Alleges Rs 3.74 crore ‘avoidable loss’ on medicine purchases
PANAJI
The statutory audit of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its ‘Audit Inspection Report’ has flagged the Goa Medical College and Hospital for two of its outsourcing deals -- the hospital kitchen to Sodexo Food Solutions India Pvt Ltd and the inhouse pharmacy to M/s Wellness Forever Medicare Pvt Ltd.
The report of the Deputy Accountant General has flagged a Rs 3.74 crore “avoidable loss” on procurement of medicines, surgical disposables and chemicals through ‘local purchases’ and failure to negotiate the conventional 5 per-cent discount on bulk purchase with Wellness Forever Medicare Pvt Ltd.
In his detailed note, the Deputy Accountant General has noted that the Health Minister (Vishwajit Rane) had directed in June 2018 to discontinue procurement of medicines, surgicals and implants under lapsed tenders and instead place requisitions through the in-house pharmacy (M/S Wellness Forever Medicare Pvt).
“Due to delay in finalisation of tender and stoppage of procurement of medicines from old tenderers at a discounted rate has led to purchase of medicines through local purchase amounting to Rs 74.76 crore made on MRP from WFML during 2018-21 (up to February 2021),” the report said.
On the GMC’s deal with SODEXO, the audit report has flagged “excess expenditure” of Rs 1.29 crore due to “faulty tendering”, another excess payment of Rs 19.11 lakh for dietary charges and a Rs 2.41 crore loss of revenue due to non-levy of rent and penalty.
On the SODEXO deal, the audit inspection report has pointed out that the tendering process had given the firm an undue advantage and bypassed competitiveness in the bidding process by the inclusion of a clause which gave weightage to larger contract turnover in India.
The rate per patient per day quoted by SODEXO was Rs 292 which was 25 per-cent higher than its competitor Hocaps Facility Management Pvt Ltd, yet due to its large turnover it got 81.9 points against the latter’s 78.8 points, the report noted.
Sodexo was awarded the contract by GMC at a negotiated rate of Rs 277 per patient per day which was Rs 42 higher than Hocaps Pvt Ltd. The audit report, however, did not compute the gross excess cost to the GMC on this count.
In a disclaimer though, the Deputy Accountant General has noted: “The Inspection Report has been prepared on the basis of information furnished and made available by the Dean, Goa Medical College & Hospital, Bambolim. The Office of the Accountant General, Goa, disclaims any responsibility for any misinformation and/or non-information on the part of the auditee.”
Meanwhile, the GMC’s joint director of accounts had in August circulated the ‘Audit Inspection Report’ to all department and section heads of the premier health institution and sought detailed replies to the audit paras pertaining to their respective departments/sections for onward submission.
Based on an assessment of these replies, the Accountant General Goa is likely to close its findings and submit a final report which eventually will be presented in the final consolidated CAG report of the State statutorily and constitutionally published annually.
