The Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CA]) of India has decided to audit the government’s flagship scheme — National Health Mission (NHM) — to ascertain losses to the exchequer, if any.
The Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CA]) of India has decided to audit the government’s flagship scheme — National Health Mission (NHM) — to ascertain losses to the exchequer, if any. The Union health ministry has written to the states to nominate a nodal officer to coordinate, facilitate and provide support with necessary documents required by the CAG team which will do the all-India performance audit covering the period from 2011-2012 to 2015-2016.
The decision from the CAG came following requests from the health ministry to look into the spending of states under the NHM. “The CAG has agreed to an independent audit for three months on NHM spending of all states through state accountant-generals,” a senior ministry official said.
The audit will involve scrutiny of records and documents in departments of 27 states, including Andhra Prad-esh (including Telanga-na), Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattis-garh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal, along with Andaman and Nicorbar islands.
Apart from the audit of records in states/UT, the role of the ministry in implementing and monitoring the programme would also be examined by the audit team. “The teams will audit the physical infrastructure which will include buildings, primary health centres, regular and contractual human resources, quality care etc. The audit in finances will include money paid, rational deployment and misappropriation”.
To ensure that things go as planned, the Union health ministry recently had a video conference with the states so as to apprise them with the objectives, scope and methodology of the audit and to get first hand knowledge of their perception and the risks involved in the implementation of the scheme. “The audit will be carried on for three months with a mandate to review performance over 10 years,” added the official.
The NHM scheme that seeks to provide effective healthcare to rural population throughout the country has been under the radar after the issue of financial irregularities in the then NRHM funds in UP came to light in 2011. Two chief medical officers Dr V K Arya in 2010 and Dr B P Singh were found murdered in UP then. The scam led to various arrests in the health department later.
