<p>Fresh documents submitted to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) suggest that the Karnataka State Drugs Logistics & Warehousing Society (KSDLWS) procured sanitisers during the Covid-19 pandemic from a company which had violated tender terms by supplying poor quality sanitisers in the past.</p>.<p>The Karnataka Rashtra Samithi has filed a complaint pertaining to this with the PAC, which is already looking into alleged irregularities in the procurement of Covid-19 equipment.</p>.<p>According to the complaint, chemical analysts from government labs in Kalaburagi and Ramanagar districts had declared that the hand sanitisers procured from a Bengaluru-based company by KSDLWS via a tender in October 2019 were “not of standard quality”.</p>.<p>Moreover, the company allegedly supplied only half the 47,000 units of 500-ml sanitisers procured at Rs 97.44 per unit and submitted that it couldn’t supply the other half.</p>.<p>Despite such violations of tender regulations, KSDLWS allegedly procured sanitisers at Rs 250 per unit from the same company during the Covid-19 pandemic, when tender regulations were relaxed by the government.</p>.<p>“The company should have been blacklisted since it violated tender terms. However, the blind eye turned by KSDLWS authorities regarding the issue has raised several suspicions,” Deepak C N, general secretary of the Samithi, said in a complaint.</p>.<p>The complaint is among the several filed by the organisation regarding irregularities in procurement of Covid-19 equipment.</p>
<p>Fresh documents submitted to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) suggest that the Karnataka State Drugs Logistics & Warehousing Society (KSDLWS) procured sanitisers during the Covid-19 pandemic from a company which had violated tender terms by supplying poor quality sanitisers in the past.</p>.<p>The Karnataka Rashtra Samithi has filed a complaint pertaining to this with the PAC, which is already looking into alleged irregularities in the procurement of Covid-19 equipment.</p>.<p>According to the complaint, chemical analysts from government labs in Kalaburagi and Ramanagar districts had declared that the hand sanitisers procured from a Bengaluru-based company by KSDLWS via a tender in October 2019 were “not of standard quality”.</p>.<p>Moreover, the company allegedly supplied only half the 47,000 units of 500-ml sanitisers procured at Rs 97.44 per unit and submitted that it couldn’t supply the other half.</p>.<p>Despite such violations of tender regulations, KSDLWS allegedly procured sanitisers at Rs 250 per unit from the same company during the Covid-19 pandemic, when tender regulations were relaxed by the government.</p>.<p>“The company should have been blacklisted since it violated tender terms. However, the blind eye turned by KSDLWS authorities regarding the issue has raised several suspicions,” Deepak C N, general secretary of the Samithi, said in a complaint.</p>.<p>The complaint is among the several filed by the organisation regarding irregularities in procurement of Covid-19 equipment.</p>
