Arbitrary orders affected Delhi health centres: DGHS

Orders to blacklist and stop payments to some pharmaceutical suppliers earlier this year were issued “without following due process” and without the “sanction from competent authority”, a report by the Directorate General of the Health Services (DGHS) has determined.
According to officials, the controversial orders — originally issued following allegations of spurious drugs against these companies — were partly responsible for a shortage of medicines in Delhi government-run heath care facilities this year.
The DGHS report, dated October 21 and seen by HT, stated that these orders issued by a senior bureaucrat have now been “cancelled and reversed”, and that the directorate has instituted an official inquiry in the matter. The official concerned, Dr HC Birua, who held charge as additional director (coordination) in DHGS, has been discharged from his responsibilities.
The DGHS comes under the Delhi government’s Health department and the latest report brings into spotlight again the feud between the Aam Aadmi Party administration and the Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, whose order for a probe into allegedly substandard drugs on December 23 precipitated the chain of events that led to the suppliers being blacklisted.
On January 31, Birua wrote to all government hospitals and medical superintendents, directing them to stop payments to 10 medicine distributors and blacklisting their firms, citing allegations of cartelisation, substandard medicines, pooling of tenders, and other fraudulent activities.
“Stop-payment is hereby ordered against above ten firms till the loss to the exchequer is calculated and recovery is done,” according to the January 31 order.
The suppliers, which included those that sent shipments to the 30 hospitals that Delhi government runs, reported payments were stopped. The controversy shrank the pool of companies participating in tenders for medicine supplies, leading to a shortage for the medical facilities.
This, officials said, meant that only ₹5 crore worth of medicines were procured this fiscal as of October, compared to the expenditure of ₹164 crore in 2023-24.
The AAP government in April called a session of Delhi assembly to flag the widespread medicine shortages in Delhi hospitals and mohalla clinics. Delhi government functionaries in September blamed the blacklisting orders for the problem and health minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, in a meeting with chief secretary in October, raised questions over the matter, following which the DGHS ordered an inquiry.
As part of the probe, officials said, DGHS found that orders issued by Birua on January 31 were “beyond the scope of his authority” and were “not sanctioned” by DGHS.
Official documents indicate that Birua was issued a show-cause notice on the matter on September 4. Two days later, a record of all such orders was sought from the bureaucrat, and finally on September 13, DGHS discharged him from official responsibilities and asked him to report to the health secretary.
Separately, the Central Procurement Agency (CPA) — it procures medicines and surgical consumables for all Delhi government institutions — in an inquiry report submitted on September 18 clarified that it did not issue any permission or consent for the blacklisting orders, and that they were “unilateral actions” and beyond his (Birua’s) authority.
HT sent emails to Birua but did not receive any response to requests for comment on the matter.
DGHS director Dr Vandana Bagga, too, did not respond to HT’s call and texts for comment on the issue.
Bharadwaj, meanwhile, alleged the purported impropriety was part of a “bigger conspiracy” against the AAP government’s health schemes.
“The vendors were supplying majority of medicines to Delhi’s healthcare facilities. It seems that the blacklisting was a part of bigger conspiracy to harass vendors so that they don’t participate in the tendering process and an artificial shortage of medicines can be created in Delhi government’s hospitals and mohalla clinics and the new tendering process can be influenced,” he said.
The DGHS report also stated that the office of the chief secretary has taken cognisance of these “illegal and ultra vires actions” and publicly issued directions on October 3 to the office of health principal secretary to act in the case in presence of the state health minister.
HT has seen a copy of the report submitted to the chief secretary and health secretary on October 10.
Chief minister Atishi on October 15 directed the office of the principal secretary to issue a show cause notice to Birua in the case for disrupting health services.
An official from the health department said a separate inquiry found the original allegations of spurious drugs to be incorrect. “No samples were found to be contaminated or spurious. In some cases, the samples were found to be ‘not of standard quality’, which could be related to dissolution time for tablets or other parameters, but this is not a criminal offence and can be dealt with as per tender conditions,” the official said, asking not to be named.
When contacted, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Delhi unit alleged that the AAP government has “failed to manage” the health sector.
“DGHS notifies or de-notifies firms and suppliers based on the circumstances and evidence available at that point of time. If circumstances have changed, the blacklisting status would have been changed accordingly. There is no doubt that the government and the minister have failed to tackle the medicine shortages in the city hospitals and fake drugs have been supplied to people of Delhi from government hospitals and clinics,” Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said.