” it said. The directorate general (audit) said the PMC overseen by the Ministry of National Health Services responded to the audit objection insisting that the matter was placed before the ad hoc Council on May 14, 2020, and it was decided that all those colleges having been inspected under the aegis of the PMDC were not found up to the mark and therefore, they were denied accreditation and that a mechanism would be developed to rehabilitate the students of those colleges over the provisional accreditation.

The directorate pointed out that the PMC later provisionally registered those colleges under the National Accreditation Frameworks, 2019, and not the Regulations, 2018. “The reply of [PMC] management is not tenable as it had no mandate to provisionally register any medical or dental college(s) as per the National Accreditation Frameworks, 2019 instead of already notified Medical and Dental Institutions (recognition, eligibility criteria for ‘enhancement in annual admissions and accreditation standards) Regulations, 2018. The management did not provide copy of public notice published in leading newspapers on 21.05.2020 and response thereof,” it said. The auditors recommended the holding of an inquiry to fix responsibility for the irregularities.

They also pointed out that during the audit period, the PMC issued permanent or full registration certificate to 58 foreign graduates instead of temporary registration as specified in Appendix 25-A & B though there were no provisions for the purpose in the Pakistan Registration of Medical and Dental Practitioners’ Regulations, 2008. The directorate said the PMC accepted the audit observations but didn’t produce any evidence in support of the response.

It also revealed that during the audit period, the PMC provisionally registered 73 doctors as professor, associate professor, assistant professor, senior registrar and demonstrator without fulfilling prerequisites mentioned in the regulations.

The auditors also said the PMC neither produced the documents prescribed for faculty registration and the experience and eligibility certificates required for the positions in question nor did it consider the window period for migration from one institute to another.

They said the council accepted the audit observations but didn’t share evidence of the legality of their actions with auditors. The directorate directed the PMC to produce documentary evidence in support of their stand on the highlighted issues.