New Delhi: A tender for two X-ray machines became an order for 448. The machines that the manufacturer sold to other government departments for ₹14.9 lakh apiece, taxes included, were bought by the Delhi government at ₹37.8 lakh each. And ten key procurement files have gone missing.
These are among the findings the Anti-Corruption Branch has set out in its chargesheet into the alleged medical procurement scam, which it says caused a wrongful loss of ₹842 crore to the public exchequer. A Rouse Avenue court has taken cognizance of the chargesheet, filed on September 16.
The case centres on the Central Procurement Agency, the nodal body that supplies medicines, vaccines and medical equipment to Delhi government hospitals and health facilities.
The chargesheet names three public servants: Dr Vinod Kumar Ranga, head of office at the CPA, Dr Vatsala Aggarwal, chief of the Directorate General of Health Services, and Neeraj Chopra, former deputy controller of accounts at the CPA. Two companies, F-Med Devices and M Sahib and Sons Private Limited, are also named. The ACB has described their owner, pharmaceutical trader Rajiv Rangila, 50, who has been arrested, as one of the alleged masterminds.
In the X-ray deal, the chargesheet says a bid for two machines was uploaded on the Government e-Marketplace portal and ended as an order for 448 to F-Med. Tenders, it alleges, were tailored to favour the two companies, and their bills were cleared within a day or two while other suppliers waited two years for payment.
The missing files are the ACB's other concern. In submissions before Special Judge Vidya Prakash, senior public prosecutor Kumar Sanjay said the files carried details of the entities that raised demands, the officers who began the procurement, the members of committees that framed bid documents and specifications, and those who handled technical and financial evaluation. Their absence, he said, has deprived investigators of primary documentary material on how the questioned tenders were processed.
Dr Ranga, according to the chargesheet, was central to processing tender proposals and specifications and is alleged to have wilfully destroyed evidence. Dr Aggarwal is described as the custodian of all funds allocated to the CPA and is accused of awarding supply orders while leaving the GeM bidding process midway.
The irregularities surfaced in May, when the vigilance department raided CPA offices after complaints. Dr Ranga was arrested on June 18, followed by Dr Aggarwal. The chargesheet, running into thousands of pages, relies on 84 prosecution witnesses and lists 123 documents.
The ACB's FIR, registered on June 2 on a complaint from the Directorate of Vigilance, alleged irregularities of around ₹700 crore in the purchase of medicines, surgical material and medical equipment by the DGHS and the CPA.
None of the accused has been convicted. Dr Aggarwal was granted four weeks of interim bail in August, while Dr Ranga's bail plea was dismissed.