Fishy Dental Chair Deal in RIMS
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, May 04 2014:
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to obtain prosecution sanction it sought from the Central Government against some officials of Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Imphal in connection with alleged misuse of fund in procuring dental chairs.
A highly placed source informed Hueiyen Lanpao on Sunday, the CBI is in the final stage of the investigation into the case of misappropriation of fund in RIMS involving its authority.
Authority of the State's premier medical institute purchased 38 dental chairs (GNATUS brand) in March 2013.RIMS spent over Rs 1.5 crore in procuring them.
However, a probe was begun the same year by CBI into the deal to find out if the hospital's authority had ever violated the norms while utilizing the fund.
The probe of the investigating agency was mainly to determine the rate of the dental chairs at which they were bought from a firm.
But it led to many things.
The source said prima facie CBI has now got enough evidences on the misuse of the fund by RIMS authority in the dental chairs deal and therefore, it has sought prosecution sanction from the Centre to take up the legal course against some officials of the hospital.
The RIMS authority did not buy the dental chairs from any of the distributers in the country, but it bought them through a Government recognized agent.
It has been revealed that the RIMS authority procured the 38 chairs for Rs 3.75 crore which included the value added tax (VAT).
But the actual cost of the chairs must be only Rs 1.5 crore including VAT, the source disclosed.
A Kolkata based firm M/S Mukherjee Enterprises supplied the 38 dental chairs along with some items to RIMS.
However, the RIMS authority tacitly procured the items in two phases on March 18 and March 25.It cannot release more than Rs 1 crore at a time.
CBI has charged that RIMS authority with embezzlement of the fund since it had sanctioned Rs 99.88 crore on March 18 and then another Rs 55.63 crore on March 25 including VAT to purchase the items.
The source further disclosed that CBI has possessed the related documents that clearly revealed that the 38 dental chairs can be bought from a Guwahati based authorized dealer only at Rs 2.18 lakh.
Five Scalars, five Light Cure Cordless, 10 Headpiece Standardheads and three Compressors were also bought along with the dental chairs by RIMS.
Although the hospital authority invited tender from interested firms for the supply, the question whether the Kolkata based firm was chosen by RIMS at its will has also been investigated by CBI.
In the meantime, RIMS is currently facing a lawsuit in the High Court of Manipur in connection with appointment of additional staff nurses against the normal sanctioned posts.
Moreover, the hospital is now under the scanner of the Ministry of health, Government of India for not maintaining financial discipline.
CBI is likely to file FIRs against some RIMS doctors over the controversial dental chair deal soon.