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| CAG finds fault in Health dept's tendering system | | | Saqib Junaid
Early Times Report
Srinagar, June 8: The tall claims of Jammu and Kashmir health department of bringing transparency in the tendering process of hospital supplies has been exposed as the astounding deficiencies related to supply orders from 2010-11 to 2014 brought in limelight by the Comptroller and Audit General (CAG) of India.
The CAG in its latest report has blamed authorities of having approved some blue-eyed firms to supply items which lacked the eligibility to qualify in the tendering process and offered higher rates as compared to other genuine firms, deliberately overlooking genuine firms in brazen violation of purchasing procedures.
As per the CAG report there is a deep-rooted nexus between the blue eyed firms and health officials of Government Medical College, Srinagar and Jammu responsible for finalizing the rate contract in the associated hospitals.
The auditor report in implied that the Rate Contract Committee (RCC) has violated the contract rules by issuing the contracts to only those firms who pay bribes and kickbacks to the members of RCC and to those firms which the administration has close liaison.
As per rules and regulation laid down by state government, two purchasing committees have been up in the state one in Srinagar and other one in Jammu. The RCC has to invite tenders from the firms and finalize the contract of the firms which offers the product at the least amount as compared to the counterparts. The hospital procurement list which includes items like medicines, machinery, disposables and other essential has been divided by the purchasing committee in two halves and the list gets rotated after two years.
"11 out of 24 rate contracts finalized by the two purchase committees during the period from 2010-11 to 2014-15 showed cases of uncompetitive and non-transparent contracts finalization," CAG report says.
The audit scrutiny of records showed how CAG had identified the manipulations and 'nepotism' done by the concerned officials in the state's health sector and cited some examples of irregularities.
(Item No: 53) Dialysis Machine Out of the two firms which participated for the tender of Dialysis Machine, one had quoted a price of 6, 79,000, but had later intimated that 56,000 would be charged extra for accessories. The purchase committee as per the report didn't explore the option of re-tendering and issued the Rate contract in favour of M/S Kay Associates at the rate of 7, 20,000.While, equipment worth Rs 96.48 lakh had been procured by the health institutes on the basis of this Rate Contract.
Finalization of Rate Contract was done despite variation in quoted rates:
(Item No: 82) Impedance Meter Despite rate difference of 1,6,90,204 between price quoted by two firms in respect of the same equipment, the PC approved the rate contract of the firm which had made the highest bid of 4, 37,220.
Finalization of RC despite not meeting the specification
(Item No: 88) Pulse Oximeter Neonatal "Out of the 3 technically qualified firms; PC issued the order in favour of the firm who were not complying with tender specification. Equipment worth Rs 21.40 lakh had been procured by the hospitals on the basis of this rate contract.
IRC for Albumin system, Point of Care Instruments Test POCT: The RC was awarded on March 2014 by the PC to Directorate of Kashmir for supply of Albumin system, PCOT at the rate of 1.17 Lakh each in favour of a firm.
And another rate contract was awarded for POCT Haemoglobin meter; POCT Glucometer and WBC count Analyzer in favour of another firm respectively at the rate of 29, 39 and 2.10 Lakhs."
Allotment of Rate Contracts despite backing out of L1 Bidders:
(Item No: 105) Slide Stainer Automatic Out of the four firms which participated in the tender for this item, one was rejected without justification. Out of the remaining three the Lowest one M/s Aadish Enterprises Jammu which has quoted a price of 5, 02,000 was ignored, and the firm M/sTowar options Delhi which had quoted a price of 8, 07,639 was given the contract.
The report further says that department has not maintained proper records at Srinagar-Jammu by not preparing technical evaluation report in respect of the financial bid of the tenders. |
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