Lokayukta clean chit to BMC in Remdesivir case, raps Kirit Somaiya
The Lokayukta has also rapped the complainant, BJP leader Kirit Somaiya, for relying on media reports that said the Remdesivir injections were purchased by the BMC at exorbitant prices. The ombudsman has stated that newspaper reports cannot be treated as evidence
Mumbai: The Maharashtra Lokayukta has given a clean chit to the BMC and other government authorities with regard to allegations of corruption in the procurement of life-saving drugs, including Remdesivir, during the Covid-19 pandemic. The ombudsman has recommended that the state government enact a law for the supply of life-saving drugs during a pandemic or natural disaster and advised the BMC to formulate a policy to ensure that life-saving drugs do not fall into the wrong hands.
The Lokayukta has also rapped the complainant, BJP leader Kirit Somaiya, for relying on media reports that said the Remdesivir injections were purchased by the BMC at exorbitant prices. The ombudsman has stated that newspaper reports cannot be treated as evidence. “I am of the view that there was no irregularity and non-transparency in the purchase of the injections. It has not been established or proved by the complainant that there was any corruption in the purchase of Remdesivir. It is abundantly clear from the documents produced by the BMC, including the ones released by the central government, that there was a sharp variance in the price of Remdesivir in a couple of weeks of the March 2021 demand-supply gap,” read the order signed by Lokayukta V M Kanade on January 3.
In his complaint, Somaiya had alleged that there was huge corruption in the purchase of Remdesivir during the second wave of Covid-19 in March 2021. He had accused municipal corporations in Mumbai and Mira-Bhayander as well as the director, medical education, and Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corporation of corruption. Somaiya had stated that when the BMC purchased the injection at ₹1,568 a vial, the medical education department purchased it for ₹1,311 against the price of ₹665 paid by the Mira-Bhayander municipal corporation and Haffkine.
In its affidavit, the BMC stated that it had to pay the high price because of the increased demand for the life-saving injection. It said that it was because negotiations with the suppliers for a reduced price failed, and manufacturers like Cipla expressed inability to produce more injections that it was compelled to pay a high price.
Somaiya, on Saturday, however, refused to admit that the Lokayukta had given a clean chit to the civic bodies and government machinery. “The question still remains why the state government did not regulate the rate of Remdesivir like it did for private hospital bed charges,” he said. “The Lokayukta has clearly stated that the state government should have brought in an ordinance or law to regulate the prices of life-saving drugs.”
Meanwhile, the BJP leader went in for a fresh round of allegations against Lifeline Hospital Management Services (LHMS), the firm in which Sujit Patkar, a close aide of Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, is a co-partner. Somaiya said that the firm landed the contract by forging documents, and that LHMS used the same stamp paper to enter into agreements with the civic bodies in Mumbai and Pune. “The partnership deed submitted to these government bodies in July 2021 and submitted for the other 21 tenders was not registered with the registrar of partnership firms,” he said. “Any agreement by a government agency with a non-registered firm is null and void.”
A spokesperson of LHMS told HT that the allegations levelled by Somaiya were baseless. “The application was made for registration, and it is deemed to have been received since we did not get a response in 60 days from the authorities,” he said. “The stamp papers were bought from the registered notary and no question of forgery arises. We faced a probe through a BMC-appointed committee, and the report has already been submitted. Somaiya has been targeting Sujit Patkar and his other partners from 2021 for political reasons.”
The BMC also issued an 11-point statement, making it clear that the allegations of a ₹100-crore scam in the Covid Jumbo Centres were baseless, as the contractor was only paid ₹33 crore. The civic body said that the amount was towards the salaries of doctors, nurses, technicians and ward boys, and no complaints were received regarding non-receipt of salaries.
The civic body added that after receiving complaints, it appointed an inquiry committee comprising a joint municipal commissioner and a deputy municipal commissioner. Post-inquiry, it wrote to the police twice to check whether the documents submitted by the agency were false and whether an FIR should be lodged in this regard. It was on the basis of these letters that the police registered an FIR in the case on August 24, 2022. Therefore, the BMC maintained that it could not be said that it had tried to save the contractor.
