CM assents to third-party audit of medical institutes' accounts.

LAHORE -- Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz has approved various proposals to steer the medical institutes out of administrative and financial crises.

The chief minister chaired a meeting of the syndicates of five public sector medical universities. The most important development of the meeting was that the CM approved a proposal to conduct 'first time third-party validation of accounts of all the institutes' including Fatima Jinnah Medical University, Lahore; Rawalpindi Medical University; Faisalabad Medical University; Nishtar Medical University, Multan; and University of Child Health, Lahore.

Minister Khwaja Salman Rafique, the vice chancellors of these varsities, representatives of the health department and other officials attended the meeting.

A senior official told Dawn that the chief minister had approved third-party validation of accounts of all the institutes falling under the administrative control of the Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Department of Punjab. He said another important decision was about the release of funds for the completion of the mother and child hospital at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. He directed the finance department and other authorities to secure the amount which was about to lapse.

The official said Hamza Shehbaz directed the vice chancellors of the medical universities to hire a reputed chartered accountant firm already prequalified by the P and D Board with the objective to conduct a detailed annual audit of accounts of the institutes for 2021-22 financial year. The audit should covered mandatory areas including assets and liabilities of the institutes, income and expenditure, procedures allowed by the institutes for utilisation of the financial resources, outputs of the institutions against utilisation of financial resources, major and minor financial violations, and recommendations to strengthen the financial control.

The CM further directed that the firm should be hired by the end of July and audit report must be presented before the Board of...