Rourkela: The three-member team of the National Health Mission (NHM), which visited Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH) to inquire into the gross irregularities, has submitted its report to the state government.
According to sources, the NHM team has clearly blamed the hospital’s manager Mohit Srivastav for all the major scandals involving laundry bills, theft of freezers from the mortuary and deployment of outsourced staff in the hospital, thereby resulting in huge financial corruption. It is learnt that the team has issued the third show-cause notice to Srivastav. Previously two show-cause notices were issued to him May 29 and June 6, when such irregularities indicating his involvement were found and reported by the present director of the RGH Dr Ganesh Dash.
As per the third show-cause notice, Mohit was supposed to reply by Monday evening. The NHM authority’s future course of action will be based on the reply. Little did the present director realise that gross irregularities of such proportion would come to the front while doing some regular enquiries. “I was surprised to find the daily load of washing by the agency Mediaid, who was given the extension without retendering. This led to my suspicion,” Dr Dash had said previously. The manager had persuaded the previous director and his sub-ordinates to pass the bill of M/s Medicaid Ancilliary to give the agency an increment of 10 per cent yearly for providing excellent service.
However, there was no mention of it in the actual agreement or tender but was devised by the manager. The current director discovered that the agency was paid Rs 20,39,790 without the approval of the hospital’s finance officer. However, Srivastav ran out of luck November 11, 2022, when he again persuaded the finance officer and deputy superintendent this time to write a letter to Medicaid to return the money. The vendor agreed to pay back the amount at Rs 56, 661 per month for 36 months, as it was allowed an extension of three years.
Besides, the director found the manager’s direct involvement in the theft of freezers from the mortuary. “He accepted before me that he had sold those to the vendor from Mumbai who had supplied the new freezers,” said Director Dash. As per the service condition of the hospital manager, he should have called a meeting of the Rogi Kalyan Samiti, which he never did because the governing body would have unearthed his wrongdoings much before.
RAJESH MOHANTY, OP