CAG finds a Rs1,851-crore hole in national rural health programme in UP

The draft report on the performance audit of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in Uttar Pradesh submitted by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) reveals that the State Health Society, the nodal agency monitoring the scheme, has failed to account for about 27 per cent of the funds released by the central government under the scheme over the past four years. 

"Out of Rs6,881.56 crore released by the central government over four years from 2007 to 2011, the SHS had not even correctly captured/reflected Rs1,851.51 crore, which is about 26.91 per cent of the total releases," says the draft report.

The state government has, meanwhile, submitted its rejoinder to CAG on the flow of funds at an exit conference yesterday. The CAG will prepare its final report in the light of the state government's views and submit its final report in 15 days.

The accounting gap involves short-accounting of Rs83.39 crore the state nodal agency has acknowledged to have received and Rs1,768.12 crore transferred by the center through the treasury route, theCAG's draft report said.

The UP government had sought a performance accounting of the flagship NRHM scheme in the state by the CAG in the wake of reports on large-scale fraud involving thousands of crores in public money.

The revelations of fraud had since led to the alleged murder of two chief medical officers – Dr V K Arya and Dr B P Singh – in April last year. The Lucknow police had alleged that deputy CMO Y S Sachin has been the mastermind of the two killings and arrested him.  Surprisingly, he too was found murdered later in mysterious circumstances inside Lucknow jail.