PESHAWAR: External auditors have revealed that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department made an `irregular` payment ofRs3.496 billion to the federal government for supplying vaccines in the financial year 2023-24 but failed to produce records.

They recommended punitive action against the responsible officials and measures to prevent such irregularity in the future.

In a report, the provincial directorate general of audit declared the `unauthenticexpenditure` on account of purchases of vaccines by the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) from the federal government a violation of the rules.

It said that according to Article 14 (2 and 3) of the Auditor General Ordinance, 2001, read with Para 17 of General Financial Rules, all auditable records should be produced to the inspection officerfor verification.

The report said that during audit of the accounts records from the provincial directorate general (health services) for the financial year 2023-24, it was observed that an expenditure of Rs3.496 billion was reflected in the expenditure statement of EPI for the financial year 2023-24 on account of procurement of various vaccinesfrom the Federal Directorate of Immunisation at the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination.

It said a scrutiny of records revealed that the amount included Rs2.992 billion for the supply of vaccines and Rs473 million for freight charges, buffers, handling fee, and taxes.

The report said the amount was deducted at source by thefederalgovernment from the share of the provincial government but further scrutiny of records revealed that the management of EPI programme, health department and provincial government failed to collect a single document and voucher for verification and authentication of the items provided by the federal government.

It added that as per the notification issued by the Federal Directorate of Immunisation on 23, 2023, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was allocated a share of Rs3.496 billion.The report said the local office recorded the amount as expenditure in its accounting records for that year, but the one-page breakup for EPI vaccines provided by the FDI reflected an expenditure of Rs3.465 billion.

The auditors said that the local EPI office neither reconciled the discrepancy with the FDI nor provided any justification for the variance, so an amount of Rs3.465 billion was found to be overpaid to the directorate.

They said that it was the prime responsibility of the health department and provincial government to obtain necessary vouchers and related documents for verification and to make them part of the record for external audit purposes.

The auditors said the absence of documentation and verification for the vac-cine procurement raises serious concerns on the part of management about the transparency and accountability of the expenditure.

They said the lapse occurred due to nonobservance of rules and regulations, which resulted in unauthentic expenditure onaccount of vaccine procurement.

The report said that when it was pointed out to the department in November 2024, no reply was given.

It recommended corrective action under intimation to audit and fixing of responsibility against the persons at fault.

Meanwhile, officials said that the health department had begun an inquiry into the matter to identify officials responsible for the massive financial losses caused by the irregularity.

They said the vaccine used for prevention of childhood diseases was procured by the federal government and then supplied to the provinces.

The officials said the federal government allocated amounts to the provinces for purchasing vaccines from the federal government but it was mandatory for them to maintain records but that requirement was not met by the health department.