Audit or Cover-Up? Multicrore AB-PMJAY Billing Discrepancies at SKIMS Soura Evade Vigilance Scrutiny

​Srinagar,12 March : While the Ayushman Bharat (AB-PMJAY) SEHAT scheme is hailed as a lifeline for the underprivileged, a brewing financial scandal at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura, is raising serious questions about institutional accountability and the “disappearance” of public funds under the guise of administrative oversight.

​Despite internal audits uncovering discrepancies involving crores of rupees and over a thousand vendor files, the matter has reportedly been kept “under the carpet,” avoiding the gaze of the Union Territory’s anti-corruption and vigilance agencies.

​The “Recalculation” Scandal

​Recent internal reviews at SKIMS have pulled back the curtain on a systematic failure in the verification of vendor bills. Key findings from committee reports include:

​MoU Violations: Initial invoice verifications were found to be in direct violation of the Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) governing the scheme.

​Massive Recoveries: After re-examining over 1,000 vendor files, auditors identified substantial additional deductions and recoveries that were “missed” during the first round of billing.

​Systemic Blindness: The scale of these recoveries suggests that the initial oversight was not merely a clerical error but a deeper, systemic failure—or a deliberate bypass of financial safeguards.

​Where is the Accountability?

​The core of the controversy lies in the treatment of these findings. Typically, when an internal audit detects large-scale financial irregularities and “substantial recoveries” from private vendors, the matter is automatically referred to an independent investigative body like the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).

​At SKIMS, however, the response has been a quiet internal “correction” rather than a formal inquiry into why these funds were nearly lost in the first place and who authorized the initial, non-compliant payments.

​The Public Trust at Stake

​As a premier healthcare institution, SKIMS is a custodian of public trust. The failure to escalate these audit findings to vigilance authorities raises a fundamental question: Is the institution protecting the process, or is it protecting the people who bypassed it?

​official sources said that the “silent recoveries” without punitive action do little to deter future fraud. Without a formal investigation, the “scam worth crores” remains a mere footnote in administrative files, while the responsibility for the initial lapse remains unassigned.

​Added that Transparency is the strongest safeguard of trust. In matters involving public funds, silence is often the loudest admission of a systemic failure.”(NV101)