Drugs fraud at West Dem. Hospital...Implicated couple released, but investigation continues

Drugs fraud at West Dem. Hospital…Implicated couple released, but investigation continues – Police

Mar 04, 2017 News

Although they have been released from police custody, the married couple at the centre of a drug fraud uncovered at the West Demerara Regional Hospital may not be “off the hook”

The West Demerara Regional Hospital.

This assertion was yesterday made by a senior police official who revealed that the matter is “still very much under investigation”.
The couple was taken into police custody last week following allegations of missing drugs and related irregularities at the main Region Three public health facility. The Guyana Police Force is, moreover, tasked with ascertaining whether the allegation, which is believed to have been carried out over a protracted period, indeed materialised through the couple’s collusion.
A police official when asked yesterday was not able to ascertain whether the couple was released on bail or on their own recognisance. The official however asserted that “the matter was not completed; the police was called in to investigate the matter and this is just what the police are doing – investigating.”
Based on reports that were filtered to this publication last week, two persons were in police custody assisting with an investigation into the allegations of drug procurement and supply fraud at the West Demerara Regional Hospital.
The Ministry of Public Health had confirmed this development in a statement which informed that the hospital’s Pharmacist, Puran Bipath, and his wife, were taken into police custody.
The two, according to information out of the Ministry, are employed at the hospital and were fingered in the criminal act after irregularities were discovered by a team from the Public Health Ministry.
Reports suggest that the team, acting on the instructions of Senior Minister of Public Health, Ms. Volda Lawrence, had been conducting a fact-finding mission which uncovered several discrepancies during the course of the past week.
Mr. John Adams, Member of Parliament representing Region Three, in an invited comment said that the team visited Wednesday of last week and found that there were some inconsistencies in the record-keeping for pharmaceuticals.
Following internal investigations, a report was made to the Guyana Police Force and the Ministry of Public Health was cooperating with the authorities to identify and bring to justice those culpable.
Officials at the Ministry’s end of year press conference assured that deliberate moves were apace to ensure that recurring issues of the unavailability of drugs and medical supplies will become a thing of the past this year.
Earlier this week, the services of Permanent Secretary within the Public Health Ministry, Mr. Trevor Thomas, was terminated, a development that stemmed from the discovery of mismanagement and financial irregularities within the Ministry.
At this week’s Post Cabinet Press briefing Minister of State Joseph Harmon said that the move was prompted by recommendations made in a report of an audit that was conducted at the Ministry.
“There are several other consequential recommendations that have been made and the [Senior] Minister of Public Health [Ms. Volda Lawrence] had actually started taking action on some of them,” Minister Harmon related.
As part of her intervening efforts, Harmon said that the “she [Minister Lawrence] has gone around to some of the units where procurement is taking place and has actually seen for herself what is happening, and we can expect some radical changes where those things are concerned.”

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