9.6 C
London
Friday, March 29, 2024

Central Medical Stores fire report is flawed – Inua Yusuf

- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -

General News of Tuesday, 12 December 2017

Source: primenewsghana.com

2017-12-12

Inu Cmsplay videoAlhaji Inua Yusuf

One of twelve people named as being part of the people who orchestrated the Central Medical Stores fire in 2015 says the investigative report into the incident lacks merit.

Alhaji Inua Yusuf, who is pleading innocence says the findings of the report were exactly the same as issues identified by the CMS Management Committee and presented to the then Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman Mensah only a week before the CMS went up in flames.

The Central Medical Stores of the Ministry of Health was razed by fire on the 13th of January 2015 leading to the loss of 350 million cedis worth of medical supplies.

Findings

An investigative report among others established that the fire was deliberately set and named a suspect one Samuel Dogbe, a labourer at CMS as the arsonist.

The report of national security report continued that the fire was deliberately set to destroy evidence of theft and massive fraud and widespread irregularities in the procurement and distribution of medical supplies involving senior management and junior staff, adding that it is believed that Samuel Dogbe was paid to set the fire in order to destroy the evidence.

According to the report, the motive or the destruction of the evidence was the fact that the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) had been tasked to investigate the circumstances surrounding the expiration of large quantities of drugs and medical items at the CMS. As part of the investigations, a stock count of all medical consumables had also been slated for 13″January 2015, to be used for an exhaustive audit of supplies made to the CMS and allocations to health institutions in 2014

Some of the irregularities cited by the report included the diversion of large quantities of anti-malaria drugs meant for public health institutions, large quantities of Artemether-Lumefantrine, an anti-malarial drug, were

stolen or diverted and sold to entities in Nigeria and La Cote d’Ivoire, some drugs were falsely declared to be close to their date of expiration so that permission would be given for them to be taken out for destruction; these were then sold to private pharmacy shops after permission had been granted for them to be destroyed.

Orchestrators

Twelve staff of the CMS were found by the report to be behind the fire, they are Peter Ekow Gyimah-Former Head of CMS, Alhaji Yusif Inua-Member of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the CMS, lddrisu Abdul-Karim-Acting Head of the CMS, Gifty Esi Mankartha-Principal Pharmacistlwarehouse Manager, Zeboat Doh-Warehouse Manager, Ibrahim Laryeah Amartey-Line Warehouse Manager General Pharmaceuticals Unit, Kwami Foli-Warehouse Manager, Mathias Senaya-Warehouse Manager/General Pharmaceuticals, Victoria Anning-Senior Supply Office/Project Stores, Abdul Karim, James Benjamin Annan-Pharmacist/Systems Analyst and Peter Atiaba Addah-Storekeeper.

Government’s Directives

Government directed the Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID), working in collaboration with the BNI to prepare appropriate docket with respect to each named individual, their collaborators and accomplices as well as other suspects named and unnamed in the report with a view to their prosecution at the instance of the Attorney-General.

Delays

Two years on however there have been no prosecutions, sparking public outcry and igniting calls by the media and civil society to action to be taken on the report.

In a meet the press series, Minister of Health Kwaku Agyeman-Manu said the Auditor-General has requested a forensic audit of the report and based on that the next line of action will be taken.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with PrimeNewsGhana, first on the list of the accused Alhaji Yusuf Inua wondered why he is implicated when no one at National Security or the investigative team talked to, or questioned him in the entire process.

قالب وردپرس

Latest news
Related news
- Advertisement -