A swindle "worth thousands of crores" has surfaced in the Delhi health department with 15,000 private employees, outsourced for various jobs, not being paid their Employee Provident Fund (EPF), insurance and bonus by the contractors for the last 10 years despite charging the government for it, an internal report says.
Services like security, sanitation, nursing orderly, data entry operator and drivers are outsourced to a private contractor in all 35 Delhi government-run hospitals.
"All the documents show that most of the medical superintendents are in nexus with the contractors and thousand of crores are looted and the workers are exploited," the report says.
The report further makes a scathing observation on the rampant corruption by stating that documents and evidences show that contract workers have not been paid the minimum wages by the Electronic Clearance Service (ECS).
"No worker has been paid the EPF/ESI in most of the outsourced services in Delhi government hospitals."
There is a large scale violation of the Contract Labour Act/mimimum wages by contractor and principal employer i.e medical superintendents of the hospitals while paying the amount to the workers, officials privy to the investigation said.
"All hospitals have shown inability to give copies of individual pass book of workers showing receipt of EPF. Most of the hospitals, during inspection, have admitted that workers have not been given their ESI cards," the report further stated.
A complaint sent to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, based on the findings of the report, has also hinted at massive corruption.
Kejriwal acknowledged the complaint on May 10 and forwarded it to the departments concerned.
However, sources claim that the government is awaiting the Delhi High Court's order on minimum wages, which is still pending.
Repeated calls to AAP Minister Gopal Rai went unanswered.
Audit reports have also stressed on how the hospitals have failed to comply with the Contract Labour Act.
"A tender cannot be awarded below the minimum wages and any work given below the suggested amount is forced labour and is a punishable offence," said a senior official from the health department.
Earlier this year, five officials from Raja Harish Chand Hospital in Narela were suspended for not paying the minimum wages to the workers.
Recently, Delhi Labour Minister Gopal Rai had said that the government will end the practice of outsourcing hiring of contract workers and start recruiting these workers directly.
"There will be two benefits to the workers. We have been informed that contractors were cutting Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 from the salaries of workers and not giving the entire Provident Fund (PF) amount due. We will be able to ensure these, plus it will lead to savings for the departments as they will not have to pay the contractors," Rai had said.
The issue has been plaguing the health department for quiet a long time. The former Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Tarun Seem, had formed a four-member committee in 2016 to look into the issues. A letter was also sent to all the medical superintendents of the hospitals to give status report of all outsourced workers.
Anshu Prakash, in 2012, during his tenure as Principal Secretary (Health), had also written a letter to all the medical superintendents demanding a complete investigation in the contractorwise claim of the Provident Fund and the amount actually deposited in the employee's account.
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