Tk 21 crore worth of equipment locked away unused at Kurigram hospital as ACC raids three districts

Patients seeking treatment at the 250-bed General Hospital in Kurigram are facing severe harassment, while state-of-the-art medical equipment bought for Tk 21 crore gathers dust in locked rooms, unused.

An enforcement team of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) found this picture on the ground. On Monday (9 November), the commission carried out raids at three separate institutions in Kurigram, Pirojpur and Nilphamari.

According to ACC sources, a team from the commission's integrated district office in Kurigram conducted the raid on complaints of negligence and harassment in medical services at Kurigram General Hospital, irregularities in the purchase of medical equipment worth nearly Tk 21 crore, and equipment being left unused on the pretext of unpaid bills.

During the raid, the enforcement team collected the list of medical equipment purchased in the 2018-19 fiscal year. Later, during an on-site inspection of the hospital, they found several important pieces of equipment lying unused in locked rooms.

Asked about it, the hospital's Residential Medical Officer (RMO) told the ACC team that the equipment could not be used because the necessary infrastructure setup and manpower had not been put in place.

During the raid, the officials also found a serious lack of cleanliness on the hospital premises.

The ACC has collected the relevant purchase documents to examine in detail whether there was any corruption or irregularity in the purchase of this medical equipment.

On the same day, an integrated ACC team from Pirojpur raided the Pirojpur regional passport office on complaints of harassment of service seekers in collusion with a broker syndicate, charging money above the prescribed fee, irregularities in accepting applications and misbehaviour with service recipients.

During the raid, ACC members observed the passport office's various service centres in plain clothes. They later spoke with ordinary service recipients and verified the truth of the harassment and the broker syndicate's influence.

At the same time, a list of passport applications stuck for a long time was collected, and the office authorities were given strict directions to make passport services transparent and free of harassment.

Meanwhile, the ACC's Rangpur integrated district office raided a Sonali Bank branch in Kishoreganj, Nilphamari, on allegations of embezzling nearly Tk 1 crore through loan fraud.

According to the complaint, some dishonest bank officials and employees lured ordinary customers with promises of arranging loans and collected signed blank cheques, national identity cards and other sensitive documents from them. Later, without their knowledge, additional loans were taken out in their names and nearly Tk 1 crore was embezzled.

During the raid, ACC officials seized loan-related documents of the accused from the bank and questioned the current manager and several victim customers.

The ACC said that after a detailed review of all the evidence and documents collected from these three raids, legal follow-up steps will be taken soon.