BJP State president Kanna Lakshminarayana appealed to Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan to order an inquiry into the procurement of COVID rapid test kits from a South Korean company, alleging that the government flouted the norms thereby causing a substantial loss to the exchequer.
In a letter to the Governor on Monday, Mr. Lakshminarayana said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) permitted States to buy the kits from South Korean firm SD Biosensor but the A.P. Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation (APMSIDC) entered into negotiations with M/s Sandor Medicaids Limited for procurement and distribution of the test kits and eventually placed a purchase order with it (Sandor) for two lakh kits for a contract value of ₹14.60 crore excluding the GST.
Each kit was priced at ₹730 plus GST and the order had to be executed in seven days. In turn, M/s Sandor Medicaids dealt with SD Biosensor.
Meanwhile, the Chhattisgarh government purchased the same kits from a South Korean company at ₹337 plus GST through the tender route after high-level interactions with the Ambassador of South Korea.
In contrast, the government involved middlemen in the public procurement process.
‘Personal attack’
Mr. Lakshminarayana further said favouritism and nepotism were also conspicuous in the deal and that when he questioned the price variation (the Special Chief Secretary of Health, Medical and Family Welfare said the purchase price was ₹640), YSR Congress MP V. Vijaya Sai Reddy and other ruling party leaders mounted a scathing personal attack on him. He wondered what prevented the government from directly dealing with the South Korean firm which was having a unit set up in Haryana and when Andhra Pradesh could manufacture the kits on its own.
