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Corruption engulfs health sector: Report


Published : 14 Dec 2019 09:18 PM | Updated : 01 Sep 2020 03:39 AM

A section of officials and employees of government medical colleges and hospitals continues to loot the public exchequer through an organised syndication across the country.

The members of this organised syndicate with an unholy nexus of contractors are engaged in looting 70 percent to 80 percent of the budget sanctioned for the health sector, said an Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) report, submitted to the health ministry on Thursday.  

As a result, people are not getting proper medicare from the government medical colleges and hospitals.

The anti-graft watchdog identified 12 contractor agencies as most corrupt and recommended the health ministry mark them blacklisted, the report says.

People of the country will be deprived of the benefits if the health sector is not able to stop the corruption, said ACC chairman Iqbal Mahmud.

All those who engaged in corruption to disrupt health services will be brought to justice. All steps will be taken to reform this sector, he added.

Syndicated companies are involved in the purchasing of machinery.

Syndicated corruption by officials and employees of the concerned offices, as stated in the ACC’s report, is fraud and conspiracy with the state.

The letter recommended that these contractor be blacklisted and given future orders -   Messrs. Manila Medicine of Rangpur, Messrs MH Pharma, Messrs Onic Trader S, and Trade International.

Many of these organizations are committing irregularities and corruption worth hundreds of crores.

According to sources, at least 291 crore has been looted in purchases for some government medical college hospitals and civil surgeon’s office in one fiscal year.

The ACC has been collecting data for five years on procurement, tender and equipment supply, from 2014 to December this year.

The investigation is figuring out the amount of corruption in the last 5 years. The ACC team is scrutinizing all the contractors involved in the supply of machinery to these establishments.

For the Satkhira Medical College and Civil Surgeon Office, there was a purchase of Tk 43 crore in the financial year 2016-17,  eighty percent of which is believed to have fallen to corruption. 

According to sources, a strong syndicate led by Abdur Rashid, a former director and line director of the medical education and health manpower development department of the health department, started off the corrupt practices.

Earlier, the ACC after a long inquiry into the health sector, identified 11 areas of corruption and prepared a set of 25 recommendations to stop them.

The ACC also came up with 25 recommendations to stop the corruption such as showing citizen charter, inclusion of members from specialized organizations in receiving health accessories, following e-government procurement  (EGP) tender process regarding purchase, conduct inquiry for giving approval for setting up diagnostic centres and private hospitals, formulating policy for recruitment, making compulsory to write generic number instead of medicine name in the prescription, and increasing internship period to two years from one.

The report was prepared by one of the 25 institutional teams entrusted with the task of finding out the reasons of corruption in the health sector and ways to stop it.