BHUBANESWAR: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has detected irregular expenditure of Rs 145.06 crore from District Mineral Foundation (DMF) funds by three mineral-rich districts in lieu of reserving ICUs and general beds in private hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The findings are part of the CAG’s performance audit of implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana (PMKKKY) and functioning of DMFs in Odisha till March 2024. The report was tabled in the Assembly on Saturday.
The audit covered six major mineral-bearing districts and found that DMFs in Jajpur, Keonjhar and Sundargarh hired private hospitals through PPP arrangements to provide treatment to Covid-19 patients. The hospitals were paid for reserving beds, even though the Ministry of Mines had not instructed DMFs to hire beds in private hospitals under PPP mode.
The three districts fixed the rates based on offers made by the hospitals but audit found no records of negotiations, if any, over the rates.
In Jajpur, Bhoomika Multi Specialty Hospital at Kuakhia was engaged from May 24 to August 23, 2021, to reserve 50 ICU and 150 general beds. The DMF paid Rs 9.70 crore. In Keonjhar, Utkal Hospital Private Limited at Ranki was engaged from April 2020 to February 2022, with the number of ICU beds varying from 14 to 44 and general beds from 36 to 106. It received Rs 25.91 crore.
The largest payment of Rs 109.45 crore was made by Sundargarh DMF to Jai Prakash Hospital and Research Centre, Rourkela, for reserving ICU and general beds between August 2020 and March 2022.
The audit further detected a possible excess payment of Rs 10.60 crore to the Sundargarh hospital.
The hospital was eligible for Rs 98.85 crore while the DMF cash book showed payments of Rs 109.45 crore up to June 2023. In the absence of invoices, audit could not establish the basis for the additional payment and recommended investigation, reconciliation and recovery.
The audit said that the bed-reservation projects were executed in violation of norms and defeated PMKKKY’s objective of developing healthcare infrastructure for mining-affected people.
The state government told the audit in January 2026 that the decisions were taken in consultation with the Health department and approved by the respective Trust Boards. The CAG, however, found the reply untenable as no records of such consultation were furnished while the MoUs with hospitals were executed without the Health department’s involvement.
The audit also detected that Rs 7.44 crore paid by Sundargarh DMF towards Mobile Medical Vans (MMV) over seven years where some doctors deployed were not authorised to practise medicine. Of 78 medical officers engaged, nine were found not to have valid registration with the councils concerned.