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Tag: NHIS

  • Buhari finally sacks NHIS boss, Usman Yusuf

    Buhari finally sacks NHIS boss, Usman Yusuf

    Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari has finally sacked the Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, Prof. Usman Yusuf.
    This is coming seven months after being recommended for dismissal.
    Mrs. Boade Akinola, Director of Media, Federal Ministry of Health, , in a statement on Monday said Buhari has appointed Prof. Mohammed Sambo, as the new head of the NHIS.
    It could be recalled that a panel set by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation had last December recommended Yusuf for dismissal for alleged fraud and other misdemeanours.
    Similarly, a panel set up by the Federal Ministry of Health had in 2017 recommended his dismissal following findings that he alleged mismanaged N919m

  • Edo Assembly passes Health Insurance Commission Bill

    The Edo House of Assembly on Monday passed a Bill for a Law to establish the Edo State Health Insurance Commission.

    The law would enable the state government provide improved and affordable healthcare services to residents.

    The motion for the house to consider the bill clause by clause was moved by the Deputy Speaker, Justin Okonoboh, and seconded by Roland Asoro, the Majority Leader.

    The passage of the bill was sequel to the suspension of House Rules, following a motion moved by the majority leader and seconded by the deputy speaker.

    The 8 parts bill, was adopted with minor amendments to parts 1and 2 to include that a representative of the house of assembly not below the rank of a director should be a member of the board.

    The bill also stipulated that a former member of the house who must be a medical doctor should also be among members of the board.

    The board would comprise of a chairman, director general and other members, not below the status of a director from state Ministries of Health, Economic Planning, Education, Justice, Office of the Secretary to State Government and the Office of the Head of Service.

    The representatives of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and Civil Society Organisation would also be members of the board.

    The bill, according to the house when completely domesticated in Edo, will enable government have access to funds from NHIS which will be complemented by the state government for the effective operations of the commission.

    The bill also sought to protect families from the hardship of huge medical bills and regulate, supervise, implement and ensure effective administration of the state contributory health insurance scheme.

    The house also passed a Bill for a Law to Eliminate Violence in Private and Public Life.

    It prohibits all forms of violence against persons and provides maximum protection and effective remedies for victims and punishment of offenders.

    Speaker Kabiru Adjoto, directed that clean copies of the bills be sent to the governor for his assent.

     

  • FG inaugurates investigative panel on NHIS crisis

    FG inaugurates investigative panel on NHIS crisis

    The Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, on Friday inaugurated a fact-finding committee on National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and advised it to eschew bias in the assignment.

    At the ceremony in Abuja, Mr Mustapha told members of the Independent Fact-Finding Panel that NHIS had been involved in various crises, which had led to the suspension of its Executive Secretary, Usman Yusuf.

    He said the crises had also called for the scrapping of the Health Management Organisations (HMO) operating in the scheme.

    “President Muhammadu Buhari is passionate about the health of the citizens; so, as part of the crises, it had become necessary to set up a panel that will investigate the infractions in the scheme.

    “The panel has two weeks to complete the assignment and all hands must be on deck to ensure that you deliver to the satisfaction of the president,” Mr Mustapha said.

    In her remarks, Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Iya, assured the panel of her support and guidance in carrying out its assignment.

    Oyo-Ita, who was represented by the Director, IPPIS, OHCSF, Anne Attah, said all civil servants were enrolled on the NHIS and that its success was important for the progress of the civil service.

    She expressed confidence in the Chairman of the panel, Hassan Bukar, stating that as a former permanent secretary, he knew the rules and regulations of the civil service.

    On his part, Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, commended the SGF for his prompt intervention in the NHIS issue.

    Adewole promised to help the panel in speeding up the discharge of the assignment to enable it to deliver on time, adding that the problem of NHIS was deeply rooted.

    “I promise to help speed up the process of the panel and once the report is turned in, it will be implemented immediately,” he said.

    Accepting the responsibility, Chairman of the panel, Mr Bukar, said it was a rare privilege to be bestowed with such confidence and responsibility by the government.

    He noted that the task was onerous, but assured that the panel would ensure that it delivered on time.

    Bukar added that the panel would work assiduously to restore NHIS to its glory.

    The panel will investigate alleged infractions listed by the NHIS Governing Council in its letter of October 18, 2018 and determine the extent of culpability or otherwise of the Executive Secretary.

    It is mandated to make appropriate recommendations, including on issues that led to the unhealthy relationship between the board and the chief executive officer of the scheme.

