RTI
unearths corruption in the procurement of medical supplies in a PSU
Should
you happen to casually walk into a primary health centre in any of India’s
small towns what kinds of medicines would you expect to find stocked on its
shelves? Life saving medicines for treating snake bites
and rabies? Paracetamol and antibiotics
for those suffering from some water borne infection? Vaccines
for inoculating babies from life-threatening diseases? Tablets
and injections for those suffering from high blood pressure or diabetes?
Think again. If you happened to visit one of the primary health centres
run by the South Eastern Coal Fields Ltd. you might just stumble upon hair
oils, massage oils and even, believe it or not, aphrodisiacs euphemistically
called vitality restoring tonics. Or perhaps you would find them only on
paper – shown as ayurvedic medicines purchased
at exorbitant rates.
Rumours
of corruption in SECL are neither rare nor recent. Until the coming of the
RTI Act people had no way of verifying these allegations spoken in hushed
tones. After all SECL has been proudly announcing on its website its unique
record of earning profits ever since its inception in 1986. This public
sector undertaking is the single largest producer of coal amongst the eight
subsidiaries of Coal India Ltd. In 2005-06 alone SECL extracted 83.02
million tons of coal from its mines situated in the districts of
Shahdol, Umaria
and Anuppur in Madhya Pradesh and Bilaspur,
Korba, Koria, Raigadh
and Surguja in Chhattisgarh. SECL has claimed
total sales worth Rs. 7127.19 crores
during the same year, and earned a pre-tax profit of Rs.
1,286 crores (post tax profit = Rs.
264.67 crores). One would hail a company with
such an impeccable earning record as a shining example of the robustness of
the fast shrinking public sector in India. But a team of committed citizens
have begun shining the torch of RTI on dark deeds within SECL seemingly
buried away underneath mountains of coal dust.
Sunil Chaurasia
and Narendra Devangan
both belonging to Anuppur, Madhya Pradesh and Satish
Gupta of Manendragarh
from Koria district of Chhattisgargh
filed RTI applications with the PIO of SECL situated at its head office in Bilaspur
during the months of February – April 2006. They sought the following
information–
1)
Names of all medicines procured by SECL for distribution
through its primary health centres and its OPD
clinics in the Hasdev coal mines area during the
financial year 2005-06. (They cater exclusively to the employees of SECL and
their families)
2)
Quantity of medicines procured during the same period.
3)
Supply price of each item.
4)
Copies of all purchase orders issued by SECL for these
medicines.
5)
Name and contact details of suppliers who bagged the purchase
order.
All
three applicants received the requested information within the 30 day
deadline stipulated in the RTI Act. The records showed that SECL had issued
two purchase orders worth a total of Rs. 4,47,422/-
to a certain R S Trading Company on 02 November 2005 for supplying ayurvedic
medicines such as rajwadi chyawanprash,
basant kusumakar ras,
svarna bhasm,
massage oil, divya hair oil, sona-chandi
chyawanprash, shilajit
capsule, paurush jeevan
capsule, chintagani ras,
makardhani vari and
many other ayurvedic items :
(P.O.#SECL/HSDArea/MMW/SO/05/06/Ayurvedicmedicines/479
and P.O.#SECL/HSDArea/MMW/SO/05/06/Ayurvedicmedicines/480).
Two
more purchasing orders were issued on the same day to two more companies
namely, Messrs. Sampath Kumar Lakshminarayan of Manendragarh
in Chhattisgarh (P.O.#SECL/HSDArea/MMW/SO/05/06/Ayurvedic medicines/482
) and Soni Medical Store of Dhanpuri
in Madhya Pradesh (P.O. SECL/HSD/MMW/SO/O5/06/Ayurvedic medicines/481) for
supply of ayurvedic medicines worth – Rs.
99,786.90 and Rs. 1,20,387.50 respectively.
Apart from the medicines mentioned above these companies were asked to
supply jhandu soap herbal, trishul
tablets, kamoddeepak churna
(can it be any more explicit than this), sundari
kalp forte, rose water and the commonly used
disinfectants like savlon, dettol
and phenyle. All P.O.s
had been signed by the Chief General Manager.
