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हिन्दी 
The National Health Mission (NHM), Punjab, has directed the Jalandhar civil surgeon for the registration of an FIR against the officials and employees involved in an alleged misappropriation of funds to the tune of ₹9.85 crore.
In a letter dated August 30, the NHM said serious discrepancies were found during procurement of medicines at the district level from 2019 to 2022.
Acting on the complaint submitted with the NHM in November 2023, a high-level committee was proposed to conduct a special audit of the procurement undertaken at district level during the above period as the amount of outstanding liability was huge and the complete record was not available.
The letter stated that the matter was accordingly taken up with the director treasury and accounts, department of finance, on February 22, 2024, with a request to undertake a special audit of grants released under various schemes to the civil surgeon, Jalandhar, and expenditure incurred by it on various procurements/schemes during 2019-2022.
“However, during entry conference of Internal Audit Organisation (IAO) held on May 28, the civil surgeon office had submitted on record about the unavailability of complete record, including procurement procedures, lenders and quotations pertaining to procurement of ₹9.86 crore. Due to absence of any sort of record, the IAO expressed its inability to undertake the special audit,” the letter stated.
It further added that the entire situation was placed before the government, whereby it has directed that prima facie there appears to be irregularities in the procurement of medicines and consumables undertaken by the civil surgeon office, Jalandhar, and embezzlement of funds in the outstanding liability of ₹9.86 crore and the FIR under the relevant provisions of law be immediately registered in this regard.
“It is, therefore, directed to get the FIR registered under the relevant provisions of law against all the delinquent officials and employees in this matter and submit a compliance report within 15 days so that same can be apprised to the government,” the NHM letter stated.
Meanwhile, one of the senior health officials said no record is still available with the department as several senior officials and employees of different branches of the civil surgeon office were involved in the procurement of medicines.
“One of the senior accountants of the accounts branch left the job without informing the department soon after the matter came to the fore in 2023. All the records related to this were in the custody of the account branch. The accountant concerned had reportedly left the country. Moreover, four civil surgeons had assumed charges during this period,” an official said.
Jalandhar civil surgeon Dr Jyoti Sharma said the investigation has been started into the matter.
“Moreover, I am looking into all the official files pertaining to funds received from the NHM and its utilisation during the same period. Since I joined recently, I am completely unaware about the issue,” she said.
She added that it is going to be a lengthy process as the time period in which the alleged embezzlement happened is long.
“The compliance report to the NHM will be filed accordingly,” she said.
