7 crore payout to C-DAC lands PGI in audit problems
Chandigarh: Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER)’s computerisation project, that was supposed to be ready within two years, instead took seven years.
Chandigarh: Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER)’s computerisation project, that was supposed to be ready within two years, instead took seven years.
CAG has found C-DAC was awarded the contract for computerisation at the institute in March 2007.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has now taken the institute to task for failing to recover around ` 7 crore from the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), an R&D organisation under the department of electronics, which was assigned the project.
According to its recent annual audit report on PGI, the CAG has found C-DAC was awarded the contract for computerisation at the institute in March 2007. According to the terms and conditions, the project was to be completed in two years but was delayed by five years and PGI did not to impose any penalties on C-DAC. Instead the institute paid C-DAC the entire amount of about Rs 11.62 crore, the report said.
According to the audit report, over the years the penalty amount comes to about Rs 7.14 crore, of which not a single penny has been recovered by the PGI.
After computerisation only the institute’s biochemistry department is currently providing reports on an inter nal server, but even these reports are not being made available online to patients directly. The modernisation process appears to have helped only doctors but the long queues at the hospital still remain.
According to the audit report, PGI has even faltered in the ter ms and condition of the project contract, which clearly mentioned 50% of the payment should be given to C-DAC after the project commenced with 40% to be paid after the project was completed in three stages. The final 10% was to be paid only after the successful installation and operation of the project. However, the PGI violated all these conditions, the CAG report noted.