MONTHS after the Committee for Joint Action (CJA) exposed alleged acts of malfeasance within the Ghana School Feeding programme, the pressure group has focused its searchlight on the Ministry of Health, heavily descending on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), for exhibiting similar acts.

Identifying evidence of fraud, subterfuge, thieving and absolute disregard of the Procurement Act 2003, concerning activities of the NHIS, the CJA is requesting that Government takes the appropriate action and prosecute individuals who are found culpable.

Addressing a press conference in Accra yesterday, Mr. Kwesi Pratt, a leading member of CJA noted that an audit report conducted by the Auditor General on the health sector titled, "Disbursements made by the National Health Insurance Council (NHIC) for the period- January 2005 to September 2005," has exposed acts of corruption and looting on the part of public officials, politicians and their cronies.

Mr. Pratt, who was flanked by Mr. Ato Ahwoi, Dr. David Percy, Ama Benyiwa Doe and Dr. Omane Boamah, all members of the Pressure group, noted that the report, which identified grave malfeasance, corruption, dishonesty and conflict of interest in the operations of the NHIS and released two years ago, had not seen any action from the Ministry of Health, regarding the issues raised in the audit report.

The CJA indicated that it had taken frantic steps to seek clarification from the Ministry of Health without success, when there was no clear information on implementing the recommendations of the Auditor General's report.

The CJA said on two occasions, it attempted to meet the Minister of Health without success. The Ministry by a letter signed by Mr. Kofi Amposah Bediako, Government spokesperson on Social Affairs agreed to meet them on June 16, 2008.

The Pressure Group noted that on the scheduled date, they were met by a thirteen-member Ministry of Health team led by the Chief Director, Lepowura M.N.D. Jawula and after listening to their concerns scheduled June 26, 2008, to respond to the issues they raised.

Members of the CJA, however, expressed their disgust towards a letter handed over to them that suggested that the Ministry was no longer interested in continuing the dialogue adding that "the action by the Ministry of Health, in rebuffing our sincere overtures, betrays the insincerity of the NPP Government in their claims that they are an open government."

Outlining its findings in the report, the CJA noted that Adams Advertising Limited won a contract for the manufacture and installation of 123 outdoor billboards at the cost of ¢2,271,204,000.

However, since the company had no capacity to deliver on the contract, Adams Advertising subcontracted the job to DDP advertising at the cost of ¢1,854,409,500 an indication that if the contract had been awarded directly to DDP, the scheme would have saved an amount of ¢296,206,650, the CJA emphasized.

It was also identified that Mr. Foster-Forson, the then financial Consultant and Mr. Kofi Adusei, Scheme Co-ordinator of the NHIC "on 31st August, falsely certified the receipt of 123 billboards to be mounted countrywide."

It was further revealed that as at January 14, 2006, only 19 out of the 123 billboards had been mounted, even though 50% of the contract price, amounting to ¢1,135,602,000 had been paid to Adams Advertising Limited.

Axis' Advertising, which the CJA noted has its sole director as Mrs. Oboshie Sai Cofie, Minister of Tourism and Diaspora Affairs, sourced and awarded a consultancy contract on November 18, 2004, to monitor and revise media campaign and advertisement.

Additionally, two companies, Media Plus and Media Touch Production, with Mrs. Oboshie Sai Cofie, a director of the latter, "were also contracted by the council to post advertisement at various media houses. These two companies also charged agency fees/ commission, totaling ¢359,925,286 for the same services provided by Axis Advertising Ltd."

In this respect, the CJA noted that the report had recommended that the council should hold back the sum of ¢359,925,286 and abrogated the contract entered into with the two companies.

The CJA further noted that in breach of the Public Procurement Act 2003 (Act 663), which makes it a crime for a procurement entity to divide a procurement order into parts or lower the value of procurement, the NHIC fragmented the procurement of 1,550,000campaign brochures valued at ¢2,112,000,000 into 8 transactions, reducing the value of the procurement order from ¢2,112,000,000 to ¢276,000,000 each and awarded the contract to 8 different suppliers.

The Pressure Group was of the view that the NHIC contravened Act 663 as it did not establish the required structures before advancing to procure various items valued at ¢12,296,607,329, stressing that the council applied sole sourcing procurement methods for the purchases it did at the time and failed to refer contracts worth over ¢2billion to the Ministry of Health in accordance with the law.

The CJA also noted that NHIC awarded ¢7,583,324,600 of the NHIS advertising campaign contract to Media Plus Limited and ¢1,969,476, 940 to Oboshie Sai Cofie's Media Touch Production Limited of which 78% of the contract sum amounting to ¢9,552,801,541 had been made due to the two media companies.

Dr. S.A. Akor, then Executive Secretary for NHIS, Mr. Ampong Darkwa and Mr. Kwasi Amo, all members of a Ministerial task force, paid themselves a honorarium for 13 days a month, in contravention to the directive given by the Minister of Health that honorarium of only 10 days every month should be paid. The three persons had therefore overpaid themselves with an additional honorarium of ¢112.2 million which the auditors had subsequently requested that the sum of ¢112,240,000 be recovered from the people and paid into the council's coffers, the CJA noted, questioning whether or not the directive had been followed. Relevant Links West Africa Crime and Corruption Ghana Health and Medicine

Mr. Ampong Darkwa and Mr. Amo, according to the report were appointed consultants to undertake tasks for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDA's) and both were awarded contract worth ¢1,332,296,000 and ¢1,250,176,000 respectively, which they used insider information to win the contracts.

It was further revealed that an amount of ¢102,632,000 released to Mckof Ghana Limited owned by Mr. Ampong meant for technical support services to some MMDA's were never provided, even though the amount was paid in full. Furthermore networking of three schemes in the Upper West region for which an amount of ¢5,820,000 was paid to Mckof Ghana limited does not exist, the report stated and further recommending that the monies paid in this respect should be returned to the NHIC.

Organizations and Systems Limited were paid and additional ¢56,000,000 for installation and maintenance of computerized management information and control systems at the Ga DMHIS after they had been paid ¢120,000,000 for the same job, the report stated.