Vigilance officials raid 16 offices of Kerala state drug control offices, find major anomalies

Chennai, June 2017:

Simultaneous raids conducted by the sleuths of the directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption (DVAC) on last Friday in all the Assistant Drug Controllers' and Drug Inspectors' offices across Kerala found various irregularities on the part of the enforcement officials in the DC department.

Some of the major flaws that were found by the inspecting officials were non-maintenance of proper documentation of sample collection reports and details about issuance of fresh licences and renewal of the existing ones. "No office had the proper records of sample reports and licence issuance", said an inspector at the directorate.

Whereas the district office of the DVAC at Thrissur informed that no significant anomaly was found at the ADC office there.

According to an officer, who was in the inspecting team, said the directorate of the vigilance wing got several complaints of corruption and inaction on the part of drug regulators all over the state. The drug inspectors who visit the medical stores for inspection usually take away costly medicines and cosmetic items from the shops under the pretext of sample collection. The shop owners have to bear huge loss due to these unscrupulous activities and malpractices of the drug inspectors.

According to experts in drug laws, government will pay the required amount to the sample collectors ( drug inspectors) for all the medicines he bought for sample testing. The drug inspectors need not spend money from their pockets for drawing samples from medical stores. But in Kerala, it is alleged that, no drug inspector will pay the prices of the medicines he draws from the medical shops for sample testing. According to complaints received by the vigilance and anti-corruption bureau, the drug inspectors take as many drugs and cosmetic products as they want from the medical shops under the pretext of sample testing.

The vigilance officials conducted simultaneous raids in 16 offices of the drugs regulatory agency on last Friday from morning to evening. The drugs controller-in-charge, Revi S Menon said the vigilance officials have exempted the head quarter office at Thiruvananthapuram, but the separate office of the ADC was raided. He said this is a routine work of the vigilance bureau every year to check whether the department is carrying out the activities properly.

But there were complaints about sale and stock of sub-standard and banned drugs in all the medical stores all over Kerala. An anonymous letter of a retailer to the vigilance director was saying that several categories of expired drugs are in circulation in the medicine market in Kerala and no action is being taken to check it by the regulatory body. The drug inspectors conduct inspections only in the government pharmacies, but do not visit private pharmacies or wholesalers shops.

A few years ago, the DVAC sleuths had launched a similar type of simultaneous raid in all the office of the drugs control department following informal complaints of rampant corruption against drug inspectors and ADCs, The inspecting team had then seized Rs. 11000 from a drug inspector's pocket during the raid.

The DVAC will submit a comprehensive report on the state-wide raid to the government shortly for further action.

For the last six months, Kerala DC department has no drugs controller. The government is yet to take a decision to fill up the post of the DC or to create a post of Director to the department.