Srinagar: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), in its latest report has said that J&K Medical Supplies Corporation Limited (JKMSCL), the sole procurement agency for the healthcare systems in the UT, and a few other PSUs have not submitted its accounts for auditing since its inception.
Seven Public Sector Undertakings of J&K, including JKMSCL, J&K Entrepreneurship Development Institute (JKEDI), J&K IT Infrastructure Development Private limited have not submitted their accounts and records for auditing to CAG since inception.
The report, pertaining to the year ended in March 2020 has said that “Jammu & Kashmir Asset Reconstruction Limited and seven working PSU, Jammu & Kashmir Medical Supplies Corporation Limited, Jammu & Kashmir IT Infrastructure Development Private Limited and AIC-Jammu & Kashmir EDI Foundation, Jammu Smart City Limited, Srinagar Smart City Limited, Jammu Mass Rapid Transit Corporation Pvt. Limited, Srinagar Mass Rapid Transit Corporation Pvt. Limited which never submitted their accounts since inception.”
The JKMSCL has drawn blank in all the audited parameters of the report, including state investment, taxed and non taxed revenue and equity and outstanding loans. “The Company though incorporated in March 2014 has not yet submitted its account to this office for supplementary audit,” the report reads.
“For the years 2014-15 to 2017-18, five companies, Jammu & Kashmir Overseas Employment Corporation Limited, Jammu & Kashmir Medical Supplies Corporation Limited, Jammu & Kashmir State Road Development Corporation and Jammu & Kashmir International Trade Centre Corporation Limited and for the year 2018-19, additional nine newly incorporated companies and for the year 2019- 20, Jammu & Kashmir Overseas Employment Corporation Limited, six inactive Companies and seven Companies which have not submitted their accounts since inception”.
The JKMSCL was established in 2014 and entrusted with ‘procurement of drugs, medicines and medical equipment, etc in the State of Jammu and Kashmir for the Department of Health and Medical Education and other Health institutions’. The company is fully owned by J&K Government and has been supplying the hospitals of the entire UT with all their consumables, disposables, medicines, equipment, furniture, and other requirements.
The hospitals and health institutions in the UT are required to transfer their funds to JKMSCL with the requirements. A senior health official said the mechanism was brought in place on the lines of Tamil Nadu Medical Supplies Corporation to streamline procurement and eliminate discrepancies in rates of various items.
Managing Director JKMSCL, Dr Yashpal Sharma said the CAG report pertains to a period prior to March 2020. He said the CAG had not appointed an auditor for JKMSCL for ‘many years’.
“Now it has been done and the auditor has inspected our accounts. This will be reflected in future CAG reports,” he said. In addition, Dr Sharma said, the Corporation has also undergone a Performance Audit. “We are not averse to audits but it is just that there were some delays in auditing,” he said.