| Prominent herbalist, Dr Veerasammy Ramaya has denied allegations levelled against him by his former employees. They accused him of selling expired medication to the public and said that he has, on numerous occasions, made sexual advances towards staff members.There were also allegations that Ramaya did not pay National Insurance Scheme (NIS) contributions for some of his workers for three months, even though the contributions had been deducted from their salaries.According to former staff members, Bibi Shabiena and Latchmin Persaud, Ramaya had been, for an extended period, selling expired medication to the public. These staff members produced bottles of expired medication, the expiry dates ranging from early to late last year.These medications were purchased from Ramaya’s clinic on Middle Street last month.When a Kaieteur News reporter telephoned the clinic, purporting to be the customer who had purchased the medication, questioning the expiry date, the reporter was told by the receptionist that since the medication was herbal, it was good for approximately two years after the expiry date on the bottle.Ramaya said that at his clinic there is a lot of medication. “There is so much medication there, I do not know what is good and what is bad,” said Ramaya.He said that since he is only at the Middle Street branch three days a week, he does not have the time to check through all of the medication to separate the expired medication from the good medication.The onus is,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, he said, on the staff members who are working at the clinic to separate the expired medication from the rest of the medication. He added that there is a special shelf in the office where all of the expired medication is kept.“I do not work in the store, so how am I going to know if the medication is expired or not; they (staff members) are supposed to check that,” said Ramaya.Regarding the expired medication in possession of Kaieteur News, Ramaya said that only two sets of pills were sold. Instead of placing the medication in paper bags, as is usually done,Cheap Jerseys China, the medication was placed into old bottles that bore expiry dates.Ramaya maintained that the medications inside of the bottles were not expired.In addition, Ramaya said that the receptionist who spoke with the Kaieteur News reporter was not entirely wrong in saying that the herbal medication had a shelf life which was longer than what was stated on the bottle.According to Ramaya, some bottles have an expiry date, while others have a manufacturer’s date. The medication is apparently good until three to five years after the manufacturer’s date; this, said Ramaya, is often confused with the expiry date.Ramaya produced numerous bottles of medication, which expire between 2009 and 2012, as proof.More so, Ramaya said that he does not often sell medication in bottles, as he imports the medication in bulk quantities. This is done to keep the price of the medication down.“If I was to bring in individual bottles it would cost my customers upwards of US$30; I sell the medication loose,Wholesale Jerseys China, in envelopes, to help keep the price down,Cheap Jerseys,” said Ramaya. He added that he is positive that all of the medications he imports in bulk are not expired.Nonetheless, Ramaya said that if, for whatever reason, his customers have been sold expired medication, they should return to the clinic for a refund.However, Ramaya’s former staffers said that they had been told, while they were working with him, to get rid of the old medication, even though there was non-expired medication at hand. “He told us to push out the old stock,” said Shabiena.Ramaya’s staffers have also made claims that the doctor did not pay their NIS contributions even though the contributions had been deducted from their pay, as had been indicated on their pay slips.When confronted with these allegations, Ramaya said that the reason for this was because many of his staff members had only received their NIS numbers in the past few weeks. Despite this, Ramaya said that he would be making the necessary contributions to NIS for his staff members.According to Ramaya, the necessary contributions for his staff members would mostly likely be paid by tomorrow. “They robbed me because now I have to pay NIS for the time when they did not have their NIS numbers,” he said.Numerous former employees of Ramaya also came forward to affirm that he had, at some time or other, made sexual advances on them.Persaud had explained that she had gone to apply for a job at Ramaya’s clinic on a Friday, last year and Ramaya told her that since it was a Friday and he was busy, she should come back on Sunday. He said that he would be there, since he lives in the upper storey above his clinic.The 23-year-old woman said that she found this a bit strange, to be called for an interview on a Sunday, so she decided to ask her mother to accompany her,Jerseys NFL Cheap, when she went for the Sunday interview.When she arrived, she said that Ramaya greeted her at the door wearing only ‘his shorts.’While nothing out of the ordinary happened at the brief interview, Persaud said that she was sure that Ramaya did not try anything because her mother was present.When questioned about this, Ramaya said that sometimes he is busy, and he cannot interview someone for a job in just a few minutes. He said that the security guard was there, so there should be no problem with anyone coming on Sundays.Ramaya said that when he came down to answer the door, he was wearing a pair of ‘three quarter trunks.’ Further, he said, due to the layout of the building, he could not see who was at the door.“What is wrong? This is my house,” said Ramaya, “I often come downstairs in my trunks and am sometimes on the road with my security guard.” He maintained that nothing was wrong, saying that he did not ask her to go upstairs.Some of the girls, who asked for their identities not be disclosed,Wholesale China Jerseys, said that after they had been working with Ramaya for some time, he approached them, asking them to share a relationship with him.Ramaya denied this and said that he has been happily married for 40 years. He also said that it was not the first time he had heard of allegations that he was sharing relationships with the girls who worked for him.He said that some of the disgruntled former employees had even called his wife and laid the same allegations about him.Frustrated, Ramaya questioned why the girls only made these allegations of sexual molestation after they had been fired. “Why is it that only after they have been fired that they go to the press?” he asked.Ramaya said that all of these allegations were being formed against him by persons who he had fired. He maintained that he is not scared of them or of their allegations, since he has not done anything wrong.According to Ramaya, the employees whom he sacked had been stealing from him.Added to this, Ramaya said that he had received reports from some of his clients that they had been frequently asked for tips from the same workers he had fired. Ramaya’s clients apparently gave the tips because they had been asked for them so many times.He also cited an extremely high phone bill, received for his Middle Street clinic, which was incurred while he was in Berbice. “I left them in charge of the clinic and went to Berbice, and I came back and there was a huge phone bill,” he said.He said that when he examined the phone bill, all the calls were made on the days when he was out of town.“I am not afraid of them (former staffers),” he said,NFL Jerseys Outlet, “I have nothing to hide.” |
