Vishav Bharti
Chandigarh, July 6
It seems officials of the Punjab Health Systems Corporation (PHSC) have taken the Covid relief fund completely for a ride as another scam of Rs 7 crore in purchase of floor sanitiser has surfaced in the corporation.
As per the documents available with The Tribune, the Health Department required a floor sanitiser containing sodium hydrochloride, the market price of which is just Rs 30 per litre. But instead of buying the required floor sanitiser, the PHSC, a procuring agency for Health Department, purchased a hard surface disinfectant solution costing around Rs 1,800 per litre. It was mind boggling that in a single go the PHSC placed order worth Rs 7.16 crore of such an expensive chemical, which was not of any use for the Health Department.
The chemical was purchased despite the Health Department flagging the issue with the PHSC for unnecessarily buying such an expensive disinfectant, which was not of any use.
Responding to proposal regarding purchase of expensive hard surface disinfectant moved by the PHSC in November, the then Deputy Director (Stores and Procurement) in the Health Department had written a letter on December 29, 2021, strongly opposing the move. The letter stated: “The demand put forward by the Health Department has been misused, which will cause huge loss of the government money.”
Despite such a strong opposition by Health Department, the PHSC placed order for 40,000 litre of hard surface disinfectant worth Rs 7.02 crore on January 3, 2022. The same quantity of sodium hydrochloride would have cost just Rs 14 lakh.
Significantly, to fight Covid the Health Department received Rs 571.07 crore from the Department of Revenue, Rehabilitation and Disaster Management and Rs 198 crore was allocated by the Government of India to Punjab in the emergency response and health system package. But a large amount of these funds have been pocketed by politicians and bureaucrats. Taking cognisance of The Tribune reports on March 23 and April 19 this year, the Financial Commissioner, Revenue, had sought a report from the Health Department in this connection.
Earlier scams that have been uncovered
- The PHSC purchased over 1.8 lakh bottles (500 ml each) of sanitiser on January 5 for the Election Commission for just Rs 54.54 each. For hospitals, 1.55 lakh bottles (500 ml each) bought for Rs 160 each
- The PHSC procured 4.87 lakh N95 masks at inflated rates as compared to those purchased for the Election Commission
- There was a requirement of 248 blood cell counters, which were purchased at an exorbitant price of Rs 3.85 lakh
- Hospital furniture worth Rs 6.5 crore was purchased by the Director, Health Services, at higher rates
Another Rs 7-cr purchase scam surfaces in PHSC
{$excerpt:n}
