NHIA to sack Kumasi scheme managers

… for alleged malpractices
Posted: The Chronicle |Wednesday, December 23, 2009

By Charles Takyi - Boadu
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Sylvester Mensah has hinted that his outfit would dismiss eight of its scheme managers in the Ashanti region, who were involved in shady deals, and handed over to the police. “We cannot co-exist with such people”, he said at a staff durbar held in Accra yesterday.
Mr. Sylvester Mensah said various audits undertaken by the Authority in the individual schemes have revealed very terrible happenings across the country. He therefore stressed the urgent need to rid the scheme of such negative tendencies in order not to collapse it.

The Authority has also decided to interdict not less than 20 of its staff across the country for various offences whilst four of its public service providers would be suspended alongside four other private service providers. Four of its child care service providers will also be suspended for a yet to be disclosed reason.

The CEO admitted that for the past six months the challenges have been quite enormous since he took over from Mr. Ras Boateng as CEO, stressing that “they have been quite exacting.”

In spite of that, he noted that he and his team has been able to put in place a system that can address most of these difficulties, including setting up an internal audit unit, claims and clinical audit directorate, strategy and corporate affairs directorate. Furthermore, the Authority has also engaged the services of Information, Communications Technology (ICT) consultants who he said have brought tremendous achievements into the department.

The CEO, however, admitted that it is still grappling with the issue of leakages in the system. “However, I can confidently say that we have blocked a minimum of 20% of such leakages”, he emphasized, stressing that “you cannot police a system like the National Health Insurance Authority without field trips.”

By the middle of next year, the Authority hopes to develop what Mr. Mensah described as sufficient internal arrangements that would forestall these leakages.

From January 2009 to date, revenue collecting agencies have transferred a total of GH ¢208.48million to the Authority. This represents less than 60% of expected year end transfer or inflows to the fund. That notwithstanding, the Authority has made payments of GH ¢240.52million to the 145 District Mutual Health Schemes across the country for payment of claims submitted as well as other administrative expenditure requirements.

The regional breakdown of payments made to the schemes so far are as follows: Ashanti Region – GH ¢57,979,482.31, Brong Ahafo Region – GH ¢26,040,132.67, Central Region – GH ¢19,352,368.97, Eastern Region – GH ¢28,768,149.66 with Greater Accra Region being GH ¢28,883,790.52.

The rest include Northern Region – GH ¢18,018,689.60, Upper East Region –GH ¢12,540,723.85, Upper West Region – GH ¢ 4,926,101.47, Volta Region – GH ¢ 18, 948,920.84 and Western Region –GH¢ 25,063,530.30, all amounting to GH ¢ 240,521890.19.

The amount received by the authority clearly fell short of the total expenditure as stated above. Under the current circumstance, the NHIA says it has been compelled to withdraw funds from the National Health Fund’s investments to make-up for the short fall.

A recent statement issued by Deputy Director In-Charge of Corporate Affairs and Strategic Direction of the Authority, Eric Ametor-Quarmyne noted that “clearly, it not the case of the NHIA investing in treasury bills but rather the case of the authority disinvesting to absorb arrears due providers over the period.”