NHM expenditure under the scanner

JALANDHAR: The district health department’s expenditure over the past year has come under scanner.

A National Health Mission inquiry report has pointed out several irregularities in the implementation of schemes.

The inquiry is being headed by National Health Mission (NHM) state director Varun Roojam.

The state director said that he has submitted the inquiry report to health minister Brahm Mohindra. The report, a copy of which is with the Hindustan Times, states that a complaint was made with NHM office on June 1, 2017, regarding questions over Copper-T insertions under the Population Stabilization Programme, the sanctioned budget for which is ₹3.15 lakh for one year.

Under the inquiry, all the expenditure records were called from district health department and the same was matched with the number of Copper-T insertion cases carried out in Jalandhar.

As per the report, the health department has carried out a total of 16,078 Copper-T cases for April 2016 to March 2017.

According to the norms, ₹20 is paid per Copper-T insertion to the health institute.

The Jalandhar health department should have spent ₹3.21lakh according to the number of cases carried out.But the officials have showed an expenditure of ₹12.99 lakh.

Surprisingly, statement of expenditure (SOE) of March 2017 reveals that till February, the district health department had spent ₹3,16,940 which means around 15,847 Copper-T should have been fixed negating the health department’s data.

In March, the department has showed ₹9,82,630 expense,as per which around 49,000 Copper-T cases were carried out in only one month bringing the expenditure under scanner.

Further, the probe report also discloses that the district health department spent ₹1.92 crore from NHM funds for the purchase of different items under the limited tender system.

The limited tender system is implemented only for emergency purchases.But in records, there was no justification for emergency purchases.

The information about the excess purchase was never shared with state health society and as of now no step has taken to regularise these expenses.

For purchase under this system, there is a need to take quotations from six firms but the district officials procured quotations from five firms only.

The report mentioned that the NHM accounts can also be operated by the district officials according to rules but the guideline was not followed in Jalandhar.