BY AMOS DUNIA, ABUJA – The Governing Board of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), rose from a marathon meeting with a resolve to send its Executive Secretary, Professor Usman Yusuf on an indefinite suspension.
This is the second time in about a year that Prof Yusuf is being sent on an indefinite suspension over financial mismanagement and alleged fraudulaent practices. He was reinstated in February this year by the Presidency which ignored the recommendation of the minister of Health for his sack following the financial infractions he was found to have committed.
Yusuf’s reinstatement by the Presidency vi a terse statement and directive to the minister of Health, Professor Adewole triggered criticisms against the President Muhammadu Buhari’s fight against corruption. The Presidency merely said that the allegations against Yusuf would be looked into by the anti-corruption agencies.
Chairman of the NHIS Board, Professor Enantu Ifenna, who announced the decision of the meeting to suspend Yusuf at a press conference in Abuja on Thursday said the suspension became necessary following series of allegations of financial sleaze and infractions levelled against him.
Prof Ifenna said the suspended Executive Secretary had refused to carry out the Board’s decisions on critical issues but instead institutionalised corruption at the agency, adding that of more concern is his inflating the NHIS 2018 budget which is unacceptable to the Board.
According to Ifenna; “The Executive Secretary fraudulently inflated the cost of bio- metric capturing machines and attempted to illegally execute N30 billion in federal government bonds.
“The board also discovered that Prof Yusuf carried out unauthorised staff travels in defiance to council directive, superfluous arrogation of project vehicles in addition to his habitual insubordination.”
The NHIS Board chairman announced that in his place, Barrister Sadiq Abubakar, who is head of the Legal Department will now act as Executive Secretary of the Scheme pending further action that may be taken against Prof Yusuf.
Forefront News gathered from sources within the NHIS that Prof Yusuf on assumption of office on July 29, 2016 had consistently violated procurement laws by and giving out juicy contracts to his cronies.
The Governing Council of the NHIS Board before sending Yusuf on an indefinite suspension bare six months after he resumed from a previous suspension accused the suspended Executive Secretary of monumental corruption.
The Council in a letter addressed to the minister of Health, Prof. Adewole, a copy of which was obtained by Forefront News stressed that if and unless urgent intervention is not carried out, the risk of the Scheme collapsing is high and with a catastrophic consequence for the federal government.
The letter dated August 8, 2018 and signed by the Chairman of the Board, Prof Ifenna raised serious issues of concern that included dwindling annual revenues, inefficient operations and alarming net operating cash position.
The letter further said; “For instance, that whereas the scheme’s total annual revenue should be on the increase, it has continued to decline since 2015, blaming this on “shortfalls in the remittance of enrollee’s contributions.”
The Council observed that the contributions the NHIS receives from the federal government enrollees witnessed a reduction from N6 billion in 2017 to N4.2 billion in 2018, adding however that a recent forensic audit revealed that about N138 billion is currently trapped in commercial banks.
