Tazeen Akhtar
The Federal Directorate of Immunization (FDI) under the Ministry of National Health Services has been embroiled in a corruption scandal involving unlawful long-term deputations, favoritism, and misuse of public and donor funds.
This state of affairs at FDI is due to maladministration arising from unlawful long-term deputations in violation of the ESTA Code and Civil Servants Act, 1973. There are appointments of favorits to non existent posts, misuse of public and donor funds. Permanent employees find themselves hostage to these favorits who rule in the directorate and harass the regular workers.
There is no internal accountability mechanisms, resulting in serious financial losses and jeopardizing national immunization programs.
A recent audit report, has proved corruption in funds , big financial losses to the public exchequer due to FDI’s irregularities and deputionists wrong decisions to benefit illegally from the procurements and other expenditures.
The audit into the year 2023-24 has revealed the following corrupt practices and irregularities ;
1- Loss due to procurement of vaccines at higher rates: Rs. 1,109.441 million
2- Non-delivery of Cold Chain Equipment (funds blocked): Rs. 1,398.012 million
3- Non-refund of contingency buffer to UNICEF: Rs. 1,025.268 million
4- Irregular payment of Health Allowance: Rs. 4.160 million
5- Unauthorized honorarium payments: Rs. 0.408 million
Total Loss/Blocked Funds = 1,109.441 + 1,398.012 + 1,025.268 + 4.160 + 0.408 = 3,537.289 million (Rs. 3.537 billion)
Other findings (like non-implementation of FST/SC judgments, non-repatriation, cold chain mismanagement, drivers without vehicles, and lack of internal audit) have no direct financial figure but represent operational and reputational losses.
Key Players Involved
– Wajid Nawaz, Account Officer
– Jaffar Shah, Admin Officer
– Adeel Raza, Deputy Director Admin
The corruption scandal has serious implications for the FDI and the national immunization programs. A petition has been filed seeking constitutional intervention to protect fundamental rights, enforce service laws, and direct competent authorities including the Prime Minister’s Office, Establishment Division, Auditor General, NAB, and FIA—to explain their position, conduct audits and inquiries, repatriate illegal deputationists, and restore lawful governance at FDI.
The authorities need to take immediate action to address these issues, including :
– Repatriation of illegal deputationists
– Internal audit and accountability mechanisms
– Recovery of misused funds
– Action against responsible officials
Here it is worth mentioning that no official from FDI or the Ministry was available to share their side of story when this scribe contected them. DG Musa Khan replied that the spokesperson of the Ministry Mr. Sajid will answer the queries. Mr. Sajid said that he was not with the ministry now. This scribe shared the query with Minister Health Mustafa Kamal on his cell number given at the site of National Assembly but the minister even did not respond.
