Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Construction works destroy amission, bleed health funds by Pravin Kumar & Shailvee Sharda

Construction works destroy amission, bleed health funds by Pravin Kumar & Shailvee Sharda

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Jul 24, 2011   modified Modified on Jul 24, 2011
The flexipool of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) funds has been the juiciest target for fund plunderers. The head under which huge budget was earmarked for activities like construction and strengthening of healthcare facilities, provided ample scope for pilferage.

The pattern of spending on infrastructure building and maintenance proves how extravagant UP has been on this count. Every single year, since the inception of the NRHM in 2005-06, the state has spent much more than the sanctioned budget for infrastructure.

UP spent Rs 3,018 crore in six years on infrastructure building, which was Rs 500 crore more than the sanctioned sum for the period. In 2009-10 in particular, expenses went through the roof - while the budget earmarked was Rs 497.57 crore, UP ended up spending Rs 765.12 crore. Clearly, funds from other sources were diverted to maintain a free flow for pilferage.

No wonder, in the sanctioned budget for 2011-12, the Central directorate of NRHM imposed the sharpest cut on the mission flexipool - Rs 724 crore. Among major demands of UP which were rejected was a proposal of Rs 226 crore for strengthening of 89 district hospitals and Rs 26 crore for setting up of hospital information system-based hospitals.

The Central NRHM team that visited UP in May and had a random check of two years' records between 2009 and 2011, found that most of the civil construction and strengthening works were outsourced to government corporations and cooperatives with little accountability and check.

"There was not much effort to undertake a competitive comparison as almost all civil construction contracts were given to state government agencies. The DG (FW) office merely transferred funds to agencies as earmarked in executive committee (EC) meeting decisions with no open tender system being followed to ensure competitive cost effective bidding," the central team report says.

Since there was no bidding in most of the cases, favourite agencies were obliged. Funds were released to them in a jiffy and many a time almost the entire budget was given in advance. And once the funds reached these agencies, the executive committee (EC) of the state health society (SHS), the apex body for implementation of NRHM activities, forgot about its responsibility to do regular physical and financial review of funds. "Conveniently and deliberately," say inside sources.

Many of these agencies are still holding on to NRHM funds without bothering to complete the work they were given these funds for. In 2009-11, the state lost over Rs four crore just in form of interest. The four major state agencies which were given the contracts were UP Processing and Construction Co-operative Federation (PACCFED), Uttar Pradesh Project Corporation Ltd (UPPCL), Jal Nigam's Construction and Design Services (CDS) and Uttar Pradesh Labour and Construction Cooperative Associations Ltd (LACCPED).

These agencies were given work contracts without any formal agreement. In 2009-11, while PACCFED was given contracts worth Rs 364.59 crore, UPPCL got works valued at Rs 209.02 crore and in case of CDS, it was 51.97 crore. LACCPED was given a contract worth Rs 45.93 in March 2011 and by May 2011, it had not even started working on more than half the facilities it was supposed to construct. It had an unspent balance of Rs 39.44 crore. The central team has mentioned that the balances left with other agencies was huge too - PACCFED (Rs 54.22 cr), UPPCL (Rs 77.70 crore) and CDS (Rs 20.15 crore). There was no effort from DG (FW) to recover the amount while these agencies.

The arbitrary way in which the EC awarded these work has been mentioned in the central committee report. On July 7, 2010, the EC decided to award a set of work to PACCFED. Just a month later, on August 12, 2010, the EC again held a meeting and decided to take the work from PACCFED and hand that over to UPPCL as its 'performance was satisfactory'. But, there was no mention of the method of evaluation of work of the two agencies. The UPPCL was given the contract and also an advance of Rs 87 crore on August 18, 2010. Two months on, however, the EC again changed its mind and the work was again given back to PACCFED on October 13, 2010. "The same work was allotted to PACCFED, which had earlier been found under-performing compared to UPPCL," notes the central team report.

Another anomaly that the team noticed was an abnormal variation in unit cost of construction quoted by different agencies. In 2009-10, UPPCL and CDS charged Rs 10 lakh and Rs 3.63 crore respectively for upgradation of district hospitals to the Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS). PACCFED, on the other hand, charged Rs 46.70 lakh for construction of one regional warehouse in 2009-10, but in 2010-11, raised it astronomically to Rs 1.62 crore.

The spoils of NRHM bounty reached across the spectrum of departments. "It's not that higher-ups of only health and family welfare department enjoyed the fruits of health funds. The second level of loot were the agencies which got the work contract. As soon as the money was released in their favour, cuts were distributed instantly to the bigwigs of the department a particular agency directly or indirectly belonged to," says a contractor closely associated with the NRHM works. Although these corporations are technically independent, PACCFED is controlled by the cooperative department and UPPCL by department of irrigation. Incidentally, Babu Singh Kushwaha was holding the charge of both family welfare as well cooperative department before he was shunted out in April this year after the NRHM scam came out in the open following murder of Lucknow's CMO (family welfare) Dr BP Singh.

The third level were the districts where the projects were being executed. There was pilferage at each level of execution and loyal contractors and sub-contractors would milk the funds for their masters. "By the time the work actually started, more than 40% funds was already consumed by cuts," the contractor says.

The central team's report also makes a mention about the 'March loot'. "A substantial number of cheques were issued on the last day of the financial year, March 31, 2011," it says. The report specifically says that on March 3, 2011, cheques worth Rs 3.69 crore were issued under Mission flexible pool.

The Times of India, 25 July, 2011, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/Construction-works-destroy-amission-bleed-health-funds/articleshow/9352016.cms


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close