Fearing credibility fall through the floor, Aruna Asaf Ali Hospital wipes slate clean
A new revelation has been made in the ongoing enquiry against Aruna Asaf Ali Hospital on grounds of corruption during purchases. The Medical Superintendent has caught an official of the hospital to have purchased Fumifloor, a surface disinfectant, a year before the said batch of product was actually manufactured by the parent company. The hospital records show that it purchased Fumifloor in 2010 from a South India firm called PSK Pharma. However, the firm clarified through e-mail correspondence to the MS that the product in question was manufactured by the firm in 2011 and all batches of it were supplied to Hyderabad.
This matter of corruption in case of Fumifloor purchase by an official of the hospital came to the forefront after the MS, Dr SK Sharma, wrote to PSK Pharma Private limited asking for a chemical analysis report of the two batches of chemicals supplied to the hospital. In the e-mail, Sharma mentioned the batch number of the chemicals and said that they were manufactured in 2010 with a shelf life of five years.
However, the misdealing was revealed when Managing Director of PSK Pharma, Basavraj HN, replied to Sharma saying that the first ever batch of the said product was manufactured by the firm only in 2011, a year after the hospital claimed to have bought it. “Fumifloor, surface disinfectant concentrate, five litre packs, batch number 09014210, manufacturing date September 2010, expiry date August 2015 and batch number 09020182, manufacturing date June 2011 and expiry date May 2016 have not been manufactured by us at all,” said Basavraj in his reply to Sharma.
According to Basavraj, the company manufactured only 20 cans of the said product in 2011 which were given out at other places. “A total of 20 cans were manufactured by the company. Out of these, the first 10 cans bearing batch number 1108811 with manufacturing date as August 2011 and expiry date May 2014 and second lot of 10 cans of five litre with manufacturing date November 2011 and expiry date August 2014 were supplied to a firm in Hyderabad,” informed Basavraj.
Sharma had also e-mailed photographs of the labels of the Fumifloor cans at the hospital. looking at them, Basavraj said that it was obvious in the image that the said product was not manufactured by PSK Pharma.
This case actually comes as a part of the several financial irregularities in the hospital. Recently large-scale financial irregularities of around Rs 3 crore relating to purchase of sanitation material came to light following which serious probe began. Reportedly, buttloads of money had been drained out by making fake bills for purchase of medical equipment and medicine.
The whistleblower in this case was RTI activist Dr Avinash Kumar, who is also a former doctor of the hospital. He alleged that a corrupt official and the former MS of the hospital had drained out funds from the hospital by making fake bills and supplying spurious material in name of a product which was not even manufactured in the year it was purchased. Sources say that these labels were probably put on the cleaning solution cans after a probe on the purchases of the hospital started. “The defaulters must have realised that they would get caught sooner or later, so they planted the whole thing,” said a source.
“The hospital has forwarded the complaint to the police for investigation and action will be taken against whoever is found guilty,” said Sharma.