$184K in stolen cellphones among Sask. government losses this year

Hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, heart monitors and cellphones were among the stolen items that accounted for losses reported by the Crown Investments Corporation and Saskatchewan health organizations.

The biggest losses were reported by the Crown Investments Corporation and its subsidiaries, which lost about $184,000 when a SaskTel employee stole and fraudulently obtainedmore than 200 cellphones.

According to the loss report released Tuesday, the employee stole 22 cellphones from inventory and fraudulently obtained more than 200 phones. It said the employee was selling the phones to third parties.

The employee was suspended without pay and resigned before any further discipline could be taken. The province said the matter is still being investigated and it has been reported to police.

The Crown Investments Corporationalso plans to take civil action to recover the loss.

SaskPower lost $3,740when an employee bought nine vehicle tires that could not be accounted for. The corporation later confirmed they had been stolen.

The incident, which was only identified in July, is still being investigated.

Theft, losses at Sask. hospitals

Losses reported by Saskatchewan health organizations totalled more than $22,800, including the theft of$20,000 worth of portable cardiac monitoring devices.

The four devices, known as telemetry packs, were stolen from the Pasqua Hospital in the Reginain March.

The theft was reported to Regina police and the health region has introduced further controls for storing and tracking the devices.

The Prairie North Health Region reported that an employee of the Lloydminster Hospital stole $2,855 in cash.

According to the report, the employee was fired and the theft was reported to Lloydminster RCMP.

The report says steps are being taken to recover the cash, and the health region has introduced tighter controls on cash handling.

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