Ho, Nov 20, GNA - Mr Elliot Nestor Akototse, Volta Regional Manager of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), has said that serious malpractices were uncovered during "clinical auditing" of the scheme in the region.

He said that the NHIA would evaluate the findings and take the necessary actions.

Mr Elliot Nestor Akototse was speaking at the opening of a three-day strategic planning seminar for personnel of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the Volta Region, in Ho on Friday. The seminar which was on the theme: "Delivering on the NHIS promise", was to brainstorm on the successes and challenges of the policy five years after it was started, and to strategize to strengthen it. Mr Joseph Amenowode, the Regional Minister, who opened the seminar, promised to facilitate efforts aimed at preventing people from sabotaging the scheme.

The Minister said that he was aware that some miscreants had been identified in the exercises and that Volta Regional Coordinating Council (VRCC) would help tackle fraudulent deals. "We members of VRCC shall broaden and intensify our monitoring and coordinating activities to strike out and bring to book persons whose activities seek to frustrate the suucessful implementation of the NHIS in the region and the country at large", Mr Amenowode said. Mr Syvelster Mensah, Chief Executive Officer of the NHIA, in a speech read for him, said the Authority would provide training to raise the competencies of the staff and also build administrative linkages among the various schemes on one hand and the schemes and Authority on the other hand. He said that managers of the scheme would be required to sign performance contracts and that "performance management would now be a very vital part of our staff appraisal and reward system".