A Union government review of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in Uttar Pradesh shows that the state has spent about Rs.8,600 crore in the past five years. The audit also found instances of misuse of the funds and overreaching powers to local health officers, reasons some experts link to the mystery killings of health officials in the poll-bound state.
The NRHM report, which is yet to be published and has been reviewed by Mint, found that 47% of the available funds with director-level officials for purchases during 2009-11 remained unspent. As many as 620 of the 779 ambulances that were bought remained stored in warehouses. Similarly, Uttar Pradesh, which has been reporting the highest number of polio cases in the country along with Bihar, had failed to spend more than 50% of the allocated fund of Rs.366 crore.
The Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh is in a fresh crisis after the mysterious death of deputy chief medical officer (CMO) Y.S. Sachan in prison after he was suspended for his alleged role in the murder of another CMO B.P. Singh. Singh’s predecessor, Vinod Kumar Arya, was also murdered on 27 October.
The CMOs in Uttar Pradesh are entrusted with lot of financial powers for the purchase of drugs and awarding contractors in the respective districts, which some experts said could have led to the “unholy nexus between the government officials and ministers.”
“It’s very clear that the huge funds and the failure to fix accountability are leading to this kind of incidents,” said Badri Narayan, professor, Allahabad-based G.B. Pant Social Science Institute. “The system of spending money itself has created lot of room for corruption. In Uttar Pradesh, the state itself legitimizes the corruption and the politician-government official nexus for corrupt practices lead to murders and killings.”
For instance, the director general of family welfare had released Rs.13 crore for iron-folic acid tablets for school children while the reported expenditure is only Rs.2.7 crore and the unspent amount of Rs.10.5 crore is lying with the CMO. The report prepared by the central team, headed by Jaya Bhagat, director of finance at NRHM, also pointed out that the centralized procurement of deworming iron-folic acid tablets and opticals were not done by the director general (family welfare) as required, but were released to districts. The CMOs have the discretionary powers to utilise these funds.
“A lot of money is involved in all these incidents,” Narayan said. “The unholy nexus between the government officials and the politician is also open here.”
An Uttar Pradesh government official said the lapses in the state’s performance weren’t serious. “Uttar Pradesh is perhaps one of the few states which has achieved key targets under NRHM. There could be lapses, but that is not that serious to warrant such attention that you are saying. We are not in receipt of report so cannot comment further,” said a senior official from the state’s family welfare department, on condition of anonymity as only the chief minister is authorized to speak on the subject.
“As far as the CMO murder is concerned, the investigations are on and there are several versions and this is one of the versions. Let’s wait for the probes to end.”
The state government, however, received special praise for its implementation of Janani Suraksha Yojana, a scheme to promote delivery of babies in hospitals among the poor. The central auditors observed that there were “regular and smooth fund flow” and the benefits were made through bank transfers.” The state has also met 92% of target in providing weekly iron-folic acid tablets and provided sufficient infrastructure for training health workers.
The NRHM team found that the state government had sought additional Rs.108 crore for the emergency medical transport services whereas it has failed to utilize almost 80% of ambulances that were supplied to it. But the state’s concern is that the cost of running vehicles, which is currently funded by the centre, would be a financial burden for it, if the centre stops providing monetary support.
“This procurement without delivery had led to blocked funds, loss of interest and an opportunity cost as the fund could have been utilized for any other approved activity” the review report said, adding that non-operationalization of the vehicles would require “substantial maintenance expenditure”.
Source:- http://www.livemint.com/2011/06/25001801/UP-spent-8600-crore-under-NR.html?atype=tp
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