The parliamentary standing committee on health and family welfare ministry on Tuesday decided to investigate the alleged corruption and irregularities in purchase of drugs and medical and other equipment for the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases and its 370-bed specialised public hospital.
The committee at a meeting formed a three-member sub-committee headed by Mohammad Amanullah to inquire into the allegations that had been initially proved by a ministry probe, meeting sources said.
Other members of the sub-committee, which was asked to submit its report in two months, are Matiur Rahman and Anwar Hossain, sources said.
The committee observed that as allegations against NICVD's immediate past director Abul Hussain Khan had been proved initially, the issue should be investigated further and decided to form the parliamentary sub-committee over the matter, sources said.
The committee also recommended that the ministry should investigate the alleged irregularities in purchase and recruitment process of the state-owned Essential Drugs Company Limited.
'We decided to investigate the alleged corruption and irregularities in the NICVD and EDCL and formed inquiry committees to this effect,' the state minister for health and family welfare Mozibur Rahman Fakir, also a committee member, told New Age after the meeting.
He also said that the ministerial inquiry committee had carried out an initial investigations into the allegations brought against the former director of the NICVD.
Committee member Matiur Rahman told New Age that the sub-committee would investigate the allegations against the former NICVD director and the ministry would also conduct another inquiry against the Essential Drugs Company Limited.
Earlier, the NICVD authorities complained to the health ministry about the irregularities in the procurement process during the fiscal 2010-2011.
In response to the written allegations, the health ministry formed an investigation committee headed a deputy secretary to the ministry, Shuvash Chandra Sarker in mid- July.
Sources said that the former director had procured at least 160 items for the hospital, most of them at prices much higher than their market price.
The hospital authorities produced the documents that showed a loss of more than Taka 97 lakh in procuring only 68 of the 160 items.
It was said in the written allegation that the immediate past director had purchased a closed circuit television (CCTV) system at Tk 49 lakh, though its market price was only Tk 8 lakh.
Even the injection Verapamil used in the treatment of rhythm disturbance was procured for Taka 3,400 per ampoule, about 85 times its market price of Taka 40 per ample and only on this item the hospital incurred a loss of Taka 1.68 lakh.
A cannula that costs Tk 10 only was procured for Taka 190 by the former director causing a loss of Taka nine lakh.
It was also alleged that Taka 3.77 lakh was misused only for procuring 13 pieces of cable for 3 Channel ECG machine.
Members of the committee also cited a newspaper report on irregularities in the purchase and recruitment of manpower for Essential Drugs Company Limited and recommended that the ministry should investigate the matter.
The committee also wanted to know whether any action was taken against 62 pharmaceutical companies on charge of producing sub-standard medicines.
Earlier, the committee recommended that the minister should take action against the companies concerned.
'We wanted to know if actions were taken against the companies concerned. We also asked the ministry to inform the committee in detail about the measures taken against the pharmaceutical companies in the next meeting,' the committee chairman, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim said after
the meeting.
Source : New Age
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