Graft in public hospitals costs Tk 459cr in 5yrs

The government has suffered losses amounting to Tk 459 crore thanks to irregularities at different public healthcare institutions, found four different compliance audit reports.

The losses were largely caused by irregularities in budget spending at the Central Medicine Store Depot (CMSD), according to the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh prepared for fiscals 2014-15 to 2018-19. The CAG report was placed at the parliament on Sunday.

The disputed amount during the period was 11.6 percent of the total allocation of Tk 3,952 crore: Tk 458.8 crore.

"During each fiscal year, such anomalies by the CMSD were consistently discovered during the audit," the CAG report said, while calling for ensuring proper utilisation of public funds when allocating CMSD's budget.

For instance, in fiscal 2016-17, the government incurred a loss of Tk 15.08 crore due to the CMSD supplying medical equipment to four medical colleges and hospitals without following proper protocols.

In fact, these supplies remained unused and were rendered useless, leading to significant financial loss, according to the report.

Among the institutions audited, Chattogram Medical College and Hospital, Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, and the National Institute of Cardiovascular Disease and Hospital responded by stating that they were in contact with the CMSD and the suppliers. They expressed their expectation that the machinery in question would be installed soon.

Meanwhile, Khulna Medical College Hospital, Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, and Rangpur Medical College Hospital said the CMSD supplied those products unduly and without their consent.

"Those products were pushed into the hospitals by the CMSD," the report said, while calling for further investigation to identify the responsible parties for such wastage.

That year, eight medical colleges, one civil surgeon's office, one district hospital and two institutes and hospitals had acquired medical and surgical supplies at prices that were up to 18 times more than those offered by the Public Health Institute and the Essential Drug Company for similar products.

Subsequently, the government incurred a loss of Tk 1.63 crore.

When quizzed about the irregularities by the CAG auditors, the authorities of the accused institutions said they had procured the products through a tender process because the Public Health Institute and the Essential Drug Company were unable to meet their product specifications.

The auditors did not accept this explanation.

Another instance of irregularity involves a CT Scan machine that was installed on June 2, 2011 at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

The machine had a warranty period of five years but it became dysfunctional before the expiration of the warranty period.

Instead of invoking the warranty, the DMCH authorities decided to engage another company to repair the machine, which cost Tk 1.16 crore.

The audit report labelled the decision to assign a different company as a "serious financial irregularity" and stated that the public funds were embezzled this way.

The report recommended conducting a thorough investigation to identify the individuals responsible for this misconduct.

In fiscal 2018-19, the government incurred a loss of approximately Tk 266 crore thanks to irregularities at 44 public health institutions, including hospitals and civil surgeon offices.

The irregularities include wastage of public funds, disruption in healthcare delivery due to unused purchased machinery and the procurement of medical and surgical requisites at prices higher than the prevailing market rates.

That year, the government suffered a loss of about Tk 25.53 crore due to the CMSD supplying additional medical equipment to five medical college hospitals and three general hospitals without any corresponding demand from those institutions.

"Equipment were supplied despite having no necessity, demand letter [from the hospitals], human resources and infrastructure," the report said.

Many of the items were already there at the hospitals.

The auditors sought an explanation from the hospitals, which includes DMCH.

The DMCH authorities said the experts of the cardiac surgery department suspected the efficacy of the 17 ventilators supplied after installing six of them and stopped using those.

The CMSD has been accused of pushing the equipment to these hospitals in this audit report too.