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Updated At: Sep 14, 2022 05:57 AM (IST)
There seems to be no end to the scams in the Health Department. After sanitisers and masks, now Rs 13 crore scam related to procurement of hospital furniture has surfaced. The Vigilance Bureau is probing procurement of furniture worth Rs 22 crore allegedly at inflated rates during the pandemic.
Sources said role of Director Health Services (ESI) Dr GB Singh and Senior Medical Officers Dr Gagandeep Singh Grover, who was in-charge of Store and Purchase, and Dr Karamjit Singh was under scanner.
The Vigilance started the probe after the government found in its report that hospital furniture worth Rs 22 crore was procured by the Department of Health and Family Welfare at inflated prices.
As per documents available with The Tribune, on December 31 last year, the Directorate of Health purchased furniture worth Rs 22 crore on a rate contract signed by the Controller of Stores, which works under the Industry Department. The market price of the purchased furniture was allegedly around Rs 9 crore.
The Controller of Stores signed the rate contract with a company called “Geeken”. However, the items were not purchased directly from Geeken, but from another firm, which instead procured furniture allegedly from Geeken for Rs 9 crore and sold off the same to the Health Department for Rs 22 crore.
The Health Department procured a bedside locker for Rs 9,890, wheelchair (Rs 15,345), ward dressing trolley (Rs 24,680), patient stretcher trolley with mattress (Rs 33,771), footrest (Rs 3,438), emergency drug trolley (Rs 33,238) and semi-fowler bed for Rs 39,722.
Ironically, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot, procured same equipment for the Health Department at a lesser price. Following which, somebody from within the department blew the whistle over the issue.
As per documents, the state government had asked the BFUHS to procure fowler and semi-fowler beds. The university authorities floated the tender on the government procurement portal. In August 2021, it procured 466 fowler beds for Rs 31,356 each and 4,308 semi-fowler beds for Rs 27,411 each. Apart from this, the university had asked the company to provide ancillary items related to the beds worth Rs 67.56 lakh free of cost.
Recently, Punjab Health Systems Corporation had unearthed two more scams, including purchase of furniture worth Rs 6.5 crore, and blood cell counters for Rs five crore. Both items were purchased at inflated rates by adopting the same modus operandi as it was done in case of sanitisers and masks.
Dr GB Singh said, “My life is like an open book. I am ready for any investigation.” Dr Gagandeep Singh Grover was not available for comments.
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The Tribune, now published from Chandigarh, started publication on February 2, 1881, in Lahore (now in Pakistan). It was started by Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia, a public-spirited philanthropist, and is run by a trust comprising four eminent persons as trustees.
The Tribune, the largest selling English daily in North India, publishes news and views without any bias or prejudice of any kind. Restraint and moderation, rather than agitational language and partisanship, are the hallmarks of the paper. It is an independent newspaper in the real sense of the term.
The Tribune has two sister publications, Punjabi Tribune (in Punjabi) and Dainik Tribune (in Hindi).
Remembering Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia
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