The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has been told that it ‘appears to be non-serious in tackling corruption at AIIMS’. This is according to the 87th report of the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, on the functioning of AIIMS, which was tabled in the Lok Sabha this month.
The report elaborates that taking note of corruption cases at AIIMS, highlighted by the media, the committee had sought a status report on the probes initiated from 2011-14.
The cases include disproportionate asset cases, procurement of computers and peripherals without following the purchase procedure, and alleged financial irregularities.
“The committee is perturbed to note that despite unravelling corruption cases at AIIMS at regular intervals, the Ministry has done away with the regular chief vigilance officer’s post at the institute and the role of anti-graft officer at AIIMS has been assigned to joint secretary and chief vigilance officer (CVO) at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,” said the committee chaired by Satish Chandra Misra. It says the committee, therefore, strongly deprecates the non-serious approach of the Ministry towards tackling such a large number of cases of corruption at AIIMS and recommends that the Ministry quickly move towards appointing a regular CVO.
The committee has also recommended that the Ministry play a proactive role in ensuring expeditious investigation into all the corruption cases at AIIMS and furnish within three months from the date of presentation of this report, an up-to-date status report detailing therein various stages of probe into cases, involving corrupt practices and embezzlement of funds, and steps taken to check occurrence of such cases in future.
ministry asked to submit a status report on stages of investigation in 3 months
