A short report Inspection or Eyewash? discusses the visit of World Bank officials to hospitals of the Punjab Health Systems Corporation (PHSC) on 8 May. Hospital authorities prepared carefully for the visit, but patient groups and NGOs were not invited. The Bank-funded Punjab Health Systems Corporation (PHSC) is a parastatal body working alongside the state run health services.
Dr. Vineeta Gupta, General Secretary of Insaaf International, tried repeatedly to meet the World Bank team during their visit to tell them about the “total lack of transparency, corruption and miss-utilisation of the World Bank funds”. But she was not allowed to get in-touch with the team. She commented: “so much for the accessibility of the World Bank officials and transparency in the World Bank projects”.
