Senate body told: NIH owes Rs 300 million on account of rent against various institutions

National Institute of Health (NIH) owes Rs 300 million on account of rent against different institutions including World Health Organisation (WHO), Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services was informed on Monday.
The NIH image is riddled with litigation and political interference, and it is meeting only 7-8 percent of the country's demand of different vaccines due to low production capacity, said NIH officials while briefing the committee which met here in the chair of Sajjad Hussain Turi.
"The NIH rented some of its land to different institutions, including WHO, with accumulative rent of Rs 37 million per annum but due to non-payment of the rent for last several years, the outstanding amount on account of rent has reached Rs 300 million," said NIH officials.
It was further revealed that 70 shops were given to NIH officials on lease, who further sublet it while receiving Rs 1,000,000 per shop in advance, while two mobile towers are also installed on its land and the companies have not been paying rent since 2011.
Acting Executive Director NIH Mukhtar Ahamd further revealed that NIH has no information technology (IT) department and accounts are managed manually, so transparency issues cannot be ruled out.
The ED said that NIH image is riddled with litigation and political interference. He demanded more independence for the institution.
The NIH has capacity of producing 4 million doses of Tetanus Toxoid against the demand of 16 million doses, producing 1.5 million doses of measles vaccine against demand of 19 million, producing 200,000 doses of cell culture rabies vaccine against demand of 500,000, producing 30, 000 vials of anti-snake venom against demand of 100,000 vials, producing 2000 vials of anti-rabies serum against demand of 30,000 vial and producing 150,000-200,000 vials as per demand.
The NIH was established in 1980 under the Ministry of Health through a Presidential Ordinance (Ordinance XLIII of 1980) and was assigned 22 functions including sole producer in the public sector of life-saving vaccines and sera while the remaining 21 pertaining to public health issues, including surveillance, food and drug testing and human resource development.
The NIH advises the federal government on the control of diseases by suitable methods, implements all the schemes and proposals approved by the federal government for it, investigates epidemics and other communicable diseases, conducts research on these problems using modern techniques, collaborates with other concerned agencies, develops methodology and standardises techniques for the investigation of various diseases prevalent in the country and others.
The NIH functions as sole producer of vaccines and sera for prophylactic and therapeutic use and acquires capability of meeting domestic and foreign demands.
The committee was further informed that there are a total of 1,055 sanctioned posts, of which 722 are filled while 344 have been lying vacant since long.
The NIH officials said that production facilities are nearly 30 years old and do not meet current good manufacturing practices (GMP) standards. Moreover, these facilities also need a lot of maintenance work. Critical equipments are old and need repair and maintenance regularly while cold rooms are very old. Moreover, the NIH is facing shortage of production related staff.
It was further revealed that no reinvestment has been made by NIH for betterment of facilities and equipment, while the biggest issue it faces is procurement of raw material including seed virus, bacterial strains and allied vaccine components.
The committee was further informed that NIH generated Rs255.5 million from its own resources in 2015-16 and it got Rs470 million grant in aid while its expenditures remained Rs 739.9 million during the aforementioned period.
The committee recommended for immediately filling in the vacant posts, up-gradation of laboratories and independence for NIH within limits to improve its performance and meet national demands.