Police begin probe of fraud attempt at Public Health Ministry

OVER the past two days, police investigators have been combing through documents at the Public Health Ministry’s Brickdam head office as they probe an alleged plot to steal millions of dollars from the state.

This is according to Crime Chief, Assistant Commissioner of Police Paul Williams. In an interview on Wednesday, Williams told the Guyana Chronicle that the Guyana Police Force received a formal request from the Public Health Ministry for an investigation to be done into an alleged plot to defraud the state. Williams, at the time, could not have stated when the request was made; however, he told this newspaper that since Monday, a team of police investigators was deployed to the ministry to scrutinise records there. At the time of the interview, no arrest had been made.

The investigation has been launched close to one month after Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence warned senior officers at her ministry that police detectives and internal auditors would have been called in to investigate the “misappropriation of funds and the blatant attempts to steal” public funds.

In a press statement issued by the Public Health Ministry on June 19, 2018, it was said that Minister Lawrence, in a frank discourse with senior public health officials, raised questions about “blatant attempts to steal” and other brazen, dishonest acts perpetrated by employees of the ministry. Lawrence had said that the police and officials from the Ministry of Finance had carried out open investigations into ongoing corrupt practices by staff members. “Fraud has been ongoing a long time at the Public Health Ministry”, she was quoted as saying.

A well-placed source at the Public Health Ministry had told this newspaper that there was a plot to steal millions of dollars during the hosting of the country’s inaugural Health Expo, which was held from May 30 to June 2, 2018. Though unconfirmed, it is believed that the sum is to the tune of $50M. At this point, it is unclear what the money was intended for.
However, according to the source, bogus documents which cloned those of the Public Health Ministry were presented as “official” documents to cheat the state of millions of dollars.

Though it is unclear at this stage how many persons at the ministry’s Brickdam Headquarters were involved in this scam, it is believed that they have well-organised connections outside of the Public Health Ministry.
The plot reportedly crumbled, however, on the eve of the opening of Health Expo 2018, after a diligent staff of the ministry detected that the documents represented were fake. It is believed that the corrupt practice had been ongoing for a long time, but was detected only recently.

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