TB officer arrested over K13 million drug theft
Barely three days after arresting Chiradzulu district health officer (DHO) Gift Chinomba, police in the district on Thursday arrested a TB officer at the hospital, Alexander Malunguza, for allegedly being involved in the missing of medical drugs worth about K13 million (about $19 300).
Chinomba was arrested on Monday over allegations that he had a hand in the missing of medical drugs worth about K10 million (about $15 600), Currently on court bail, Chinomba is answering charges of theft by public servant contrary to Section 283 of the Penal Code.
Speaking in an interview Thursday, Chiradzulu police spokesperson Victoria Chirwa said Malunguza, 42, from Milambo village in the area of Traditional Authority (T/A) Kapeni in Blantyre was arrested as police continue with investigations on theft of medical drugs at the hospital.
“In the course of investigations, police found out that there was another consignment of medical drugs meant for the hospital that went missing but I cannot comment much as investigations are still underway,” she said.
On April 29 this year, police arrested the hospital’s pharmacy technician Isaac Bakali (27) and a driver Anderson Msuku (27), opening a can of worms as more revelations on drug theft at the hospital follows.
The arrest of the two followed a complaint that officials from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DfID) who released funds for the hospital to procure drugs made after visiting the hospital to verify if drugs were indeed bought and had reached the intended beneficiaries. Unfortunately they found that the drugs never reached the hospital.
