Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Irregularities in drug purchase

Thiruvananthapuram:

The government has ordered an inspection by the Finance wing into the affairs of the office of the former Central Purchase Committee (CPC) and all District Medical Stores, after preliminary inspection by the Kerala Medical Services Corporation Ltd (KMSCL) found serious discrepancies in the stock position and the distribution of drugs issued by the CPC for the previous years.

The KMSCL, which has now replaced the old system of drug purchase through the CPC, found during its stock-taking that drugs purchased since 1974 were lying in various stores without proper disposal. In one of the district medical stores, unused drugs worth Rs.1 crore were found.

The KMSCL also found that several drugs, despite being available in district medical stores, had been repeatedly bought through local purchase citing non-availability or sub-standard quality as the reasons.

KMSCL managing director Dinesh Arora said that only 30-40 per cent of the drugs for the last quarter of 2007-08, ordered through CPC, had been supplied till March 31, 2008. Many drugs ordered in the third quarter had also not reached the warehouses. Some antibiotics, cotton, surgicals, glycerine etc., were not being supplied for the past 18 months.

Dr. Arora also pointed out that even though the pharmacists and the storekeepers in various district medical stores had been asked to continue till the full CPC orders were received, much of the supplies were either sent back or not received by the staff, many of whom had been up in arms against the new system of drug procurement.

In fact, one of the companies sent a letter to the KMSCL that two consignments of IV sets ordered by the CPC, meant for the district medical stores at Tirur and Muttom, were still lying in the transporter’s godown and not received by the consignees.

Despite several requests by the KMSCL, the CPC is yet to give details of pending invoices for the year 2007-08.

The Finance inspection wing has already taken over certain documents from the CPC office and has found serious irregularities regarding the supply orders and payment. The Finance Department has assigned four teams to conduct simultaneous inspections at district medical stores, district medical offices as well as the five Medical College stores and to submit the report by the month-end.

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