PAC flays Karnataka govt over excess payment for RAT kits, reply on ventilators
BENGALURU: The Public Accounts Committee sought to know from the Karnataka government why unrealistically high amounts had been paid to procure equipment like Rapid Antigen Test kits and other Covid care materials.
It pointed out that the government had paid an exorbitant price to procure 30 lakh units of Rapid Antigen Test kits, paying Rs 81 per unit instead of the market rate of Rs 33-35 per unit paid by other states. This resulted in a loss of Rs 3.8 crore.
Besides this, the government purchased 1195 Haematology Cell Count kits, paying an excess of about Rs 25 crore, and in another instance, purchased 165 units and paid about Rs 6.18 crore in excess. The Public Accounts Committee, under the chairmanship of MLA and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee working president Ramalinga Reddy, met on Tuesday. Most of the 20 member legislators, including B K Hariprasad, former Speakers Ramesh Kumar and KG Bopaiah, and others participated.
They refused to accept the government’s “lame explanation” and also discussed purchases by states like Kerala. The PAC will take up the issue again next week. While the government maintained that ventilators were available in all government facilities and that no one faced ventilator shortage, the PAC legislators would not accept the government’s replies, and a livid group of legislators, including former Speaker Ramesh Kumar and MLA Haratal Halappa strongly disagreed, and narrated instance after instance of how people had suffered and many had died because of the shortage of ventilators during the second Covid wave.
Ramesh Kumar even challenged the officers with data, and told them that in other countries, they would be dealt with harshly for spreading false information. The PAC was probing one issue: why did the Karnataka government pay exorbitant amounts to buy Covid equipment and material for Covid management, when other states had purchased the same materials and equipment at a much lower cost, at times for half the price.