Tragedy hints at faulty fund management

NEW DELHI Twenty-three children died within 24 hours in an Uttar Pradesh government hospital where supply of liquid oxygen had been stopped since officials ostensibly failed to settle dues with the supplier. Whether the deaths were a result of the oxygen shortage is now the subject of a probe, but the way one of the biggest government-run hospitals in Gorakhpur — the home district of CM Yogi Adityanath — ran short of a critical resource points to a systemic problem in how public finances are managed in the country. In the case of the Gorakhpur hospital, officials failed to clear ₹70 lakh in bills pending with the hospital’s sole supplier despite repeated reminders. In May, the college administration sent a proposal of ₹37 crore to the state government for improving health facilities. The state forwarded the proposal to the central government for approval and allocation of funds, but not a penny has been released. A similar story has panned out for years in several public sectors. In the 2007-08, more than ₹1 lakh crore was unspent by ministries and departments, according to a Computer and Auditor General (CAG) of India. In 2004-05, 17%, or ₹1,332 crore of the total fund available with the states and union territories for education expenditure was not used, according to the ministry of human resource development. More recently, in a performance audit of the reproductive and child health scheme under the National Rural Health Mission tabled in the Parliament last month, CAG said the cumulative unspent amount in 27 states increased from ₹7,375 crore in 2011-12 to ₹9,509 crore in 2015-16.