A team of World Bank officials met Orissa Chief Secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathi in the state capital today and informed him that in 2005, the then health minister had taken a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from a supplier. Speaking to The Indian Express, Tripathi said the World Bank team did not have the name of the minister. But Routray was the health minister at that time. He was dropped from the ministry in a Cabinet reshuffle in 2006.

Tripathi said a final decision would be taken by the Chief Minister. The World Bank team included its south Asia director John A Rommi and Ravi Shankar.

When contacted, Routray reacted angrily and alleged that he had been made a scapegoat. “How can they take my name when a vigilance inquiry is being conducted by the government. A month back, fingers were being pointed at some other people, and all of sudden my name comes up. It is a conspiracy, and the government should come up with some concrete proof to prove any corruption or crime,” said Routray, son of former Chief Minister Nilamani Routray.

Between 1997-2003, the World Bank had provided assistance worth $300 million for health sector programmes to different state governments. Orissa received aid worth $82 million (approximately Rs 320 crore) for implementation of five programmes — malaria control project, food and drug capacity building, second national HIV/ AIDS control project, tuberculosis control project and Orissa health system development project.

Two years ago, the International Development Association conducted a detailed implementation review. The 150-page report said that a firm admitted paying Rs 5 lakh to the then Orissa health minister and other ministry officials to facilitate the payment of Rs 2.50 million in non-bank fund invoices. The team inspected 55 projects before submitting their report.

The review also found that Rs 111 crore had remained unutilised despite two years of extension of the project, the aim of which was to beef up district-level and sub-level hospitals. The implementation of the civil works indicated fraud — 93 per cent of the 55 project hospitals observed problems like uninitiated or incomplete work, severely leaking roofs, crumbling ceilings and molding walls and non-functional sewage system. Yet all of these were given completion certificates.

The team also found that some of the equipment purchased were sub-standard and procured from suppliers blacklisted by other state governments. The report identifies 17 types of equipment that violated project technical specifications, including five types that were hazardous. This includes autoclaves that could explode and neonatal equipment that lacked adequate electrical grounding exposing babies and medical staff to electrical shocks.

Recently, World Bank president Robert Zoellick had also said in Washington that their “probe has revealed unacceptable indicators of fraud and corruption.”

On Sunday, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced that the state vigilance department would probe the charges, following demands for a CBI inquiry. He had said that the World Bank had been requested to furnish names of any ministers and officials involved in corruption during the implementation of the project. He had also announced a fact finding committee headed by the Chief Secretary for the purpose.