Posted on Sunday, July 28, 2013 - 02:28 am:

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Kamla Nehru hospital got excess grants, reveals RTI query

It got Rs. 9.5 crore since 2002, though rules provide for only a one-time grant of Rs.3 crore or less

The Kamla Nehru Memorial Hospital, which is presided over by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, received excess grants-in-aid under the National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP), according to a Right to Information (RTI) application. Moreover, excess funds with the hospital were kept unutilised to rake in interest, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has noted.

The hospital, recognised as one of the country�s 27 Regional Cancer Centres (RCC), received grants of Rs. 9.5 crore since 2002, including Rs. 5 crore during 2006-07, the Ministry of Health said in reply to an RTI query by Aam Aadmi Party volunteer Saumya Bahadur.

However, as per NCCP guidelines, grants to existing RCCs such as KNMH should not have exceeded a one-time amount of Rs. 3 crore.

Even as the organisation received excess funds, as per KNMH�s balance sheet of 2007-08, Rs. 521.21 lakh was �kept unutilised� and this was �used to earn interest� of Rs. 244.15 lakh, the CAG noted. When queried, the KNMH provided �no clear answers� or the details or whereabouts of the amount, the CAG noted.

The CAG has also questioned the purchase of medicines by the hospital. During 2008-2009, KNMH purchased medicines worth Rs. 3 crore and distributed medicines worth Rs. 2.79 crore, but no supporting documents were produced for the audit, the CAG said.

When an RTI query by Ms. Bahadur sought information of the grants and subsidies received by KNMH from 2002 to 2012, the Health Ministry could not provide information on the patients who received subsidised treatment.

However, the CAG report of 2007-08 notes that free and subsidised treatment was provided to people with influence rather than the needy. Also, Rs.13.77 lakh was stated to have been deposited in the Prime Minister�s Relief Fund without any proof or supporting document.

Auditors have also raised questions on the transfer of Rs. 129 lakh from the grant amount to capital asset account in 2007, observing that the amount shown as expenditure may not have been actually spent.

The hospital, run by the Kamla Nehru Memorial Trust had its beginnings in 1931 as a dispensary founded by Kamala Nehru in her ancestral house and was formally converted into a hospital on February 28, 1941. It was accorded the status of an RCC in 1994. However, to an RTI query, the cancer and research section of the Health Ministry could not furnish the grounds or supporting documents on which KNMH received the status of an RCC.

Also, according to Ms. Bahadur, the Trust received a grant amount in 1989, under the Indo-Japan aid programme for cancer control in India, for the construction of a 500-bed multi-speciality cancer centre the same year. However, the proposed hospital lies incomplete even today. Records available from 1998 to 2010 show no change in the status of the hospital, which was part of the G.B-1 Expansion Project, even as KNMH had unutilised funds of Rs. 10 crore.

When the auditors queried KNMH on the status of this hospital, the reply was that it would be completed soon. An RTI query on it was pending, said Ms. Bahadur.

The CAG has questioned profit sharing with doctors in KNMH as it is a charitable trust. However, KNMH responded saying that since no money was embezzled, the CAG had no right to intervene.

To most of the queries put to KNMH, the CAG notes that sufficient documents or proof were not provided, with many unanswered paragraphs in the audit reports since 1991.

In 2010, when the last audit was conducted, KNMH said appropriate replies would be given in due course of time.

Denies charges

In an emailed response to The Hindu �s queries, KNMH assistant director Hari Om Singh denied that funds were kept idle, saying that �over the years the amount has been utilised and utilisation certificate submitted to all authorities concerned from time to time.� �The amount referred to is clearly mentioned in schedule �B� of our audited statement of accounts. This was the period (2007-08) when we lost our hony. secretary & treasurer and various issues remained unattended,� he said.

Mr. Singh also denied that subsidised treatment was given to influential people and �refuted� that Rs. 13.77 lakh was deposited in the PMRF without documents. He also refuted the other observations made by the CAG.

However, Mr. Singh did not respond to queries on the 500-bed super-speciality hospital and the excess grants received by KNMH. Regarding the purchase of medicines, Mr. Singh said this �information is in public domain and is available with the Sales Tax Department. The correct figure can be verified and obtained from them.�

The Hindu re-sent a query specifying the unanswered questions but got no response even after two days.

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