One of the 3 staff of the Upper East Regional Hospital, who have been arrested over allegations of drugs theft at the facility, had previously been caught in similar criminal acts, Chairman of Narrative Changers, George Solomon has claimed.
Raheem Fasilat, who is a storekeeper at the regional, Mr. George said, was initially a staff of the Zuarungu Nursing and Midwifery Tranining College.
She, however, transferred after it was discovered that she was embezzling resources belonging to the health training institution.
At a different institution in Navrongo where she was transferred to, she again was caught in a similar act of stealing, necessitating her transfer yet again.
From there, Fasilat found her way to the Regional Hospital but appeared to have been emboldened to embezzle more state resources which has led to her arrest along with two others.
“Who is Fasilat in this situation? Her first appointment was at Zuarungu NTC, she had the same incident, you transferred to Navrongo. What she did at the Zuarungu NTC was the same thing she repeated in Navrongo and it is the same thing she is doing now”.
Mr. George blamed management at the Regional Hospital for failing to do due diligence before accepting her posting there and not putting measures in place to check misappropriation of the hospital’s resources.
He said although the attention of management was brought to cases of stealing at the facility, they fail to take any action.
“To have this kind of thing going on, you will need to start blaming the management at the regional hospital first. If somebody is transferred to place, do you not do background checks why the person was transferred there?,” he questioned.
Police, on August 4, arrested 3 staff of the Upper East Regional Hospital for their involvement in theft of government drugs after their cover was blown by Media Without Boarders.
A year long investigation by the media outlet discovered that Raheem Fasilat, a storekeeper at the hospital; Raymond Asoke, the hospital’s driver; Noeyelle Bridget, Assistant Dispensary Officer at the hospital’s pharmacy in connivance with others yet to be identified were allegedly stealing and smuggling drugs belonging to the hospital out of the region.
The investigators trailed Raymond Asoke to an unmarked house where he had gone to load the stolen medicines into a car and alerted the police leading to his arrest.
The other two were subsequently arrested and the drugs retrieved.
The police has since detained them and will arraign them before court.
It, however, said it is casting its investigation net wide in order to identify and arrest any other accomplice.
