No fraud in health projects: India tells World Bank

Reacting to the World Bank's DIR report on fraud and corruption in health projects in the country, the Government has categorically denied many of the findings and said that it could cause incalculable damage to the credibility of disease control programmes in the future.

In its detailed reply submitted to the World Bank, the Union Health Ministry has said that the report erroneously created an impression that the health sector delivery system in India is beset with fraud and corruption.

"The DIR has done incalculable damage to the credibility of successful disease control programmes," it said. The delivery of health services is organic in nature and it is extremely necessary to maintain the credibility of these health programmes.

"By erroneously creating an impression that the health sector delivery system in India is beset with fraud and corruption, the DIR has done incalculable damage to the credibility of successful disease control programmes. This could have long-term adverse impact on the implementation of these programmes. This damage would be far greater than what was sought to be fixed by the DIR," it said.

The report was to be taken up by the World Bank at its board meeting on Tuesday which has been postponed. "We will get the World Bank's reaction only once they take it up," Union Health Secretary Naresh Dayal told PTI.

Giving a point-by-point rebuttal to some of the findings, the Health Ministry's reply said scrutiny of the DIR report for specific programmes like the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) shows that it has not taken into consideration protocol issues.

"Despite our request DIR did not provide any evidence to substantiate allegations of bribery or selection bias," the reply said. The DIR had observed selection bias, scope for fraud, corruption and poor financial oversight in NGOs implementation of targeted interventions in NACO.

The DIR observations reflected a lack of understanding of the testing protocols and grossly misinterpreted data by the World Bank team, the ministry said. It said that "the above findings of NACO have been revalidated by two international experts from CDC, Atlanta and NRL, Australia."

The World Bank detected fraud and corruption in five health projects worth a total of $ 568 million. Cases of fraud and corruption were discovered in projects relating to eradication of tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS control schemes by the Detailed Implementation Review (DIR), which was launched by the bank in 2006, with support from the Indian government.