In one of the most significant decisions emerging from Delhi’s latest bureaucratic reshuffle, the government has entrusted a 2017-batch AGMUT cadre IAS officer with financial powers that determine procurement and expenditure across the Health Department, marking a major administrative shift in the functioning of the Capital’s public healthcare system.
Under the transfer order issued by Lieutenant Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu, Yash Chaudhary, currently serving as the Special Secretary (Health), has been assigned the additional charge of the Central Procurement Agency (CPA) along with delegated financial powers. The same order withdraws these delegated financial powers from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), effectively shifting financial decision-making from the technical wing of the department to the administrative secretariat.
Chaudhary is among the younger IAS officers in Delhi’s bureaucracy to be entrusted with such significant financial responsibilities in the Health Department.
The decision assumes significance because the delegated financial powers govern approvals relating to procurement of medicines, medical equipment, hospital infrastructure works, maintenance contracts and other departmental expenditure. These approvals directly influence how quickly hospitals receive supplies, infrastructure projects are processed and public health programmes are implemented.
The reshuffle comes weeks after the Directorate of Vigilance conducted searches at the Central Procurement Authority in connection with an alleged Rs 350-crore procurement irregularity. Following the investigation, Dr Vinod Kumar Ranga, who was serving as the Head of Office of the CPA, was placed under suspension. While the transfer order does not link the redistribution of powers to the Vigilance investigation, the administrative changes come against the backdrop of increased scrutiny of procurement processes in the Health Department.
The Directorate General of Health Services functions as the technical head of Delhi’s healthcare administration, overseeing government hospitals, public health programmes and medical services.
With the latest order, expenditure approvals and delegated financial authority will now rest with the Health Department Secretariat under the Special Secretary (Health), centralising financial oversight within the administrative wing.
