Millions of dollars worth of dental equipment, furniture and air conditioning units stored in the building housing a defunct dental school at the Arima Health Facility have been stolen. The school, which was converted into an office for the St George East Insect Vector Control Division by the Health Ministry last year, was also used to store boxes of dental tools, 50 dental chairs equipped with lights, ten air conditioning units, furniture and kitchen appliances.
The dental chairs were valued in excess of $.5 million, while each air conditioning unit was priced at $20,000. The dental tools comprised mouth mirrors, probes, retractors, burrs, dental forceps and chisels. One of two 1,000-gallon water tanks, a microwave, fridge, water cooler, electrical wires, chairs, fans, benches and desks were also pilfered.
Of the eight boilers in the building, two have gone missing, while the remaining six were stripped of metal and parts. All that remains is a 1,000-gallon water tank. While drug addicts and vagrants who now occupy the building have been blamed for carting away the items, Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan strongly believes it's "an inside job." The school, south of the hospital compound, had been closed for years.
However, after months of complaints by 38 insect-vector employees, who were working in an abandoned women's hospital nearby, which was frequented by stray dogs and addicts, former health minister Therese Cornelis-Baptiste opted to turn it into an office to accommodate the workers. New furniture and kitchen appliances were purchased, while electricity and water were installed in the building.
But after occupying it for three months, the workers were told last October that the building was earmarked for demolition, to make way for the new Arima Hospital. The health workers were left with no choice but to use the hospital's compound as their office. A trip to the facility on Wednesday showed shattered windows and broken pipelines. The lock to the retractable steel gate leading to the boiler room had been cut.
Nearby, ashes from a recent fire, lit near the building's main entrance, swirled in the wind. Thick soot covered the walls. At the back of the property, which was littered with faeces and garbage, a piece of wrought iron was neatly placed over the opening of a window, where the addicts go in and out.
The same situation exists at the women's hospital, which has been overtaken by vagrants and stray dogs and has now become an eyesore, with trash and human and dog filth. Eight months after the workers were evicted, the building is still standing.
On Tuesday, the workers were told via letter to start work from June 18 at the Insect Vector Control Division's Tunapuna office, which only has one toilet for a combined staff of 90. "This will be a recipe for disaster," one worker said. "We will be housed there for three months." The workers said they had no problem re-entering their vandalised office, which looked structurally sound.
Khan: Fraud Squad will be called in
While confirming that millions of dollars in dental equipment had been stored in the building, the health minister said he could not believe it had been stolen by vagrants, stressing that there are security guards on the compound. Khan said although the equipment and tools were unusable, they should not have been stolen, since they were the ministry's property.
He promised to call in the Fraud Squad, saying somebody has to be held responsible. "I will have to launch a full-scale investigation to get some answers. I think the police have to get involved in this thing. Those are specialists' instruments."
An inside job
The minister questioned how the items, including the 1,000-gallon tank, were sneaked out of the hospital without the security guards noticing. "I think this has to be an inside job, because people cannot drive in and take a set of things and leave. This reeks of serious inside action. "Why would someone take something like that? These pipers had to be real good.
"It is easy to blame pipers. I don't think the pipers stole it to pull out their teeth." After being appointed minister last year, Khan said, he toured the building and questioned why the structure could not be fixed in the interim. "I was told that it would get in the way of the construction of the new hospital."
Khan said the insect-vector workers will be permanently housed in Cunupia, where a headquarters is being built. "That should be completed in 18 months. Tenders have already gone out."