VIJAYAWADA: Day after day, more details of irregularities are coming out, revealing the extent of deceit involved in the ESI scam, in which hundreds of crores of rupees belong to poor employees were allegedly looted by submitting fake indents, work orders and tenders. The Vigilance and Enforcement department, which probed the irregularities in ESI hospitals and dispensaries across the State in the procurement of drugs, surgical equipment and medical services, among other things, uncovered a deep-rooted scam involving several hundreds of crores.
Though it is mandatory to renew medical service contracts on a yearly basis, Tele Health Services Pvt Limited was reportedly given the contract for five years, that too on the nomination basis, following the orders of the then Labour Minister K Atchannaidu. In 2016, the then Indian Medical Services (IMS) director Dr CK Ramesh Kumar entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tele Health Services Private Limited to provide toll-free and ECG services on nomination basis under National Rural Telemedicine Network, a Central project.
Telemedicine was aimed at providing healthcare to low-income groups and remote regions. The Vigilance officials observed that Tele Health Services had managed to get the contract illegally by influencing officials of Indian Medical Services with the help of political leaders. The issue came to light when the Vigilance officials verified the contract agreements during the raids.
Officials held IMS directors Dr CK Ramesh Kumar, Dr G Vijaya Kumar and senior assistant MKP Chakravarthy and director of the tainted firm T Pramod Reddy responsible for the irregularities. The officials are also investigating the reasons behind former minister Atchannaidu ordering the IMS officials to entrust the contract to Tele Health Services without verifying its antecedents.
On top of it, the firm was also found to have deviated from its actual service -- providing medical services to people living in remote areas through video conference with the doctors -- and misled the government with fudged bills. “The IMS officials failed to follow the standard procedures in the entire process. Instead of awarding the contract for a period of one year, they gave work orders for five years and released around `8 crore though the firm violated terms and conditions,” Vigilance and Enforcement Krishna district SP Venkat Reddy told TNIE.
The SP also said the firm claimed the bills by submitting call logs of Telangana State and the IMS directors paid the amount without verifying the genuineness of the call logs. “The firm utilised the services of PG diploma clinical cardiologists instead of qualified DM cardiologists by violating agreement conditions and claimed the bills,” the SP added. It found that crores worth non-medical products like toothpaste and mouthwash were procured.