An audit report conducted by the Auditor General and Controller of Audits has found anomalies of nearly Tk Six crore in purchasing of drugs and various materials of West Zone Railway Hospital in Rajshahi.
Of those, no voucher for purchasing drugs worth nearly Tk one crore was found. The rest of Tk five crore has been found to be paid as bills to the contractors for purchasing of various goods, those goods were also not found in the stores or elsewhere in the hospital.
The audit report mentioned that in the 2018-'19 financial year, the money and the materials were allegedly plundered in collusion with the then Chief Medical Officer(CMO), Chief Controller of Stores (CoS) and the concerned contractors. The issue has also been addressed in the internal investigation of the railway. As a result, of the audit objection, the pension and other benefits of the then CMO Dr SM Imitiaz have been kept unpaid even after his retirement. Imtiaz is hailed from Chattagram.
The audit report further mentioned that during that year Tk one crore 33 thousand and 32 were spent for purchasing the diet of patients. That year, a total of 218 patients were admitted to the hospital for whom Tk 73, 174 were paid against six bills for purchasing of diets but no vouchers were found for the rest of Tk 99 lakh 59 thousand and 886. The rest amount was allegedly misappropriated.
The then CMO, however, claimed that the money was spent according to the sanction by the appropriate authorities. The audit report said the answer of the CMO in this connection was not suitable for the resolution of the audit objection since no bill or voucher for the expenditure of money was found.
The audit report further said, that after reviewing the documents of the department of CMO it was seen various goods and materials worth Tk four crore 96 lakh 24, 581 were purchased through the department of CoS during that year and the bills of the contractors were also paid. But, those materials were not listed in the stock register. There are also no contract forms regarding the purchase and no notes and challans. Such anomalies prove that nearly Tk five crore was allegedly misappropriated in collusion with one another. The report further suggested to realise the misappropriated money from the persons concerned.
In June 2023, the audit report was submitted to Jatiya Sangsad for taking necessary measures in this connection. In 36 paragraphs of the report, an amount of Tk 419 crore 10 lakh 25 thousand and 461 audit objections of Bangladesh Railway have been mentioned of which the audit objection amount for West Zone railway is nearly Tk 40 crore.
Asim Kumar Talukder, General Manager of West Zone, Railway, Rajshahi in this connection said, ' The incident of corruption has been identified in the Internal Investigation of the railway and it has also been detected in the audit. For this reason, the pension and other financial benefits of the then CMO Dr Imtiaz have been kept unpaid even after his retirement. He is accountable and has to explain all the expenditures.
