NEW DELHI, November 3: The administration of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is increasingly in the news for the wrong reasons. There have been two CBI raids on its stores this year following complaints of embezzlement. Its medical superintendent R.C. Anand was arrested earlier this year on the charge of demanding and receiving bribes from a supplier. Twenty-five computers were stolen from the institute library.The question that therefore begs an answer is: How effective is the hospital management's mechanism to monitor its departments and staff. The institute does have an internal audit cell which is headed by a Chief Vigilance Officer and whose other members include the senior financial advisor. Besides, there are around seven accounts officers, each responsible for separate departments like cash, budget, centres like the R.P. Eye Hospital, the Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital, the Cardiothoracic and neuro-sciences centre and the institute itself. There is another accounts officer whose only job is internal audit.Yet, with such an apparently foolproof system of checks and balances, cheques were stolen last year and the year before. In the latter case, when over Rs 4 lakh was embezzled, an FIR was lodged by the vigilance cell only a year later. The case is still to be taken to its logical conclusion.How 25 computers could be physically removed from the premises without the watch and ward staff or any other employee noticing it is indeed mindboggling.Six months ago a CBI team found purchase of substandard gauze at high cost while it took away samples of deodorants and disinfectants last week after smelling a rat in the manner in which they were purchased.In the latter instance the CBI raided stores of the institute and the CN Centre. While many officials in the AIIMS like to ridicule the raid saying the CBI is reduced to seizing dusters and deodorants, what sources in the CBI say does not sound very funny.According to them substandard and cheaper dusters have been bought at higher rates, outdated phenol was purchased and there were even 15 litre tins of phenol with 400 ml stickers on them.Yet, medical superintendent R.K. Pandhi blasely says the raids do not prove anything. ``They are only allegations. There may be difference of opinion about the quality of soaps. What is liked by one may not be liked by the other. That cannot constitute irregularity,'' he said.However, he had no answers as to why the vigilance cell had no vigilance officer but just two upper division clerks and a deputy director doubling as the in-house CVO. The post is vacant after its last occupant retired over six months ago.``Is not one chief vigilance officer enough, just as one medical superintendent and one director is enough,'' Pandhi asks.He is not sure how often the audit cell scans the books of departments. However, he says that following the raid this week, he has appointed a special team of five people to inspect purchases before they are finalised to determine the quality of the wares. According to Pandhi, there are various groups already overseeing purchase of goods right from the stage of assessing requirements, to tendering, to buying.A top official close to the administration admits that irregularities are not taken very seriously. As for complaints and raids against the hospital, he attributes it to rivalry between various department heads.
