FIA has closed inquiry into NICVD affairs as NAB has taken up the case, SHC told

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has closed an inquiry with regard to alleged corruption, misuse of funds, illegal appointments, out-of-turn promotions and award of tenders to self-selected vendors in the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) as the matter has already been taken up by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), an FIA official told the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday.

Filing a statement before the SHC on a petition of the NICVD against the FIA inquiry, an FIA inspector submitted that the NAB additional director had confirmed that the bureau was conducting an inquiry against officials of the NICVD on the allegations of misuse of authority and corruption.

The FIA inspector submitted that since the matter was already being taken up by NAB, the necessary record of the NICVD was already available with them and so the FIA had decided to close its inquiry after obtaining necessary approval from the competent authority.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha after taking the statement of the FIAofficial on record disposed of the petition as the instant petition had served its purpose.

It is pertinent to mention that NIVCD officials have been facing a NAB inquiry into alleged illegal appointments and misuse of authority. NAB had earlier informed the court that the NICVD from 2014 to 2020 had received up to Rs32 billion from the Sindh government but was still in debt of approximately Rs7 billion. A NAB investigator submitted that Rs15 billion had been paid to officials of the NICVD, including doctors and officials on a contract basis, and daily wagers during 2014 to 2020, which is above 50 per cent of the total grant received from the Sindh government and the percentage of such expenses kept rising higher and higher every year while the expenditure on treatment of patients kept decreasing every year.