Friday, 29 September 2023
The first complaint filed with the police about prescription fraud was raised in 2021 by the Social Insurance Department management, but no action was taken, Yeniduzen reports.
According to information acquired by Yeniduzen, a file containing the prescription fraud allegations was prepared by the Director of the Social Insurance Department and handed to the police. However, despite repeated prompting, the police failed to launch an investigation.
This was also confirmed by Social Insurance Department Director Tahir Serhat. Serhat stated that he had requested information from the police in September about the fate of the application in 2021, but has not yet received a response.
An official who worked in the department at the time the complaint was made, who wishes to remain anonymous, said that police failure to investigate not only covered prescriptions. Allegations of corruption covering different topics had reached management, however, these remained uninvestigated because the department had no authority to do so.
The same official stated that in 2021, when fraud related to prescriptions was first recorded, a number of insured people were notified via SMS that medicines had been prescribed in their name.
UBP Deputy Faiz Sucuoğlu, who served as the Minister of Labour and Social Security in 2021, said: “Yes, I received such information, so I said to report it to the police. We made a complaint, but nothing was done“, he said.
Meanwhile, UBP Deputy Hasan Taçoy, who recently was dismissed from his post as Minister of Labour and Social Security, told Yeniduzen that his department had detected some items regarding the fake prescription scandal during his time. They had held a meeting with the Tax Office and an investigation was launched, but he was dismissed before concrete information could be obtained.
