KARACHI, June 12: More than Rs1.5 billion, included in the budgetary allocations for health for the year 2002-03, was in jeopardy, the adviser to the chief minister on health claimed on Thursday.

Noman Saigal told Dawn that the amount would lapse if it was not released to the health department by the end of this month.He said every year a portion of the allocated budge amount remained unutilized. "But Rs1.57 billion is too big an amount. We cannot sit idly and watch it go to waste."

Mr Saigal said his party's top leadership had instructed its ministers and advisers to get all the amounts okayed under the budget released as soon as possible.

He claimed that he was in constant touch with the governor of Sindh on the issue. Asked to describe how the amount - if and when released - would be spent, he said the medical superintendents of the major government-run hospitals had been consulted and a list of equipment needed urgently had been formulated.

"We will follow this list and purchase the equipment needed." Mr Saigal said an MRI (machine) was in the list of equipment to be purchased. The other equipment to be bought included X-Ray and dialysis machines.

Mr Saigal said the relevant rules would not be violated in the purchase of the said equipment. "We will float tenders and then award the contracts to genuine suppliers."

In response to a question, Mr Saigal said if the health department had had bad intentions, the fact that Rs1.5 billion was about to lapse would not have been highlighted. "We would simply have tried to hide this fact, while at the same time trying behind the scenes to get it released."

He said a transparent system needed to be developed under which money needed to purchase medicines and equipment could be released at regular intervals throughout the year. Mr Noman added that from the next year, special care would be taken to get the funds released in an orderly fashion after regular intervals throughout a budget year.

A senior official of the department, on condition of anonymity, told Dawn that before purchasing new equipment an inventory of equipment that could be repaired should be formulated.

"Why buy new equipment when old equipment could be used after repairing them?"Another official said it was perhaps too late to salvage the Rs1.5 billion which was about to lapse. "What I don't understand is how can the health department float the tenders required to buy new equipment in the limited time available.

"This kind of money simply cannot be released in the time available if all the rules and regulations are followed. Getting the money released after bending the rules would send wrong signals," he claimed.

Meanwhile, a well-placed source said the health department had asked the government to allow, in the coming budget, a 15 per cent increase in the allocation for health. Last year's budget - having a total outlay of about Rs84 billion - had a sizable allocation for the health sector.

In response to a question, he said the additional amounts, if allowed, were slated to be used to prepare SNEs for health-care centres which did not have any. Other areas in which renewed efforts would be launched included paramedics' training in post-operative care and procurement of medicines.