    It will also investigate and make recommendations on the extent of involvement of staff unions within the organisation to the impasse between the board and executive secretary.

    Jummai Idakwo, OSGF, is Secretary of the panel, which has Emmanuel Meribole, Director, Federal Ministry of Health and Adewale Owolo, Director, Audit, Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (OAGF), as members.

    Other are Shamsuddeen Bello, Deputy Director, Expenditure, OSGF; Ishaq Yahaya , Director, Certification and Compliance, Bureau of Public Procurement and Ekanem Udoh, Director, Science, Federal Ministry of Science and Technology.

     

  • NHIS Crisis: We were orphaned by suspended Executive Secretary – Workers Union

    NHIS Crisis: We were orphaned by suspended Executive Secretary – Workers Union

    The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria ASCSN has cried foul calling on the Federal Government to come to their rescue as it accuse the Executive Secretary of NHIS Prof Usman Yusuff of orphaning the scheme.
    The Chairman of the union Mr. Mohammed Shehu Gaji made the appeal at the opening of an investigative public hearing of the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on NHIS Crisis on Thursday at the National Assembly.
    He informed the Committee that the suspension of the NHIS boss was because of corruption because he has flagrantly engaged in award of contract without due process, abuse of public trust, nepotism in remuneration and posting of staff and diversion of public properties.
    He said that there were several attempts by the Executive Secretary to move away N25 billion from the coffers of the NHIS in an attempt to set up his own home office without recourse to the approving authorities which was resisted by the staff of the scheme.
    The union helsman also accused the Executive Secretary of awarding contracts of N46 million for maintenance another N17.5 million for capacity buliding to Lubek Nigeria Ltd a company he has a controlling interest in owned by Mr Hassan Yusuf one of his nephews
    Some of the the other financial infractions of the NHIS boss as listed by him are as follows: N3.5 million for the purchase of newspapers for his office, N567 million for the payment of 7 Police orderlies.
    Moreover, he also said that the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Accountant -General of the Federation had withdrawn N10 billion from the coffers of the agency.
    Other allegations against the NHIS boss include diversion of 8 digital cameras, 4 security saves, 2 refrigerators, 8 vision cameras, 1.5 KVA inverter with batteries, 5 wireless mouse, HP desktop computers and stabilizers.
    Earlier the Chairperson of the Board of the NHIS Mrs Ifenne Eyannetu told the Committee that the scheme was established by the NHIS Act 1999 to protect to protect families from creeping financial crisis.
    She stated that the suspension of the NHIS boss by the governing board was because it believed that the agency must exercise transparency and accountability.
    She added that there were many issues that led the board to take the suspension decision namely the financial infractions of the NHIS boss which were queried by the board, the padding of the 2018 budget of the agency and lastly the nepotism in terms of posting and remuneration of the workers.
    She also said that in 2015,the sum of N508 million was paid to consultants by the NHIS boss for staff training while another N48 million was expended on posting.
    The board according is composed of representatives of government parastatals, and rpresentatives of NECA,NLC, HMOs and other interest groups.
    The Committee thereafter demanded that the documents alleged to have been used for the staff posting be made available to it and other necessary documents to aid the investigation.
    The Ad -hoc Committee Chairman Hon.Osai. N.Osai said that the House derives its power to investigate the matter in accordance with the provisions of Sec 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).

  • Suspension: NHIS boss sues health minister, AGF, agency

    The Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, Prof. Usman Yusuf, has sued the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), and the NHIS over his suspension by the governing council of the board.

    In the suit with the number, FHC/ABJ/CS/1220/2018 filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja, Yusuf asked the court to rule among others that the governing council of the NHIS had no powers under the provisions of the NHIS Act to suspend him from office.

    Yusuf instituted the suit through his lawyer, Uchechukwu Obi (SAN), on Monday.

    The embattled NHIS boss asked the court to state that the council had no powers under sections 6 and 7 of the Act to discipline him or to investigate allegations made against him as they purported to do by their internal memorandum on October 19, 2018.

    The suit asked the court to declare that “only the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and no other, upon the recommendation of the minister of health can discipline, investigate, suspend or remove him from office.”

    The plaintiff prayed the court to set aside his purported suspension from the NHIS by the board of the agency was null and void.

    He asked the court to determine if the minister could suspend him without the express approval of the President.

    The NHIS boss had been under investigation for several allegations of fraud.

    He was among others accused of perpetrating fraud to the tune of N919m and was suspended by the minister of health in July last year.

