Keheliya and Addl. Health Secy. to be questioned by CID

By Hemantha Randunu, Shiran Ranasinghe and Sujeewa Thathsara

The CID is to question former Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, and Health Additional Secretary Saman Ratnayake along with several other officials in connection with the purchase of substandard Human Immunoglobulin.

The CID last Monday arrested former Secretary to the Ministry of Health Janaka Sri Chandragupta and he was remanded by the Maligakanda Magistrate.The CID sent a special team to the Health Ministry yesterday to seal the offices of Additional Secretary Ratnayake and commenced investigating documents there.

The Maligakanda Magistrate ordered on Monday to seal Ratnayake’s office in the ministry.

The Government Medical Officers’ Association on Thursday said that there was a serious question pertaining not only to law and order but also to the health sector as authorities still have not arrested the masterminds and those who are directly responsible for the substandard Human Immunoglobulin racket.

GMOA media spokesman, Dr. Chamal Wijesinghe, told a press conference that 22,500 vials of substandard Human Immunoglobulin, which is produced using human blood, were ordered by preparing false documents. The value of the stock of medicine was estimated at nearly one billion rupees.

President of the College of Medical Laboratory Science (CMLS), Ravi Kumudesh said that the former Health Ministry Secretary now in custody has no other option but to reveal the names of those who were involved in the substandard Human Immunoglobulin racket.

Kumudesh said that the Health Secretary cannot absolve himself of the crime but the latter alone did not make the decision pertaining to the grave crime.

The CID has informed the court that two doctors who had been members of the procurement committee that approved the purchasing of substandard Human Immunoglobulin have now fled the country. Investigations revealed that one of those doctors had gone to the US and the other to the UK.