The Union Health Ministry officials have failed to take any action in a case related to irregularities and corruption in the Sports Injury Centre (SIC) at the Safdarjung Hospital in the capital, as a result of which exorbitant money was charged from patients for different kinds of implants.
Sources said the file pertaining to voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) of a senior officer, under whose tenure the alleged irregularities took place, is pending for more than 50 days with one particular officer. Some officials in the ministry are pushing for his VRS, despite objections raised by deputy secretary level officers as they say that he should be chargesheeted in the corruption cases.
However, sources close to the senior officer in question dismissed the allegations of corruption in the SIC.
Also, said the sources, the file which was sent to the Vigilance Cell within the Ministry is still pending and no action has been taken in this regard. The Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of the Health Ministry Alok Saxena, instead of sending it to Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), had sent it back to the Ministry’s Hospital division, which has Gayatri Mishra as the Joint Secretary.
The file, said sources, is pending there for the last three months. Sources said there are efforts to dilute the charges in order to save those behind the irregularities.
The matter was earlier referred to Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) after a special audit was done by a government committee found irregularities and no action was taken on it. The Ministry, however, went for in-house investigation once again, rather than sending the matter to the CVC, said sources.
