The Covid relief fund issued to the Punjab Health System Corporation (PHSC) officially seems now to have been sent for a ride as another scam amounting worth Rs 7 Crore has come to light in the corporation on the purchase of floor sanitizers.
As per the documents that surfaced, the health department required a floor sanitizer which consisted of sodium hydrochloride, whose market price is just Rs 30 per litre. But what PHSC, a procuring agency for Health Department, did was instead of buying required floor sanitizers the corporation purchased a hard surface disinfectant solution which costs around Rs 1800 per litre.
It was surprising on the part of the department which placed the order for a whopping Rs 7.16 Crore of such an expensive chemical, which absolutely has no use for the health department. The purchase of the chemical was made despite the Health Department flagging their concern with the PHSC for unnecessarily buying this expensive disinfectant which is absolutely of no use.
In response to the proposal regarding the purchase of such an expensive hard surface disinfectant proceeded by the PHSC in November, the then Deputy Director (Stores and Procurement) in the Department of Health had written a letter on December 29th 2021flagging the disapproval of the move. The letter further stated: “The demand put forward by the Health Department has been misused, which will cause a huge loss of government money.”
The same quantity of sodium hydrochloride would have costed just Rs 14 Lakh, but the PHSC placed the bulk order of 40,000 litres of hard disinfectant worth Rs 7.02 Crore on January 3rd, 2022 amidst strong opposition by the Health Department.In the fight against Covid, the Health Department received Rs 571.07 Crore from the Department of Revenue and Disaster Management and a separate Rs 198 Crore was allocated by the Government of India to Punjab in the emergency response and health system package. But unfortunately, a sizeable section of this amount has been pocketed by politicians and other government officials.
Taking cognizance of several media reports on March 23 and April 19 this year, the Financial Commissioner, Revenue, had sought a report from the Health Department in this regard.
Series of other scams which came to light earlier
The PHSC made a purchase of over 1.8 lakh bottles of sanitizers (500 ml each) on January 5 for the Election Commission for just Rs 54.54 each. Whereas for the hospitals, 1.55 lakh bottles (500 ml each) were bought for Rs 160 each
The PHSC procured 4.87 lakh N95 masks at higher rates in comparison to those purchased for the Election Commission
There was a requirement for 248 blood cell counters, which were purchased at an exorbitant price of Rs 3.85 lakh
Hospital furniture worth Rs 6.5 Crore was purchased by the Director, Health Services, at higher rates