Hyderabad: A fake medical bill scam was unearthed in the irrigation department by Vigilance and Enforcement sleuths. Investigations revealed that medical bills worth lakhs were claimed under the medical reimbursement scheme of the state government in the name of retired employees.
A random check of the Sriram Sagar project in Karimnagar revealed that '25 lakh was siphoned off by producing fake medical bills. The vigilance department suspects that this type of modus operandi is rampant across the departments and it has asked the health department to develop a system to prevent irregularities.
Vigilance further recommended a probe by the Crime Investigation Department to identify all the culprits who fabricated the medical bills and cheated the government. The suspects fabricated essentiality certificate, emergency certificate, discharge summary and medical bills. The head of the departments did not verify the veracity of these bills. Vigilance verified the medical reimbursement files and records at the circle office in Hanamkonda in Warangal.
“It appears that there is a racket or it is suspected that there are some private people helping the departmental staff to fabricate the documents. The intention was clearly to get undue monetary benefit by abusing the medical reimbursement scheme in place” said a source.
The staff of the Sriram Sagar Project failed to maintain a note file and get the HOD’s approval, though it is mandatory, and the subordinate staff failed to maintain copies of the medical bills and relevant documents submitted. Of 151 claimed medical bills submitted by the chief engineer of SRSP, 45 were cross verified at random and it was revealed that 18 claimants of the bills were fake and they had claimed an overall amount to the tune of '25.87 lakhs.
“This shows their clear malafide intention to circumvent the system. If 100 percent verification is done more misappropriation can be unearthed,” said a source.
Vigilance found that there is lacuna in the system since the role of director of medical education is limited to scrutinising medical bills and sanctioning the admissible amount, and that the HOD’s role is limited only to forwarding the bills submitted.
Vigilance directed the engineer-in-chief of the irrigation department to instruct the engineer-in-chief (admin) to initiate criminal and disciplinary action against the erring staff and recover the amount. The government has also been asked to ammend the GO pertaining to medical reimbursement by obtaining genuinity certificate from the hospitals
