Persistent Denial of information about Procurement of COVID materials by the Nabin Patnaik Govt. claimed to be Transparent
Dear friends
The issue of corruption and irregularities in procurement of COVID Mask, PPE KIT, ventilator etc. by the officials of Govt. of Odisha was raised in media and the Opposition political parties demanding inquiry into it. Though Sri Naba Kishor Das, Minister for Health and Family Welfare and Mr. Sasmit Patra , Spokesperson of ruling party Biju Janata Dal came out certain clarification denying all charges of corruption in impromptu press meets organized in Bhubaneswar, it could not satisfy the people at large. Satya Prakash Nayak, eminent Journalist technically countered with all facts and figures to the clarification given by the Ruling party and substantiated the allegation of loot of huge money in procurement by Hemant Sharma.
1. In the midst of allegation and counter-allegation between Ruling party and the opposition parties , RTI Application dt. 4.5.20 was filed in the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of Odisha seeking the following information.
i. Provide COPY of minutes of meeting of Emergency purchasing Committee held from day one after declaration of COVID Lockdown till 15th may, 2020 for procurement of various materials.
ii. Provide copy of letter for appointing Hemant Sharma as Procurement officer for COVID 19 and copy of Govt. order issued in this regard.
iii. Copy of guideline/ instruction/ circular issued in respect of purchase of items with specification that is to be purchased and procedure to be followed.
iv. Provide details of specification of equipment invited by Govt. and copy of purchasing order and details of equipment already purchased with name of the companies which supplied.
2. The PIO took around one month ( violation of section 6(3) of the RTI Act) to forward the RTI Application to the PIO, office of Odisha State Medical Corporation, Bhubaneswar to supply the information which was received on 10.6.20. The PIO is supposed to provide the information by 10.7.20.
3. The PIO did not respond RTI Application. On 29.6.20, I filed first appeal to the First Appellate Authority of OSMCL to hear my case and direct the PIO to supply the information.
4. On 6.7.20, the PIO of OSMCL wrote a letter stating that due to COVID pandemic situation, he requires additional time of 30 days to supply the information.
5. On 10.8.20 , the PIO wrote another letter seeking another 30 days time to supply the information.
6. On 7.9.20., the First Appellate Authority heard the case and directed the PIO to supply the complete information free of cost within one month without delay and also warned the PIO to respond RTI queries properly.
7..On 7.10.20 , the PIO supplied the information which was found incomplete. The PIO has supplied just copy of few circulars issued by the Govt. of Odisha and Govt. of India in context of the procurement of COVID materials , but did not supply the following information nor cited any reasons for non-supply of the information.
i. Provide COPY of minutes of meeting of Emergency purchasing Committee held from day one after declaration of COVID Lockdown till 15th may, 2020 for procurement of various materials.
ii. Provide details of specification of equipment invited by Govt. and copy of purchasing order and details of equipment already purchased with name of the companies which supplied.
Observation
The State Government
has been constantly refuting
the allegation of corruption
in procurement and
asserting that utmost
transparency has been
maintained and due procedure
has been followed for procurement
of the COVID materials. If it is
fact, why the same
office is denying the
information and keeping the
documents in secret . It is presumed
from this correspondence that
there is huge corruption
in procurement for which
an ordinary PIO despite order of the First Appellate Authority is
denying the information under RTI Act. I
also got astonished how a
Govt. masterminding the corruption and looting public money still claims
a transparent Govt.
Pradip Pradhan
M-9937843482
Date- 20.10.20
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