Chandigarh: Haryana Medical Services Corporation Limited, a government body responsible for procuring medicines and equipment for public health facilities, not only bought drugs worth Rs 1.52 crore from a blacklisted firm, but also paid Rs 5.67 crore to 15 suppliers whose drugs had been found substandard on more than two occasions, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said in a report.
The auditor mentioned that despite Gujarat Medical Services Corporation Limited (GMSCL) blacklisting Nestor Pharmaceuticals for three years in February 2017 for the supply of folic acid-ferrous sulphate tablets, Haryana Medical Services Corporation Limited (HMSCL) purchased the drug worth Rs 1.52 crore from the firm between May and December 2019. The purchase happened despite the HMSCL itself blacklisting Nestor for three years in September 2018 for concealing information regarding the GMSCL, it said. The report, ‘Public Health Infrastructure and Management of Health Services’, was tabled in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha today. According to the Drug Purchase Policy, 2018, a firm is debarred for three years and rate contract of drugs gets cancelled in the event of more than two instances of quality failure. However, the CAG found that during 2016-21, 15 supplies received Rs 5.67 crore in lieu of supplies that had tested as “not of standard quality” (NSQ) on more than two instances. The HMSCL had blacklisted four firms, but didn’t act against the 11 others, which was in contravention of the Drug Purchase Policy, said the CAG.
The audit noted that the HMSCL issued 6,343 purchase orders from 2016-21, but no supply was received against 1,079 orders. Of the 1,079 orders, 130 were declared cancelled whereas the status of the remaining 949 hadn’t been updated even after passage of 170 days to 1,957 days since their issuance. Besides, of the 22,659 supplies at different warehouses, 7,599 came with delays up to 1,542 days.
Citing an example, the CAG pointed out that the National Health Mission (NHM), Haryana, had issued 88 indents to the HMSCL for the supply of drugs and equipment during 2016-21. In 43 of the 88 cases, the time taken from indent received to supply made was six months to more than three years. In 21 cases, the supplies weren’t received till November 2021, and that too despite an advance of Rs 45.51 crore being paid, said the CAG.
The delivery of drugs to health institutions is made from seven warehouses. Data from 2016-21 revealed that seven warehouses supplied drugs in 9.61 lakh cases to health institutions. “In 7,975 cases, a total of 376 lakh drugs supplied were NSQ (not of standard quality) and these were further issued to the patients,” said the CAG. It was observed that in 7,947 of these cases, drugs were supplied to the health institutions from the warehouses before getting the test reports from the laboratories. In the remaining 28 cases, the drugs were supplied to health institutions even after the receipt of the NSQ report.
“In the test-checked districts of Panipat, Nuh and Hisar, drugs supplied to health institutions in 1,042 cases were not of standard quality, thus posing a risk to the health of patients,” said the CAG.
The ‘Online Drug Inventory and Supply Chain Management System’ of the HMSCL reflected that there were 3,769 cases where the entered receipt date at the warehouse was prior to the entered dispatch date from the supplier, reflecting a lack of “validation control”.
Over Rs 14 cr expired drugs in stock
As Haryana didn’t take steps to get medicines replaced by the firm concerned on time, expired drugs worth Rs 14.52 crore were lying in warehouses and hospitals, said the CAG.
