NRHM: 3 UP health officers named in chargesheet

During the second half of the last month,The Indian Express ran an 11-part series on the scam in NRHM — ‘Three murders & a scam’.

“The chargesheet was served to the three officials on Thursday and they have been given 15-day time to submit their replies. Mission Director of NRHM Mohammad Mustafa has been given the task to probe the matter,” said Sanjay Agarwal,Principal Secretary of Health and Family Welfare.

The action comes after an inquiry report submitted by former secretary of Health and Family Welfare Mrityunjay Narain on July 19 revealed irregularities into awarding of the contracts to UPSICL.

The inquiry found that the then director-general of Family Welfare,S P Ram,had awarded eight contracts amounting to Rs 10 lakh to UPSICL in 2010-11,which was beyond his competence. Moreover,75 per cent of the funds were released to the agency by Ram in advance.

In 2010-11,UPSICL was awarded contracts worth Rs 17 crore. For making hoardings,flex banners,wall painting and notices,Rs 9.75 crore was transferred on August 27,2010. Similarly Rs 4.44 crore was transferred for procurement of manual vacuum aspirators,consumables for sterilisation camps,infection prevention consumables for intrauterine devices,IUD kits and other items on October 4,2010.

Ram,who is retiring as Director General Medical and Health on Sunday,was the DG (Family Welfare) from July 26,2010 to January 19,2011. Narain reportedly found that permission for procurement of certain items was not taken from the executive committee of the NRHM. Also,Ram purchased drugs and medical consumables from UPSIC at a rate,which was much higher than the rates at which the CMSD (Health) was buying those items under rate contract.

The inquiry also found that the tendering done by UPSICL did not seem to be fair. The rates quoted in the tender were found to be exactly the same as the rates mentioned in the Project Implementation Plan of the NRHM prepared by the state government.