Maravi

UTH suspends 16 cashiers involved in theft syndicate

UTH suspends 16 cashiers involved in theft syndicate
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Sat 02 Oct. 2010, 04:00 CAT

Chiwoyu Sinyangwe THE University Teaching Hospital (UTH) has suspended 16 cashiers in an alleged syndicate of theft of money which is believed to have been going on since January this year, sources have disclosed. And UTH managing director Dr Luckson Kasonka has confirmed the suspension of the officials following suspicion of alleged irregular transactions.

According to sources, the thefts are believed to have been going on since January and hinged mostly on cashiers under-remitting to the institution the monies they collected from patients and clients. The sources explained that the 16 cashiers had been suspended for the last two weeks.

“For example, they would say K900,000 which is charged on a patient and needs the scan services but only remit maybe K50,000 and also record wrong details as to what services that patient was provided for,” the sources explained.

“But the main computer used to capture the correct data and that is how these 16 guys were identified and suspended…because the information they used to submit was different from what the computer was recording. It is suspension to keep them away so that they don’t continue tempering with the evidence. Even the police do that.”

Dr Kasonka said the suspension was done to pave way for investigations.
He explained that management at the country’s biggest referral hospital was prompted to suspend the cashiers following complaints from some patients and the discovery of inconsistencies between the data from cashiers and that captured by the main computer which had the audit trail.

Dr Kaasonka, however, did not disclose the amount that is believed to have been exposed to the syndicate, saying the amount would only be known after the investigations had been completed.

“Here at UTH, they are some cashiers who are not honest,” Dr Kasonka said. “There are some cashiers who pick money, put in the pocket without issuing a receipt to client or patient. We have recently introduced a computerised system so that we can avert this forgery using the manual receipts writing.

But you know people are very ‘smart’; they have again gone around and hacked in the computer system. Even using the computer system, they are able to generate fake receipts and give fake receipts and give the clients and thereby depriving the institution of that money. So, we have put them on suspension and we want to get to the true details as to how much theft has been done.”

He said those found wanting would be handed over to the police for prosecution.

“It is normal procedure where you suspend someone where you suspect something wrong and you have to get the case against them, if at all they have stolen or not,” he said.

“Those who are found clean will come back to work. Those who will be found with evidence of theft, the necessary civil service procedures will apply. If someone has stolen money, the procedure is that you hand them over to the police. I don’t want to start kicking them and caning them, no.

I will hand them over to the police with evidence and then the police will take it from there because this is public money and that is what the police are there for.

We are trying to get to the root of complaints from the general public and at the same time, we don’t want to unfairly judge somebody when there is no evidence just because the public has said there is theft and we start firing and suspending.”
Dr Kasonka complained about the high levels of dishonesty in most public institutions, and that UTH was not the only institution that had some dishonest officials.

“You have heard of complaints from the members of the public that cashiers at UTH are corrupt,” said Dr Kasonka.

“They don’t issue receipts sometimes, (or) sometimes issue receipts which are undervalued. It is likely to have been going on for a long time. And this is usually everywhere in institutions. You see how we Zambians are not honest.

We are not honest people which is very sad. So, we want to establish for how long it has been going on and how much has been stolen. This is peoples’ money, government money and people will be punished for not being honest.”

Labels: CHIWOYU SINYANGWE, LUCKSON KASONKA, UTH

posted by MrK @ 7:52 AM