ISLAMABAD, Jun 28 (APP): The Executive Committee of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has started taking action against culprits after investigating and exposing the major embezzlement of the erstwhile Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC).
According to the PMDC spokesperson, they gathered the evidence, proof, and all other necessary documents.
After scrutinizing, the committee has decided to hold the responsible parties accountable and implement measures to prevent future incidents.
The Executive committee has decided to refer the matter to a third-party audit and investigation. They decided to bring all culprits to face consequences. The PMDC committee has investigated many irregularities in payments made in the previous tenure by the erstwhile (PMC) amounting to millions of rupees which included payments made to a private consortium before the signing of the agreements, nebulous payments for IT equipment, software, etc.
The committee recently investigated anomalies in payments made in the previous tenure (PMC) in conducting MDCAT-22 amounting to Rs 409.32 million of rupees which included payments made to a private consortium of around Rs 122 million, a day before the signing of the agreements.
The erstwhile PMC made an agreement of Rs 409.32 million on 17th of August, 2022 out of which an advance payment of Rs 122. 78 million, which was 30% was paid on the 6th of August-2022 before the execution of an agreement with a consortium for conducting the MDCAT examination-2022. Astonishingly the payment was made to the private consortium and the taxes were paid through another company.
The company to whom this big amount was paid was not even registered with the FBR nor with SECP as a consortium. It did not fall under the definition of a government entity and the agreement made was in clear violation of PPRA rules. After detailed scrutiny, the committee found another scam of erstwhile (PMC) by violating the procurement of Network IT Equipment like Servers, Switches, Controllers, Access Points, and firewalls, etc, and has severely violated the PPRA Rules.
The installed Software License in Servers and the tender documents were completely different. Moreover, items, delivered in erstwhile PMC were mismatched with the Bill of Quantities (BOQs) published in the tender document for the captioned procurement. Shockingly, anomalies were also found in the procurement of miscellaneous equipment like cameras, NVR, UPS, cables, etc. By violating PPRA rules and all the procurements were done to give financial favours to their blue-eyed company.
While talking to the Council Executive Committee (the responsible body for financial and administrative affairs of PM&DC) while highlighting the scams of the previous council, they ensured to bring the culprits to face consequences.
They said that the PM&DC Council is the combination of the best eminent members from all over the country with the highest reputation as doctors, professors, surgeon generals, legal experts, auditors, and health secretaries of all provinces. After assuming the charge, the Council has started working for the betterment medical and dental profession and working tirelessly to make PM&DC more efficient as a regulator as well as a facilitator, they said.
The council has taken up all the matters and affairs of PMDC on priority as per rules and law. They added that after making all necessary arrangements for the transition from PMC to PMDC, the first priority of the council was to achieve the accreditation of WFME so that our doctors and students may not face any problems internationally.
They showed concern that as PM&DC has highlighted the scams of the previous regime, a group of vested interest has started a media campaign merely to undermine and malign PM&DC whose preamble is not even correct nor near to the truth. They said PM&DC refutes all such information being shared and published.
The culprit vested group is trying to delay achieving the PM&DC objectives and just to malign the working of the current Council. These malafide intentions of this vested group may create hurdles in creating a liaison between the international medical communities and relations with WFME.
They said that the PM&DC is conducting MDCAT 2023 examination first time in history in time without wasting students’ precious time through public sector medical and dental universities from all provinces to streamline the gaps that were previously emerged by the erstwhile PMC.
