Delhi medical equipment and medicine purchase scam: 6 more health department employees on ACB radar

Documents related to 6 other employees of the Health Department, who came under the ambit of investigation, are also being reviewed, so that it can be found out at what level their role was. According to ACB, further action will be taken soon on the basis of documents and evidence emerging. The agency says that the investigation is still in its initial and important stage, hence all aspects are being examined in detail.

It is noteworthy that in this case, the then in-charge of CPA, Dr. Vinod Kumar Ranga was first arrested. He was sent to police custody for four days by the court, where during his remand, many important information was collected by interrogating him. After this, taking the investigation forward, ACB also arrested former DGHS Dr. Vatsala Aggarwal and Deputy Controller Accounts Neeraj Chopra. Now, on the basis of these arrests and interrogation, efforts are being made to connect the links of the entire procurement process.

Investigation started after vigilance report

The investigation into the alleged medical equipment and drug procurement scam in Delhi began after the Vigilance Department submitted a report on some suspicious transactions and violation of rules in the procurement process. On the basis of this report, ACB started a detailed investigation of the entire case. The investigating agency started scrutinizing all the documents related to the procurement process in the initial phase itself. This includes complete files related to tender process, technical and financial evaluation, contract allocation, supply arrangement, inspection, acceptance and payment. ACB is trying to find out at what stage of the procurement process the irregularities took place, who benefited from it and who else may be involved in this alleged scam. During the investigation, the agency is also looking into whether rules were deliberately ignored at any stage in the process.

Case was registered on June 2

According to the rules, the e-tender process should have been completely open to all companies, so that medicines and equipment could be purchased at low prices on the basis of competition. However, there are allegations that some officials deliberately designed the tender process in such a way that only selected and allegedly preferred suppliers could benefit from it. The complaint claims that the terms of the tender were set in such a way that many eligible companies were left out of the process and only a limited number of companies got the contract. Based on these allegations, the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) registered an FIR in the case on June 2 under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and BNS. Since then, detailed investigation of the entire matter is going on.