MMU employee admits to stealing US$500 in drugs

A male employee has admitted to stealing drugs from the Materials Management Unit (MMU) Bond at Diamond, East Bank Demerara and others were released on station bail, the Ministry of Health revealed on Thursday.

Guyana Chronicle had reported that on Wednesday night, that a total of 15 employees from the unit were caught stealing the drugs and were arrested. The Health Ministry in a statement noted that the employees who were initially taken into custody and later released, did not report for duty Thursday.

“They are on strike” a Materials Management Unit (MMU) official familiar with the incident said Thursday,” the Health Ministry stated.

It was further noted that one female MMU worker who was among the 15 arrested, has resigned “with immediate effect.”

Items stashed off included Clozole [an anti-fungal cream used for yeast infection]; On Call Plus, which is used mainly by diabetics to test the blood sugar; Chlorophane (a cough medicine) and ferrovite (a multivitamin product used to treat or prevent low blood levels of iron and vitamin B12). The stolen items have been conservatively valued at US$500 (G$100,000).

A reliable source told Guyana Chronicle that for a while now, officials had suspected that drugs were being stolen from the unit but did not have evidence.However,on Wednesday evening an MMU officer observed drugs stashed inside the toilet of the MMU bond. The officer did not raise an alarm but informed another trusted colleague and a sting operation was set up.

This newspaper understands that the officers then left the bond but returned later when other MMU employees were about to leave in a bus. The officers then ordered the employees out of the bus and conducted a search, during which 24 packets of medical supplies, worth $5,000 each, were found.

No one claimed ownership of the drugs and they were all taken to the police station for questioning. The officers also found the drugs intact inside the toilet.

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