NV Desk
SRINAGAR — While the Ayushman Bharat (AB-PMJAY) SEHAT scheme is hailed as a lifeline for the underprivileged, a brewing financial scandal at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura, is raising serious questions about institutional accountability and the “disappearance” of public funds under the guise of administrative oversight.
Despite internal audits uncovering discrepancies involving crores of rupees and over a thousand vendor files, the matter has reportedly been kept “under the carpet,” avoiding the gaze of the Union Territory’s anti-corruption and vigilance agencies.
The “Recalculation” Scandal
Recent internal reviews at SKIMS have pulled back the curtain on a systematic failure in the verification of vendor bills. Key findings from committee reports include:
MoU Violations: Initial invoice verifications were found to be in direct violation of the Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) governing the scheme.
Massive Recoveries: After re-examining over 1,000 vendor files, auditors identified substantial additional deductions and recoveries that were “missed” during the first round of billing.
Systemic Blindness: The scale of these recoveries suggests that the initial oversight was not merely a clerical error but a deeper, systemic failure—or a deliberate bypass of financial safeguards.
Where is the Accountability?
The core of the controversy lies in the treatment of these findings. Typically, when an internal audit detects large-scale financial irregularities and “substantial recoveries” from private vendors, the matter is automatically referred to an independent investigative body like the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).
At SKIMS, however, the response has been a quiet internal “correction” rather than a formal inquiry into why these funds were nearly lost in the first place and who authorized the initial, non-compliant payments.
The Public Trust at Stake
As a premier healthcare institution, SKIMS is a custodian of public trust. The failure to escalate these audit findings to vigilance authorities raises a fundamental question: Is the institution protecting the process, or is it protecting the people who bypassed it?
Official sources told “Nationvoice101” that the “silent recoveries” without punitive action do little to deter future fraud. Without a formal investigation, the “scam worth crores” remains a mere footnote in administrative files, while the responsibility for the initial lapse remains unassigned.
Added that Transparency is the strongest safeguard of trust. In matters involving public funds, silence is often the loudest admission of a systemic failure.” (NV101)