Armed
with these documents our RTI trio worked for several weeks crosschecking the
data along with a team of about 25 committed volunteers.
The P.O.s issued to R S Trading Company
mentioned its contact details as a shop situated behind State Bank of India
at Manendragarh, Chhattisgarh. Satish
scoured the entire area but did not find any trace of the supplier. Soni
Medical Store turned out to be a small retailing store operating on a floor
space of 10ftx10ft and the salesperson had no clue about the supply of such
a huge order. Fictitious companies were shown as suppliers of luxury items
in the name of procurement of medical supplies.
Next,
the volunteers cross checked the rates at which the medicines had been
supplied only to find that the retail outlets sold the same items a lot
cheaper. Given below is a comparative table of the retail rates and the rate
at which the medicines were supplied to SECL:-
Item
|
Size
|
Retail
rate in Rupees
|
SECL
Supply Rate in Rupees
|
Amrutanjan
balm
|
10gm
|
15/-
|
20/-
|
Kayam
churna
|
100gm
|
33/-
|
46/-
|
Paurush
Jeevan capsule
|
Strip
of 10
|
20/-
|
28/-
|
Sesha
hair oil
|
100ml
|
88/-
|
185/-
|
Sona
chandi chyawanprash
|
1kg
|
185/-
|
280/-
|
-do-
|
1/2kg
|
105/-
|
155/-
|
Rose
water
|
30ml
|
10/-
|
15/-
|
Banphool
oil
|
200ml
|
68/-
|
96/-
|
Noorani
oil
|
100ml
|
30/-
|
44/-
|
Jaitul
oil
|
50ml
|
30/-
|
35/-
|
Rajwadi
chyawanprash
|
1kg
|
340/-
|
440/-
|
-do-
|
1/2kg
|
187/-
|
250/-
|
Aglari
|
100ml
|
33/-
|
47/-
|
Savlon
|
100ml
|
23/-
|
25/-
|
Dettol
|
100ml
|
17/-
|
21/-
|
Phenyle
|
500ml
|
33/-
|
56/-
|
Only one
item, namely, Trishul tablets were supplied at a
price lower slightly lower than the retail price (Rs.
8/- and Rs. 10/- respectively). During 2005-06,
SECL had allocated Rs. 99,78,690/-
for its medical budget. The total value of the four purchase orders released
under the RTI Act was Rs. 6.67 lakhs.
The extent of money lost due to corruption remains to be calculated.
Sunil
published the details of these findings in the Koylanchal
Times a current affairs magazine popular in the coal mining belt of MP and
Chhattisgarh that he published every month. In August, officials of the
Vigilance unit of SECL contacted him to hear learn first hand, the story of
the findings of the RTI team. Nothing much was heard for a few months
afterwards. Upon making informal enquiries with SECL about the progress of
the case Sunil found out that the Vigilance unit had instituted a formal
investigation. The Chief Finance Manager and the Materials Manager seem to
have been chargesheeted in the case and inquiry
proceedings are said to be going on.
Sunil, Narendra,
Satish and their team of volunteers are elated
at these developments. Their painstaking efforts have awakened potential
whistleblowers within SECL. An employee of the company in the Hasdev
mines area, who spoke with the activists on condition of anonymity, told
them that they had merely succeeded in scratching the surface. Corruption in
the procurement of medical supplies is deeper and murkier than what has been
unearthed. It has been alleged that several batches of medicines supplied to
the OPDs and PHCs
are well past the expiry date or will become useless in less than six
months. The activists are now planning to request spot inspection of the
stock of medicines to verify the facts themselves. They are also planning to
apply to the Vigilance unit of SECL under the RTI Act seeking a progress
report of action taken on the basis of their findings.
Narrative:-
Dr. Rakesh Ranjan, Convenor, MPSAA and Venkatesh
Nayak, CHRI
{Sunil,
Narendra, Satish and
their team of volunteers are all active members of the Madhya Pradesh Suchana
Adhikar Abhiyan (MPSAA).
CHRI works with the Abhiyan to spread awareness
about RTI in Madhya Pradesh.}
02-20-2007, 10:42 AM
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