LAHORE: Sanitary goods worth more than Rs5.6 million have been found missing at Mayo Hospital, according to an inquiry that has recommended formal disciplinary proceedings under the PEEDA Act.
Goods worth Rs9.4 million were purchased, but only Rs3.8 million worth of material was physically present on site. The Mayo Hospital inquiry raised the question of where sanitary goods worth Rs5.6 million had gone.
An alleged collusion between the supplier and the storekeeper caused the hospital losses running into millions of rupees.
According to the inquiry report, the total value of the order was Rs9,406,946. On May 6, 2026, one hundred percent supply was claimed.
The storekeeper signed documents certifying complete receipt of the goods, and on the same day the full stock was entered into the hospital’s software system.
An inspection on May 16 found 65 percent of the sanitary goods to be absent. The value of the material actually present came to Rs3,802,876.
The value of the shortfall came to Rs5,604,070.
Subsequently, the owner of the company admitted to having supplied 50 percent of the goods.
The inquiry committee has recommended formal proceedings under the PEEDA Act.
The inquiry established that the storekeeper signed the delivery challan prior to physical verification. Signing a delivery challan before verification is a violation of the rules.
This single procedural breach is central to how the discrepancy arose. Public-sector procurement rules require that receipt of goods be certified only after the consignment has been physically counted and inspected against the order specification. The signature on the challan is what triggers the payment process and the entry of stock into the inventory system.
By signing first and entering full stock into the hospital software on the same day, the record was created showing complete delivery of goods that had not, on the evidence of the inspection ten days later, been fully delivered. Once such an entry exists in the system, subsequent consumption records can be generated against stock that was never received, making the loss substantially harder to detect through routine audit.
The Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability Act, 2006, provides the statutory mechanism through which provincial government employees face disciplinary action for misconduct, corruption, inefficiency and related charges. Proceedings under the Act can result in penalties ranging from censure and withholding of increments through to reduction in rank, compulsory retirement, removal and dismissal from service.
The Act requires the appointment of an inquiry officer or committee, the framing of formal charges, the opportunity for the accused employee to submit a written defence, and a personal hearing before any major penalty is imposed.
Mayo Hospital is among the oldest and largest public-sector teaching hospitals in Pakistan, attached to King Edward Medical University and handling an enormous daily patient load across its outpatient and inpatient departments. Its procurement volumes for consumables, sanitary supplies, medicines and equipment are correspondingly large.
Hospital procurement in the public sector has been repeatedly identified in audit reports as an area vulnerable to leakage, particularly for high-volume, low-visibility consumables where physical verification is cursory and stock movement records are maintained manually or entered without independent cross-checking.
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