Raipur: A Rs 660-crore scam in procurement of medical equipment and reagents of the Chhattisgarh State Medical Services Corporation Limited has come to light in a recent audit report.
The audit covering financial years 2022-23 and 2023-24 revealed that the medical equipment and reagents were acquired for 776 primary health centres (PHCs) without any corresponding budget allocation, NDTV reported quoting from a letter, from the Accountant General to the Health Department, that it has exclusively obtained.
The audit found that more than 350 of these PHCs lacked necessary technical knowhow and storage facilities to use the equipment effectively.
The audit also found that the Director of Health Services placed orders for these items without conducting any baseline survey or gap analyses to assess the specific needs of each facility. Thus, the variation in patient load and specific requirements was not assessed, and the equipment distributed uniformly across all PHCs.
The investigation is continuing as the Principal Accountant General has called for a comprehensive audit involving the Chhattisgarh State Medical Services Corporation, Director of Health Services, National Health Mission and field-level healthcare facilities.