₹ 1.11 cr JNIMS OGP useless: CAG
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, April 06 2022: The state suffered a loss of around Rs 1.11 crore after the Oxygen Generation Plant (OGP) purchased for Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS), Porompat in 2011, malfunctioned, a Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) report has said.

CAG had checked the records of JNIMS under the state Medical Health and Family Welfare Department for February, 2019 .

As per the records, the director of JNIMS placed a supply order for an OGP for the institute and installation of the same to M/S Narula Udyog India Private Limited, New Delhi in March, 2011, costing a total of Rs 1.11 crore.

The company delivered and installed the OGP at JNIMS in January, 2014.The installed capacity of the OGP stood at 30 cylinders a day and 900 cylinders a month.

The total number of oxygen cylinders used by JNIMS per month is 715.Thus, it was believed that there would be no shortage of oxygen in JNIMS as the monthly capacity of the OGP was 900 cylinders.

After the installation, the OGP was functional for a period of 10 months from January to October, 2015.During the 10 months, the oxygen generated by OGP went up to around 165 D-Type cylinders.

This is far-off from the total number of cylinders to be produced for a period of 10 months, which is around 90,000, if the capacity is 900 cylinders per month.

When the matter was scrutinised, it was found that the OGP had been non operational since October 25, 2015 after its air compressor malfunctioned due to irregular power supply experienced in the hospital.

Additionally, no record was found of the institute ever making effort to repair the defective air compressor.

In this regard, the director of JNIMS gave a reply on November, 2019, stating that as there was some financial dispute between JNIMS and Narula Udyog India Private Limited over the OGP, it has remained non-functional, thereby rendering the Rs 1.11 crore invested for the OGP completely useless.

Since the OGP, which was purchased by JNIMS at a hefty sum of Rs 1.11 crore remains non-functional, the institute has been purchasing oxygen cylinders from private firms and making huge financial losses, the audit report stated.

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