    However, he was controversially reinstated by President Muhammadu Buhari in February 2019 but was again suspended by the governing council of the NHIS on October 19.

    Yusuf has, however, been supported by the Presidency and has continued to resume at work sparking a series of protests by unionists.

     

  • BREAKING: FG asks NHIS boss to proceed on immediate administrative leave

    BREAKING: FG asks NHIS boss to proceed on immediate administrative leave

    The Federal Government on Wednesday ordered the Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Prof. Usman Yusuf, to proceed on administrative leave immediately.

    Government has also set up a seven-man panel to investigate the allegations levelled against him by the scheme’s Governing Council, which led to his recent controversial suspension.

    Details later….

  • Save us from quacks, NMA appeals to agencies

    The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) has appealed to the police and other security agencies in the country to assist its efforts to curb quackery in the medical practice.
    Dr Tunji Omotayo, Chairman, NMA, Ekiti chapter, made the appeal at a news conference on Sunday in Ado Ekiti, to mark the 2018 Physicians Week.
    According to him, the menace has reached an alarming stage and requires the full support of all security agencies as it has caused untimely deaths of many Nigerians.
    “The activities of quacks are crippling the medical profession and reducing the quality of practice in the country; quackery is the bane of development of any society or profession, including medical practice.
    “It is a danger to the society; patients always commit their lives in the hands of doctors and once they are not saved, then we are all endangered.
    “The police must help us in this regard because we have identified some people parading themselves as qualified medical practitioners but were later found to be quacks.
    “We reported their cases to the police but surprisingly they were let off the hook.
    “We plead that the police should do more; they must partner with us in this regard because it affects everybody.
    “We appeal for cooperation and support of the police and other security agencies in arresting the culprits”, he said.
    According to the NMA chairman, the main theme of this year’s event is: “Medical Quackery and Litigation, Closing the Gap in Polio Eradication and Universal Health Coverage.’’
    Omotayo said that child and maternal mortality in Nigeria was increasing and reducing life expectancy of the people, because disparity in accessing quality healthcare delivery in the country was poor.
    He also called for full implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) across the states to achieve universal health coverage.
    The NMA boss also appealed to the Ekiti Government to implement the State Insurance Health
    Scheme (SHIS) without further delay, to ameliorate the sufferings of the masses who patronised quacks as thire last resort.
    “The SHIS bill was signed into law under ex-Governor Ayodele Fayose, but we have to go beyond this and move to the level of implementation.
    “We also frown at the lingering crisis rocking the NHIS and we urge the Federal Government to intervene appropriately to restore peace and stability to the agency for it to deliver on its mandate,” he said.
    He congratulated Ekiti new governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, on his election success, assuring him that NMA would partner with his administration to reposition the health sector in the state.
     

  • Presidency defends suspended NHIS boss

    The Presidency on Tuesday hailed the suspended Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, Prof. Usman Yusuf, for curbing corruption in the NHIS.
     
    The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said this on Tuesday during an interview on Sunrise Daily, a breakfast show on Channels Television.
     
    Shehu said it was unfortunate that the NHIS crisis had assumed an ethnic and political dimension even as he knocked the Peoples Democratic Party for commenting on a matter it had no business with.
     
    He said, “I will tell you one thing. You know that whatever the mistakes this gentleman may have made, they have to be proved. He has launched a major reform in that institution which had blocked access to public resources.
     
    “Money from the NHIS is not money belonging to the government, it is money taken from your salary, from my salary. If we have been enlisted, we are supposed to get treatment when we fall ill. You should ask the question: In 13 years of the NHIS, how many Nigerians have received treatment?
     
    “Yet, you have HMOs (Health Management Organisations), these vendors, taking N5bn every month, money that is just being shared and somebody came and said, ‘Look, this can’t go on’ and with strong support from this administration, the N5bn has been reduced to N1.3bn.
     
    “And even then, the administration is not satisfied. We want to see healthcare delivered to the citizens of this country. So, there is a lot of work to do.”
     
    On whether the council had the right to suspend the NHIS boss, Shehu said he could not say for sure but that many had said the council lacked such powers.

  • Reps to wade into NHIS crisis

    Reps to wade into NHIS crisis

    The House of Representatives on Tuesday says it will constitute an ad-hoc committee to probe the cycle of crisis over the suspension of the Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Prof. Usman Yusuf.
     
    The resolution came through a motion under matter of urgent importance sponsored by Mr. Diri Douye (PDP, Bayelsa) during plenary on Tuesday.
     
