CHENNAI: The failure of director of medical education and the dean of ESI Hospital in Coimbatore to include hospital outsourcing charges of Rs 12.34 crore as expenditure while claiming reimbursement from Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) caused a financial burden on the state's finances, found Comptroller and Auditor General of India report for the year ended March 2023.
During 2017-2021, the DME incurred consolidated expenditure of Rs 656.92 crore for outsourced services in all its medical institutions. This included Rs 12.34 crore of admissible outsourcing charges in respect of ESI hospital, Coimbatore.
Due to the failure of the DME and dean to include these charges in the hospital's statement of expenditure for the financial years 2017-2021, the state government lost out on reimbursement of outsourcing charges from ESI corporation and had to bear the consequent additional financial burden. The matter was referred to the government in August 2023 and again in September and February, but a reply was not received till March 2024, the report said.
The CAG report also said food safety officers in the audited districts did not have complete data of food business operators (FBO) functioning within the area assigned to them. In the absence of records relating to inspection, it could not be established that all registered FBO were actually inspected at least once in a year by the food safety officers as per the regulations.
Inordinate delay in testing the samples and reporting the results, allowed the untested food to be consumed by the public. This defeated the basic objective of food safety and exposed the public to unsafe food, the report added.
The government replied in April and June 2024 that with a limited number of 250 FSO, it was practically not feasible to conduct enumeration of FBOs and their regular updation. The government further added after filling all the FSO vacancies, periodical enumeration would be conducted.