Lab equipment gathers dust sans staff

BHUBANESWAR: As if the multi-crore scam in the World Bank-aided Orissa Health System Development Project (OHSDP) was not enough, the Comptroller and Audit General has pulled up the Government for keeping sophisticated laboratory equipment idle beyond the warranty period. The State Government received four equipment worth Rs. 58.94 lakh under the World Bank-assisted capacity building project on food and drugs to strengthen the State Public Health Laboratory (SPHL). The Centre supplied Perkin Elmer atomic absorption spectrometer worth Rs. 17.65 lakh to SPHL in February 2003, glutamate cysteine ligase (GCL) model-2010 worth Rs. 5.48 lakh in August 2005, digital high performance lipid chromatography (HPLC) system worth Rs. 35.81 lakh in February 2006 and ultraviolet visible (UV-VIS) spectrometer in May 2005. These are sophisticated equipment meant for testing of food and drinking water samples to ensure that the standard of food materials available in the market and drinking water supplied are fit for consumption. Before the supply of the equipment, the Centre had asked the Health Department and head of SPHL to ensure suitable space with provision of air conditioning facility for installation of equipment and identify technical persons competent to operate the machines. Scrutiny of records of the deputy director-cum-public analyst of SPHL revealed that the equipment could not be installed and made operational even after four to eight years of receiving the delivery. Air-conditioning facility could not be developed till the end of 2009. Reports collected from the office in June last year said though the equipment were installed with air-conditioning facility, the same could not be operationalised due to technical snags that developed during the long storage period. Since the warranty period of the equipment was over, the supplier demanded nearly Rs. 4 lakh for installation and operational of UV-VIS spectrometer and HPLC by rectifying the defects.  Ironically, the machines, after repair, could not be operated in the absence of technical staff. Ten posts _ one deputy public analyst, two analytical chemists, five assistant analytical chemists and two laboratory assistants _ were lying vacant in the SPHL.