CWG – Delhi Health Department Purchase Scam – CAG indicts Delhi Health Department –

CWG – Delhi Health Department Purchase Scam –
CAG indicts Delhi Health Department –
CAG also found that CWG) Organizing Committee paid $30,000 (Rs 13.5 lakh) to former minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor

The Comptroller and Auditor General's interim report on medical purchases for the Commonwealth Games says that the Delhi Health Department bought equipment worth crores of rupees for the Games.


The Comptroller and Auditor General's interim report on medical purchases for the Commonwealth Games says that the Delhi Health Department bought equipment worth crores of rupees for the Games.

CAG report says that Delhi Health Department bought equipment by paying more than the market price and even did not follow the norms of purchases.

Copy of the CAG interim report shows that

1.
68 ice machines for treating sports injuries were bought at a cost higher than the maximum retail price, leading to a loss of over Rs. 23 lakh.

2.
Eleven firms failed to deliver medical equipment worth Rs. 4 lakh but no action was taken against them.

3.
The Directorate of Health Services of Delhi government and Lok Nayak hospital bought medical equipment of more than Rs. 6 crore against all norms, without an open tender.

4.
The report says the Director of Health Services waited till the end so that he could justify the purchases without a tender as a last-minute decision.

5.
Incredibly, most of this equipment came after the Games were over. Some of it like emergency trolley beds and ICU beds are yet to be installed.

6.
The Rs. 5 crore emergency block for sportspersons at Delhi's Govind Ballabh Pant hospital was completed a month after the Games. The report says a team of doctors gave false documents to hide the real date of completion.

Still it is not clear how much loss this has caused to India and Indian citizens.

CAG also found that CWG) Organizing Committee paid $30,000 (Rs 13.5 lakh) to former minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor for attending the OC office for 12 days.
Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) revealed that OC hired Tharoor for his international exposure and planned to use his services to influence national and international communities to help ensure successful staging of the Games.

The audit found Tharoor attended OC deliberations for four days each in the months of September and October 2008 and, again, four days in January 2009.
Per day fee amounts to 2500$
Tharoor received the payments in a Dubai branch of HSBC in 2009

Tharoor said that "My association with CWG as a consultant relates to a different phase of my life, when I was a private citizen with no relationship to the government.
He added, "I did not approach the CWG but they sought me out in order to have me lend my stature to the promotion of the event; the consultancy fee charged was a token sum, and the total sum paid ($30,000) was far below the fee that I used to command even just to make a single speech."


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Sunday, February 13, 2011