Graft stink mars search for RGUHS Vice-Chancellor

Dr A R Aruna, Director of Medical Education has emerged as the front-runner for the post among the 20–odd aspirants regardless of her  indictment by the Lokayukta in the purchase of  Glutamine sachets for government hospitals. The names of these aspira­nts were forwarded to a three-member search panel.

Dr Vasanth Kumar S, form­er registrar of RGUHS, is ano­ther formidable aspirant who has been facing graft charges. He has been accused of withd­r­awing over time money from the university even though he was not entitled to it.

That the names of Dr Aru­na and Dr Kumar were forwar­ded without looking into charges against them has left many wondering about the qualification for a job once reserved only for people with high academic credentials.

The panel, formed by Governor H R Bhardwaj (who is the Chancellor of all universities in the State) on June 27, is helpless about the aspirants with dubious service record since its job is only to identify the three most suitable candidates.

Dr Aruna was indicted by a four-member committee of Health Foundation, which, on the direction of the Lokayukta, had investigated the procurement of drugs from the Karnataka Antibiotics Pharmaceuticals Ltd (KAPL) and the tendering process for State Government hospitals. The committee found her guilty of malafide intention. Three other officials of the Health and Family Welfare and Medical Education Departments were also indicted.

As DME, Dr Aruna had given the indent (order for goods) for Rs 5.18 crore for buying Glutamine sachets alone when the actual budget of her department was Rs 8 crore for purchase of all drugs.

Further, the DME is not supposed to procure Glutamine sachets as they are just a food product. That’s not all, the indent given by her for buying drugs with the unspent amount of Rs 5.465 crore out of the budget of 2009-10 on February 2, 2010, did not have Glutamine at all. She gave a separate indent for it later.

The indent for the food supplement was 87,443 units but the tender was for 5.5 lakh units.

“This was totally unwanted,” the committee found. Most of the sachets were not used. The committee, in its report on December 28, 2010, recommended “appropriate action’ against the guilty under the service rules.

Dr Aruna, however, insists that her name has been cleared. “My hands are clean,” she told Deccan Herald.

Others candidates

Others candidates for the V-C’s post include the incumbent S Ramananda Shetty, B G Tilak, Medical Director, Victoria Hospital; G T Subhash, former Director, BMCRI, K S Sriprakash, Superintendent, Minto Hospital, Bangalore; Shashidhar Buggi, Director, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RJICS), Bangalore; O S Siddappa, Director, BMCRI, H Satish Chandra, Medical Director, Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, Bangalore.
The name of BU V-C N Prabhu Dev was also doing the rounds. But informed sources said that he was not in the race.

The search committee will meet at 11 am on Monday and suggest three names in alphabetical order to the Governor. By evening, the new V-C will be appointed.