    Recall that on October the 18th, the Governing Council of the National Health Insurance Scheme announced the suspension of Prof. Usman Yusuf over allegations of fraud and severe infractions, including but not limited to public procurement infringement, unlawful staff posting, willful defiance of Council directives, violation of Federal Government’s Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy and superfluous arrogation of projects.
     
    Mr. Douye while explaining on the floor noted that the pandemonium is coming barely five months after the NHIS Executive Secretary was controversially reinstated by President Muhammadu Buhari from an indefinite suspension slammed on him by his supervising ministry of health, in July 2017 over similar alleged gross misconduct, corruption and nepotism.
     
    According to him, the suspended Executive Secretary, disputed the authority of the Council to suspend him and on Monday 22nd October violently broke into the Abuja Head Office of the Scheme, aided by almost 50 heavily armed police, overpowered the security men as well as staff at the premises, including women were indiscriminately teargassed and manhandled.
     
    “This very critical sector, on which the hope of our universal health delivery is hinhed, far from being a theater of health has degenerated into a theater of war, with so many scandals in recent times”, he said.
     
    Lawmakers in their contributions to the debate, condemned the crisis.
     
    For Mr. Tobi Okechukwu (PDP, Enugu), “this government claims to come and fight corruption but it is so sad that this impunity is happening”.
     
    Mr. Edward Pwajok (APC, Plateau) said since the motion is investigative, there should not be need to debate it.
     
    However, the motion went in favour of the majority when put to voice vote by the presiding officer, Speaker Yakubu Dogara.
     
    The ad-hoc committee is expected to report its findings within four weeks for further legislative action.

  • Suspension: Why I can’t take orders from governing council – NHIS Executive Secretary

    Suspension: Why I can’t take orders from governing council – NHIS Executive Secretary

    The embattled Executive Secretary of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Prof. Usman Yusuf, on Tuesday opened up on why he refused to heed the orders of the governing council of the scheme directing his immediate suspension.
     
    Recall that Yusuf was asked by the council to proceed on suspension on Thursday to allow a panel set up by the council investigate allegations of fraud and misconduct against him.
     
    It was the second time he would be suspended since he assumed office in 2016.
     
    The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, first suspended him July last year over similar allegations but he was reinstated in February by President Muhammadu Buhari despite his indictment by the panel that probed the allegations against him.
     
    In that first instance, he had also insisted on disregarding the sanction, saying the minister had no power to suspend him.
     
    On Thursday, the chairman of the governing council, Enyatu Ifenne, announced Yusuf’s suspension again, saying the council had been inundated by petitions against the official.
     
    According to Ifenne, the official would be sacked immediately should President Buhari be made aware of “one-tenth of the atrocities” committed by Yusuf.
     
    But he has since refused to accept the sanction, and on Monday with the help of a contingent of about 50 police officers broke a barricade mounted by angry workers of the agency to enter his office.
     
    On Tuesday, he explained to BBC Hausa Service the reason he is brushed aside the directive of the governing council.
     
    “The governing board has no right to suspend me as the Executive Secretary,” he said in response to a question.
     
    “I notified them in a written document that they lack constitutional rights to suspend or even block me from entering my office.”
     
    He described the allegations of fraud and favouritism against him as baseless, saying they were deliberately levelled against him to divert public attention from “real happenings” in the NHIS.
     
    “From the country I came from, if you say someone is a thief, you have to prove that. But since I came on board, I have being going through unnecessarily accusations of fraud.
     
    “They’re doing that just to intimidate and stop me from doing my good work. They have failed, I will never succumb to their ploy, I think they have to change plan,” Yusuf said.
     
    He alleged that when he assumed office as the Executive Secretary, he was warned by “a handful of people that I have to succumb to NHIS agents or a face a battle.
     
    “I told everyone when I came on board that the public funds in the commission belong to Nigerians, no one should tamper with that money, including myself.
     
    “If I’m corrupt, EFCC and ICPC are currently recovering billions of naira from my whistleblowing in the commission and I have never been indicted by the anti-corruption agencies.
     
    “My ordeal as the Executive Secretary of NHIS may be connected with NHIS agents who think that I stepped on their toes and you know these people are powerful and they are well established in the previous administration.
     
    “Those NHIS agents, I told them to pay back their debts which has already run to billions of naira. After initial investigation, I learnt that so many abnormalities need to be corrected,” a defiant Yusuf said.
     
    Reacting to the stand off in the agency, the minister, Adewole on Monday said he was awaiting briefing.
     
    The Presidency is also yet to comment on the development.