Covid tests: Cunha panel recommends action against former Kidwai director

Bengaluru: The Justice John Michael D’Cunha Commission has found a deliberate attempt to misappropriate public funds by raising false claims for Covid tests at the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology (KMIO) and has recommended criminal action against its then director and the proprietor of a lab located on the hospital’s premises. 

The Commission’s report notes that an outsourcing unit, named Bangalore Medical Systems (BMS) at the institute, was authorised by the then director to test Covid-19 samples at the hospital’s molecular oncology laboratory.

However, the BMS lab was neither designated nor approved by ICMR, making its testing illegal.

A government letter dated October 8, 2021, had directed the KMIO to stop receiving samples for Covid testing but testing continued in violation of the order. 

Payments were made to BMS without verification, which the report noted was “a serious lapse amounting to gross negligence, dereliction of duty...warranting disciplinary action against the director and medical officers who attested the reports prepared by BMS”, the report said. 

Additionally, the Commission noted that the note sheet recorded over 27.68 lakh tests as being conducted but invoices depicted only 15.67 lakh tests.

However, the director had requested the BBMP to release Rs 13.62 crore as balance bills even though the balance due then was only Rs 3.77 crore towards testing done at the lab, which “suggests a deliberate attempt to cheat and misappropriate public funds”.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike South Zone also provided manpower to KMIO and paid Rs 61.43 lakh, which was illegal and unauthorised, the report said.

Besides this, there were several irregularities and violations observed in medical equipment procurement, with many supply orders being issued without calling for tenders, the absence of penalty clauses and inordinate delays in supplying equipment. 

The Commission recommended the recovery of a few lakh rupees from suppliers, including Om Pharma, Reliance/VHS, Maruthi Pharma and others, as part of delay penalties. 

Recovery suggested

The Commission’s other report, related to the Directorate of Medical Education (DME), has recommended the recovery of Rs 91.44 crore from various suppliers to the DME for either delay in supply or the government having paid them in excess for items that were either not supplied or were unused. 

This includes recovering an excess payment of Rs 11.7 crore for PPE kits and masks that were procured but lay unused. The Commission has also found that 2,67,960 PPE kits, procured by the DME at Rs 35.16 crore, were illegal and unauthorised. 

There was a “concerted fraud and falsification of records to siphon off public funds in the guise of procuring PPE kits,” said the report. Thus, it recommended the initiation of both criminal prosecution and disciplinary action against DME officials and the companies involved in the procurements under sections 11 and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, and sections 316 and 336 of the BNS. 

Many procurements were made without administrative approvals or proper quotations, exhibiting alleged favouritism, malafide intentions and abuse of power,  which led to the exchequer incurring losses amounting to several crore rupees, noted the report.