NEW DELHI: A close scrutiny of the accounts of the Bihar government shouldn't surprise you about the midday meal (MDM) tragedy that claimed the lives of more than 20 children last week. To make matters worse, there were serious infrastructure inadequacies in government hospitals meant to treat children who had taken ill.

The level of Bihar government’s lethargy and callousness is far more serious than what is known in public. TOI has tracked details of at least Rs 700 crore allocated for the MDM scheme and around Rs 1,000 crore earmarked for upgrading government hospitals. Most of the money is either lying unspent, or there were no proper documentation of how they were spent.

This is apart from the Rs 462 crore meant for the MDM scheme that Bihar returned to the Centre because it couldn't utilize the sum for several years. TOI had reported the return of it on Saturday.

A detailed inquiry shows that the reality is far worse than what is known in public.

According to an audit report for the year ending March 31, 2012, Rs 2692.05 crore was drawn on AC (Abstract Contingent) bills under the scheme between 2004-05 and 2010-11. Against this DC (detailed contingent) DC bills, a break-up of expenses of only Rs 1919.39 crore was submitted by April, 2012. This included refund of Rs 462.78 crore, which TOI had last week reported as returned to the Centre by the state after keeping it idle in bank accounts for several years.

DC bills — showing how exactly the money was spent — for Rs 772.66 crore was pending for submission by March 31, 2012. Hence, the government had no details to show if this money was spent on the MDM scheme and its effective distribution. For example, in 2004-05 of the Rs 31.52 crore spent under the head of the scheme there was no details of expenditure of Rs 10.99 crore. Against one withdrawal of Rs 126.08 crore in 2005-06, the government has submitted expense details for only Rs 85.33 crore. And, the utilization of the rest (Rs 40.75 crore) still remains unclear.

At times, the complete lack of details of how the money was spent is startling. For instance, there is no detail of how Rs 66.57 crore meant for the scheme was spent in 2007-08. Or, in another instance it is not known how Rs 72.56 crore disappeared. While in 2010-11, Rs 139.27 crore earmarked for feeding poor children was yet to be accounted as of March 31, 2012.

Equally appalling has been the approach of the Bihar government towards the upgrade of government healthcare facilities across the state. According to details accessed by TOI, the state health department had at least Rs 921 crore by the end of financial year 2012-13, but only Rs 39.59 crore was utilized in upgrading and constructing new primary healthcare centres, health sub-centres and community health centres. The unutilised Rs 881 crore was routed via various agencies and companies it had floated.

To bring healthcare facilities in Bihar at par with the Indian public health standards, the state government had in December 2006 decided to construct 1,544 additional primary health centres, 7,765 health sub-centres and upgrade all 534 primary health centres into 30-bed community health centres. The fund was to be sourced from a NABARD-sponsored scheme and the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).

The state health department identified four agencies to implement the scheme, among them the building construction department (BCD) and the state health society. The department gave Rs 509.06 crore as an advance to a civil surgeon in Patna during 2006-08, to transfer it to the BCD. This money was further given to a newly-created corporation (BHPDC) in September, 2008. BHPDC couldn’t spend the money, and later transferred Rs 112.78 crore in February, 2009, to the state health society.

Meanwhile, BHPDC was renamed BSBCCL in May 2010, and the new company refunded Rs 100 crore back to the government by March 31, 2012. BSBCCL only spent Rs 13.68 crore, and the balance (Rs 383 crore) was yet to be utilised.

The health department gave Rs 348.70 crore to SHS between 2006 and 2010. Only Rs 25 crore of this sun was spent up to March 2012. Strangely, the health department gave another Rs 100 crore to SHS for constructing health centres. So a total of over Rs 422 crore was lying with SHS.

In a further bizarre twist to the practice of moving money around, the state started a new company named Bihar Medical Services & Infrastructure Corporation Ltd in May 2010 and provided Rs 175 crore to it. The entire fund was yet to be utilised by March 31, 2012, as available details show.