Govt rapped for sitting on advice about SGPGI

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has criticised the state government for non-compliance with its recommendations about the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS). The CAG had submitted the recommendations in 2005.

“The follow -up audit of the institute for 2010-15 revealed that the state government nei- ther prescribed an action plan nor issued any direction to the SGPGI to ensure the compliance of the recommendations made by CAG,” the watchdog said in its report tabled in the legislative assembly on Sunday.

The deficiencies in the operation and management of the institute continued to persist even after 10 years, the CAG observed, adding that a critical shortage of medical and para medical staff adversely impacted the quality of medi- cal treatment and patient care.

Despite being a centre of excellence for providing medical care and research facilities, the institute did not maintain a centralised waitlist for patients and also did not introduce a feedback mechanism to identify critical gaps in its capability and available infrastructure so as to take corrective actions to improve the hospital services, the CAG added.

The research projects continued to remain an area of con- cern due to low participation of faculty members, low level of funding and the failure to get patients and achieve commercialisation, it said.

The CAG also said the institute did not conduct physical verification of the stocks required under the rules. The institute has not implemented an e-procurement system yet.

The CAG has urged the state government to implement its recommendations for corrective action in a time bound manner.