LAHORE: Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz has accorded approval to a summary to initiate action against Mayo Hospital Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Prof Saqib Saeed, former chief operating officer (COO) Dr Iftikhar Ahmad and nine other officials under the PEEDA Act.

       The charges of inefficiency and misconduct proved against them in an initial inquiry. The CM acted on a summary moved by the specialised healthcare and medical education department which in the initial inquiry held the officers guilty of charges and recommended a departmental action against them.

       “... Competent authority in due consideration of facts and recommendations contained in the probe report furnished by health department is of considered opinion that there are sufficient grounds to hold joint inquiry proceedings against the officers under Section 1(4) (iii) and Section 3 of the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability Act, 2006 on the charges of inefficiency and misconduct,” reads the document. The chief minister considered that in the light of the facts of the case and in the interest of justice it is necessary to hold joint inquiry against the officials and has appointed Mr Fuad Hashim Rabbani, secretary cooperative department, as inquiry officer.

       The report said Mayo Hospital CEO Prof Dr Saqib Saeed and former COO Dr Iftikhar Ahmad floated the tender for establishing commercial pharmacy on the hospital premises in violation of a Punjab government policy. The policy was circulated through a letter on Sept 23, 2020 by the health department.

       It said the officers adopted the procurement rules as per PPR 14 for awarding the contract to commercial firm at the Mayo Hospital whereas such processes of leasing are concluded through open bidding. They failed to supervise the process for establishing commercial pharmacy inside the hospital in a transparent way because it was observed that last date of purchase of tender document in clause 49 of bidding document was given May 15, 2021, whereas in the tender notice only the date of receiving was mentioned May 20, 2021.

       Similarly, the demand of the bid security of Rs5m was estimated baseless as the said cost/reserve price of the bid was not determined before initiation of the process.

       “In the clause 10 of the bidding document, it was mentioned that the bidder would deposit 2pc of the estimated bid as security/deposit/bank guarantee whereas at another place bid security of Rs5 million was demanded which was not only violation of rules but also sheer violation of their own tender notice,” reads the report.

       It was also observed that the tender notice was forwarded to the DGPR on April 21, 2021, whereas bidding documents were approved much later i.e. on May 4, 2021.

       At the time of financial bid evaluation, estimated cost of tender of emergency OPD Pharmacy was determined to be Rs250m on the basis of bid security of Rs5m without approval of any competent authority/forum whereas the contract was awarded to the Orange Pharmacy for Rs2.5m only which was even lower than the amount of the bid security.

       As for another gross negligence, the report said, being the CEO and the COO of the Mayo Hospital, Prof Saqib Saeed and Dr Iftikhar Ahmad failed to place/present the case of awarding contract to commercial pharmacy before the Board of Governors (BOGs) which was notified on March 24, 2021.

       The contract was awarded on July 13, 2021, without the approval of the BOGs whereas during the same period the board was fully functional and its first meeting was held on April 22, it said.

       While discussing the role of Dr Iftikhar Ahmad, the report said the charge sheet had also been issued against Dr Iftikhar with reference to probe regarding the procurement of antibiotics for the financial year 2021-22 in tender “A03” & “R03” at the Mayo Hospital. According to it, Dr Iftikhar as COO/MS Mayo Hospital failed to carry out procurement process of antibiotics for 2021-22 in a transparent way as the composition of the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) was changed three times without any coherent reason.

       He had formed TEC with a heavy representation of adhoc pharmacies despite availability of senior pharmacists in the hospital.

       Meanwhile, the report/document said the TEC declared many competing firms non-responsive. Later, 37 per cent of the firms were adjudged by the GRC to have been unfairly evaluated by the TEC.

       The report also highlighted the role of Bio Medical Engineer Mohammad Irfan being member of the Financial Bid Opening Committee, declaring that he evaluated the financial bids without any remarks on the quoted price of the lowest evaluated bidder and as a result the contract was awarded to Orange Pharmacy for Rs2.5 million only which was much lower than the estimated cost and the amount of bid security.

       The said official was one of those who was posted by the hospital management against his original assignment which was to deal with the medical equipment and submit a report to the institute if and when stopped functioning. Instead of taking his services in his department, the Mayo Hospital officers had assigned him an irrelevant job to oversee the lifts installed at various departments of the hospitals where he was facing serious complaints of bribe.

       Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2022