The ‘blank cheque’ is proving really costly for the Naveen Patnaik government. Speaking at the daily government briefing on Coronavirus on April 28, Hemant Sharma, principal secretary of the Industries department and head of the Emergency Procurement committee for COVID-19, had said that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had given a ‘blank cheque’ to procure everything needed to fight the COVID-19 menace. After two cases in the Orissa High Court, an FIR by RTI activists and removal of Sharma from the committee, the ‘blank cheque’ claim is haunting the government as tell-tale evidence of corruption in the purchase of PPE kits, masks and testing kits keeps tumbling out with frightening regularity.
The crux of the allegation made by various quarters so far is this: the state government ordered 30 lakh triple layered masks priced at Rs 16 a piece from a Tamil Nadu based firm on April 17, in what was a clear violation of the Centre’s guidelines, which pegged the maximum price of such masks at Rs 10 a-piece. Curiously, the government had placed orders for similar masks to a Faridabad based company at Rs 9.90 a-piece, barely 48 hours ago on April 15. As if that was not enough, there were wide variances in the procurement price of testing kits, which were procured from three different firms at prices varying from Rs 980 to Rs 1,125 within a short period: between April 21 and May 10. RT-PCR machines costing Rs 4-5 lakhs were procured at Rs 12.84 lakhs.
With the opposition turning on the heat and activists constantly breathing down its neck, the state government on June 5 removed Hemant Sharma as head of the COVID- 19 purchases committee. In another fire-fighting measure later in the day, the government divested 9 senior IAS officers of their additional COVID -19 responsibilities.
But, the government’s hurried action has failed to douse the fires as the accusations have only become shriller in the days since then. The Nationalist Lawyers’ Forum filed a writ petition in the Orissa High Court, seeking a CBI inquiry into the scam on Monday. On Tuesday, PCC President Niranjan Patnaik said the Congress would move both the CVC and the Lokayukta, seeking a probe into the scam.
The whiff of scam appears to have taken the sheen out of state government’s otherwise stellar record in fighting the Corona menace.
