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Isles police slammed over delays in probing...
2006-02-28 08:41:54
By Mwinyi Sadallah, Zanzibar
The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has expressed disenchantment over delays by the Police Force to investigate the financial scam in which millions of shillings were paid to ghost workers in the ministry.
The ministry had been losing 21.6m/- monthly through the scam.
Following the unearthing of the scam, the ministry suspended all staff in the finance department in Pemba, including the chief accountant, to pave the way for investigations.
The police have not started probing the scam to the disappointment of the ministry.
’Police have not made efforts to interrogate the suspects. This is shocking,’ said Health Minister Sultan Mohammed Mugheiry.
’The police have remained mum; they don’t want to take steps,’ added the minister.
The ministry, he said, had already compiled a report on the scam and passed the information to the police to use in their investigations.
’We are ready to co-operate with the police in the investigations to bring the offenders to book,’ the minister said.
The employees implicated in the scandal include officials of the health and finance ministries.
’I will not protect the culprits; they have to uncover the scam and prefer legal action against them,’ said Mugheiry.
However, East Pemba Regional Police Commander said the police had not embarked on investigations because they had not received the report compiled by the ministry.
’The ministry has not presented its report to the police to allow us proceed with investigations,’ said RPC.
Sources said the scandal is likely to implicate top and senior officials in the ministries of health and finance and economy.
Chief accountant in the department, Ramadhan Kapanya and his assistants were among the officials who were suspended, according to the minister.
Investigations into the issue conducted by the ministry and police will involve all former employees of the ministry who have been transferred to other government departments.
This is the second time the ministry is mired in theft of pubic money through payment of salaries to ghost workers.
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