FAISALABAD: The Allied Hospital administration claims to have detected a fraud of millions of rupees and suspended the prime suspect IT head who had been supervising the salaries of doctors, nurses and other paramedics.

The hospital administration received a complaint that IT head Jawad who had been entrusted with overseeing the salaries of the employees despite lacking proper qualification of accounts, had embezzled money in connivance with some other officials of accounts branch.

The authorities ordered an investigation by constituting a committee headed by Dr Akram Cheema. The committee summoned the suspect who tried to dodge the officials by insisting that he had done nothing wrong. Asked about the money he deposited with his account and those of relatives, he said he had been doing an online business and using multiple accounts for this purpose.

The committee finally showed himevidence of embezzlement and concluded that he, along with other officials of the hospital, was involved in the scam.

Dr Khurram Altaf, medical superintendent of the hospital, told Dawn that the administration had recovered more than Rs4 million from the prime suspect and he had deposited the amount through a cheque.

He said the hospital administration had approached the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) to help recover the entire amount.

`An application has been submitted to the ACE director and I have also talked to him personally to ensure proper investigation of the issue,` he said.

Doctors and other staff have expressed concern over what they say inefficiency of the hospital administration. They say there should be a mechanism to ensure transparent handling of monetary aff airs.

An ACE official said an inquiry into the case had begun and the prime suspect and other employees would be questioned to determine the extent of crime.