Patricia Mukhim
Sometimes I wonder how the state of Meghalaya actually functions. We the people are actually left to our devices and cope with our day to day challenges pretty much by ourselves and despite the Government. And I am not just carping like a cantankerous spoilt citizen but with to make some serious points here.
One thing I am glad about is that the Assembly Committees are now functioning as per their mandates and those heading these committees are executing their duties in letter and spirit and not defending the wrongdoers. I was privy along with two others to the manner in which the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) headed by Paul Lyngdoh, MLA and co-chaired by Ronnie Lyngdoh grilled some of the departments. That was the day the Public Distribution System under the Food and Civil Supplies Department, the Education Department and the Forest Department were questioned for serious anomalies in the use of financial resources in their departments. Listening to the officers respond to the incisive questions posed by Messrs Paul and Ronnie Lyngdoh one got the sense that while the PAC members were fully prepared with their interrogation the departments were ill-prepared and floundered; they had to send their messengers running to get relevant documents sought for by the PAC.
In the Food and Civil Supplies Department the anomalies in processing tenders for procurement of sugar to be distributed by fair price shops was detected by CAG. By design or default the contract went to a tenderer whose bid was higher than two others. The two tenderers submitted their bids at Rs 37,850 and Rs 40,701 per MT but were compelled to withdraw after the process took almost a year to be finalised. This left only the tenderer who bid at a higher price of Rs 43,270 per MT. This in turn led to the Government having to incur an expenditure of Rs 24 crore more than what it would have, had the tender gone to the lowest bidder. And what is difficult to believe is that this was done through e-tendering. If e-tenders take so long to be decided upon then one wonders how long the paper tenders will take. What cannot be established is who profited from the Rs 24 crore that went out of the state budget because punitive action is beyond the purview of the PAC.
Both Paul and Ronnie Lyngdoh very razor sharp in their questions and exposed the bungling that happens in the different government departments and how officers are not even in a position to give straight answers to straight questions. If schemes, projects and programmes are executed in a transparent manner why can’t the answers be straight-forward? In the education department building funds were released to a particular institution without due diligence leading to litigation and sticky wickets. If things were to be dug any deeper than the annual CAG objections I am sure many more scams would be in the unearthed. However, it is also true that these scams are so well executed that even RTI queries fail to detect them. Also the RTI responses in most cases are so convoluted and technical that it would take some administrative expert to decipher them.
Interestingly, we now also learnt about the proceedings of the Estimates Committee headed by former chief minister DD Lapang with Ronnie Lyngdoh as member. The Committee found that the MRI machine costing Rs 5.17 crore in 2012 had gone kaput for several months but was not repaired as it would take 1.5 crore to do so. The machine was purchased with 90% funding from NEC and 10% from state government. Should the NEC not keep a tab on how its scarece resources are used for public benefit?
Most medical equipments are procured on turnkey project basis (turnkey is a complete project usually including many major units of a plant completed under one overall contract). Normally such contracts have a force majeure clause where the contractor takes the responsibility to repair the machine should it pack up within the guarantee period. The clause is also a guarantee against the failure of suppliers and subcontractors, to perform their obligations. A force majeure clause in a contract is important considering that any number of reasons could cause an equipment to malfunction such as poor manufacturing or defective parts (especially since it is an assembled equipment using components manufactured by different companies). The clause would enable Government to invoke relevant sections for replacement of the equipment or free repair or some such way out, without landing itself with such a huge repair bill. However, since repair and maintenance are also ways of money making for some in Government, it is open to reason why they would not want a force majeure clause! This is where due diligence is necessary and expected but never carried out.
Having been around long enough one knows exactly how this equipment procurement system works and its subsequent use or disuse in Government hospitals. Procurement is not without strings attached. There is give and take especially when the equipment is worth crores. Then when the equipment is placed at the disposal of hospitals there are efforts to ensure that they malfunction so that patients are sent to private nursing homes for MRI or CT Scan. Diagnostics is big business today and health care a cut-throat commercial enterprise. The poor patient is sent for a series of tests most of them not required. Even before the actual treatment a patient and his/her relatives spend a packet in the diagnosis itself. This has become the subject of a book by a doctor from the US. So we can imagine the heartless health care system in place today. Now if a doctor from a government hospital refers a patient for MRI to a private health care institution, the former gets a cut out of the money paid by the patient. The oath of Hippocrates is trampled to death. This is a well-oiled machinery. Since patients never dare to question their doctors, they also dare not ask if the tests are related to their complaints. It’s a really vicious system that privileges the rich and pulverises the poor for whom health care has become unaffordable.
Then we come to the next most important yet most neglected sector in our state today and that is roads. At no time in the past have the roads in and around Shillong been left unrepaired for years together. The less spoken about the peripheries such as Nongstoin, et al the better! And to think that we have a contractor as our PWD Minister! Does he not travel around? Does he not see how terribly unkempt our roads have become. Take the case of the road leading to the well known UCC College. After several letters to the editor and representations by the local people of that area the road is now about to be repaired. But are roads better repaired at the height of the monsoons? Or is this just a slipshod attempt to cover up the sins of disrepair (what the Khasis call – tep eit miaw- the cat burying its smelly faeces under the earth).
Much was expected from the MUA-2 government headed by a chief minister who is fully aware of the problems that beset the state. But now that he is looking only for a survival lifeboat it is unlikely that he will reshuffle his cabinet and drop even those ministers who are a liability to his government, so long as they are loyal to him. Surely governance is more than just a game of remaining in the CM’s chair indefinitely. But the CM should also be aware that if his government continues the way it is now he is creating several constituencies of disillusioned citizens ready to throw out his Government and all those associate with it.
Yes the CM knows exactly how his government is functioning and where the cancer lies. As a medical doctor he knows that a cancer should be quickly incised and the healing process should begin thereafter. Sadly as a politician struggling to survive he cannot even do that. So the cancer spreads and has created a dystopia because now people know that the CM does not have the moral fibre to drop those non-performing ministers and to induct fresh faces to his cabinet. This government will carry on with crutches until 2017 December after which time we will start thinking of replacing the MLAs and ministers who have failed the state. Hopefully by 2018 March there won’t be much money around to splurge what with coal being banned and not much money pouring in from a once supine Centre. Let’s see if we the voters have the courage of conviction to bring the change we all want to see in Meghalaya.