Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08ASHGABAT563
2008-05-05 10:40:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Ashgabat
Cable title:
TURKMENISTAN: DOCTOR REPORTS ON HOSPITAL CORRUPTION IN
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UNCLAS ASHGABAT 000563
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
STATE FOR SCA/CEN
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV AMED SOCI TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: DOCTOR REPORTS ON HOSPITAL CORRUPTION IN
MARY
UNCLAS ASHGABAT 000563
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
STATE FOR SCA/CEN
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV AMED SOCI TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: DOCTOR REPORTS ON HOSPITAL CORRUPTION IN
MARY
¶1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for public Internet.
¶2. (SBU) SUMMARY: A doctor recently discovered an extensive
pharmaceutical theft scheme in a Mary hospital, and the discovery
lead to her being fired from her job and beaten. While corrupt
officials benefit from malfeasance, it is the patients who tend to
suffer. END SUMMARY.
¶3. (SBU) On April 29, RFE/RL reporter Halmurat Gylychdurdiyev told
PolOff of an interview he had recently conducted with a woman who
was chief of medicine at a Mary hospital for 13 years. She claimed
she had been fired from her post because she inadvertently stumbled
over a corruption scheme inside the hospital.
¶4. (SBU) In recent months, the doctor had begun noticing that the
medicines being delivered to the hospital for its use had already
exceeded their expiration dates, and that the hospital always seemed
to be in short supply of medications in general. When she began to
investigate, she discovered that someone was regularly appropriating
half of the stock, and using her signature.
¶5. (SBU) Alarmed about this, she continued to investigate and
discovered that the missing medication stocks were being offered for
sale in Mary markets. Additionally, she learned that none of the
medical supplies that were designated for delivery from the hospital
to a nearby prison actually got there. She reported her findings to
hospital officials, who told her not to investigate further. She
was fired from her job shortly thereafter.
¶6. (SBU) One evening after she decided to write a letter to the
Ministry of Health to report what was happening, a woman knocked on
her door. When she opened the door, she realized the woman was
accompanied by a man, who struck the doctor over the head with a
metal bar, then beat her.
¶7. (SBU) The doctor was hospitalized with eight stitches in her
head and bruising over her whole body. While she was in the
hospital, a police officer came to take her testimony about the
attack. The doctor said that the police officer's report stated
that the doctor's neighbors had beaten her. He also suggested to
the doctor that they "settle all of this over a bottle of cognac."
¶8. (SBU) COMMENT: Like in many countries, corruption is a fact of
life in Turkmenistan, and this example illustrates one good example
of it. Some officials in the Ministry of Health may be pocketing
some of the budget designated for pharmaceutical purchases, and
buying cheap, expired medications instead. Corrupt personnel at
this hospital in Mary are likely benefiting from the profits of the
resale activity. Meanwhile, the hospital patients are the ones who
suffer. END COMMENT.
CURRAN