A Dark Room Attendant at Arua Regional Referral Hospital has been remanded for stealing X-ray equipment.
Benington Okello was on Friday arraigned before the Anti-Corruption Court presided over by Chief Magistrate Joan Aciro.
Court heard that on December 11, 2021, Okello stole components of the Digital X-ray Machine for screening TB including an HP Laptop with its Canon Software and Samsung Galaxy Tab A Phone from the main store of Arua Regional Referral Hospital which he got access to by virtue of his office.
It is alleged that he mortgaged the assets to Furah Link Ventures Financial Limited to acquire a loan of 1.2 Million Shillings.
But Okello denied the charges and was remanded until March 11 2022 as investigations into the matter continue.
Okello was arrested by detectives attached to the State House Anti-Corruption Unit about three weeks ago together with Alex Okello, and Benard Olul who are all storekeepers at the hospital.
According to the sources who preferred anonymity, Okello’s colleagues were released on police bond, leaving him in police cells at Wandegeya Police Station in Kampala since then until his production in Court today.
The X-ray and its components were recently donated by the Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau (UCMB), the technical arm of the Health Commission of the Uganda Episcopal Conference for T.B management.
Preliminary Police investigations blame the incident on laxity and poor record management on the movement of equipment at the hospital stores.
Over the past, Arua regional referral hospital has recorded thefts of essential medical equipment some of which are still under police investigations.
For instance, in December last year, five staff of the hospital were arrested over the theft of an ambulance. The Toyota Land Cruiser registration number UG 6812M disappeared from the hospital parking yard on the night of Saturday, March 27, 2021.
In February 2020, an autoclave machine and assorted kits worth over 500 Million Shillings also disappeared from the hospital and were recovered from Nebbi.
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