Bhubaneswar, Jan 20( Odisha.in) Despite the fact that the Detail Implementation and Review Report ( DIR ) of World Bank has given all details with lots of documentary evidences about Substandard construction work and fraud in procurement of instruments and fittings for hospitals covered under OHSDP.
Demand by the opposition and civil society for C.B.I. probe into the matter, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, on Saturday has asked the Chief Secretary to handover the matter to the State Vigilance Department. Mr Patnaik has also told media persons that he has also asked the Chief secretary to write to
The World Bank to disclose the name of the minister who was demanding money to as bribe to pass a bill. He has promised necessary action against the person after getting reply from the World Bank.
Odisha.in is in possession of a copy of the Detail Implementation and Review report which has categorically mentioned, ” in addition to improving the buildings at 156 Orissa hospitals, the OHSDP also provided new medical equipment, instruments, and furnishings (EIF) to those
hospitals to improve their patient treatment capacity. The DIR found indicators of fraud and corruption in the procurement and provision of these EIF items that in turn may have adversely affected their installation, performance, and repair.”
The DIR’s most significant finding was that suppliers frequently provided equipment that was substandard and/or potentially hazardous; that these firms’ bids often contained fraudulent technical compliance certificates (or lacked such certificates altogether); and that ELMARC’s failure to identify any of these issues in its bid evaluations and EIF inspections suggests its complicity in these apparent frauds.
Consistent with this finding, the DIR also observed that equipment was non-functional when delivered or not installed properly, despite supposedly being inspected by ELMARC; that equipment was oversupplied or provided to hospitals that lacked the staff or training to use it; that ELMARC and the project suppliers did not respond to equipment quality complaints; and that ELMARC’s EIF procurements exhibited indicators of bid rigging.
As the next section details, the DIR also found that the success of the OHSDP’s equipment components was at risk from the very beginning because of equipment maintenance gaps and ELMARC’s financial troubles.
During its visits to OHSDP-funded hospitals, the DIR inspected units of ELMARC-procured EIF items and found that many were non-compliant with the bidding documents’ stated technical specifications.
In some cases, the equipment posed a danger to human health and safety. The DIR also found that ELMARC had awarded contracts for this non-compliant equipment to firms whose bids:
(1) lacked the required certifications of technical compliance; (2) contained certifications that appeared on their faces to be fraudulent; or (3) contained documents that bidders fraudulently represented to be “certifications” when in fact they did not certify compliance with any standard.
ELMARC’s failure to adequately review the certifications included with suppliers’ bids and its failure to conduct adequate EIF inspections may have been caused solely by a lack of capacity or poor performance.
However, the high frequency and obviousness of these problems suggests that ELMARC may have conspired with its suppliers to fraudulently certify non-compliant or dangerous equipment as meeting project specifications.The OHSDP’s EIF implementation failures are therefore an indicator of fraud and corruption meriting further investigation.
The DIR’s detailed findings follow.
The DIR Identified OHSDP-Procured EIF Items That Were Non-Compliant with Technical Specifications or Hazardous.
The DIR identified 17 different types of OHSDP-procured EIF that did not comply with the technical specifications stated in the OHSDP bid documents and/or were hazardous to the medical staff and patients using it.
A biomedical engineer assisting the DIR identified the following 12 types of
equipment as not complying with bid document specifications because of faulty design, poor-quality materials or fabrication, systemically poor installation, and/or a failure to provide required test and compliance certifications (which are safeguards to ensure good manufacturing and product safety).
In the engineer’s opinion, these defects originate in the supplier’s design, manufacturing, and quality-assurance processes and therefore are likely endemic throughout the firm’s production: Airconditioning units: 274 provided by Manisha Engineering and
■ ■ CAS Engineers Pvt. Ltd. at a cost of INR 5.8 million (USD 127,000);
■ ■ Waste management autoclaves: 25 provided by Yorco Sales at a cost of
INR 9.3 million (USD 205,000);
■ ■ Bedside lockers: 3,809 provided by Vishala Industrial Craft and Super
Cardiac Breaths at a cost of INR 6.1 million (USD 137,000).
■ ■ Two-body cold mortuaries: 82 provided by Spectrum Scientific and Super Cardiac Breaths at a cost of INR 7.4 million (USD 163,000)
■ ■ Delivery tables: 188 provided by Surgicoin at a cost of INR 4.2 million (USD 92,000), as well as additional delivery tables provided by Eastern Supplies .
■ ■ Fixed operating theater lights: 147 provided by Surgicoin at a cost of INR 5.4 million (USD 118,000) .
■ ■ Floor-mounted grouting chairs: 3,313 provided by Vishala Industrial Craft at a cost of INR 10.9 million (USD 243,000)
■ ■ Hospital beds: 3,381 provided by United Surgical Industries, Vishala Industrial Craft, and A.M. Technologies at a cost of INR 7.5 million (USD 165,000) .
After such sensational disclosure the State Government should come forward with the names of promoters of the above named companies for allowing the public to scrutinize their links with the politicians and bureaucrats for which they had been favored .
Odisha.in