CAG puts J&K Employees State Insurance Corporation in red, questions flouting of norms Syed Junaid Hashmi Early Times Report JAMMU, Jan 12: Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has put Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) in red for having miserably failed to fulfil the mandate for which its office had been opened in Jammu and Kashmir. CAG has in its Performance Audit of Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) for the year 2013, report of which was released on December 19, 2014; stated that the corporation violated norms blatantly while advancing payments to the state government. It made payment of Rs. 1061.59 lakh to the state government for medical care provided by the ESI hospitals. As per Section 58(3) of the Act, the ESIC entered into an agreement with the State Governments to provide a uniform scale of medical care to IPs and expenditure on medical care is to be shared between ESIC and State Governments in a ratio of 7:1. As per prescribed procedure, ESIC makes provision for on account payment up to 90 percent of its 7/8th share of expenditure based on the ceiling fixed and pays the balance 10 percent subsequently on receipt of audit certificate from the concerned State Accountants General (SAGs). Audit observed that during 2008-09 to 2011-12, the ESIC paid Rs. 2280.29 crore to 21 states as 90 per cent advance payment but the expenditures were not certified from the respective SAGs even after a lapse of more than four years. Audit also observed that ESIC released funds to the state government in excess of expenditure certified by the State Accountants General (SAG). The basis of making excess payments to states was not on records despite CAG seeking the same repeatedly. Regional Board of the State Level Committees (SLC) which have been constituted with the sole aim of extending ESIS to new areas, improvement in benefits, provision of indoor medical treatment, arrangement of rehabilitation of permanently disabled persons and review working of the scheme in the state has either not met at all or met just for the sake of formality. It has to hold 4 meetings per year but the shortfall as reported by CAG was highest in the northern India. According to the CAG report, regional board of ESIC had to necessarily hold 20 meetings from 2008-09 to 2012-13 but the board just met once in the last four years. Hence, the shortfall was more than 95 percent. This is highest in the northern India. CAG has said that infrequent meetings by regional boards of the state level committees was not consistent with good governance practices and would have an adverse impact on implementation of the ESIS. CAG further pointed out that Hospital Development Committee (HDC) of the ESIC was supposed to meet 30 times during the last four years but it met just 15 times for the reasons best known to the board members. Not only this, Social Security Officer (SSO) of the ESIC has to keep constant vigil over uncovered establishments in his area and recommend coverage as soon as the act becomes applicable to them. For this, regular and scientific surveys are conducted by SSO to assess coverage potential of new establishments. Under this Inspection Policy of ESIC, each SSO has to conduct 20 inspections per month. Further, it is also mandatory for the SSO to conduct inspection of units employing more than 250 employees once in two years and units with lesser number of employees once in three years. In complete contravention to these rules and regulations, SSO of the ESIC who was supposed to conduct 3360 inspections as per norms during 2008-09 to 2012-13 but it actually conducted 393 inspections, thus registering e huge shortfall of 88.30 percent. Audit observed that this shortfall had a direct bearing on the recoverable amounts as the outstanding arrears from defaulters had increased by 30.62 percent. ESIC accepted the observations and stated that reasons for shortfalls were shortage of SSOs, non-production of records on fixed date of inspection, closure of units fixed for inspections, etc. It further stated that efforts were being made to sensitize the SSOs for showing outputs as per new inspection policy while adding that recruitment process of SSOs was also in progress to meet the shortage of SSOs. Employees State Insurance Scheme (ESIS) was introduced in 1952 to achieve the objective of the Employees State Insurance Act, 1948 for providing comprehensive social security for the workers deployed in organized sectors. Employees State Insurance Corporation, which is the apex corporate body administering the ESIS, provided services to majority of insured persons and their family members.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 05:45:13 +0000
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