Former CEO of the NHIA, Sylvester Mensah has discredited claims by the Auditor General that he made unauthorised payment to waste management company, Zoomlion, running into millions of cedis.

According to an audit report, the NHIA under Sylvester Mensah paid GH?111,401,650 to Zoomlion.

The Auditor General, Daniel Domelevo has sent notices to him and two former CEOs of the Authority, as well as the current one, ordering them and Zoomlion to refund an amount of GH?411, 433, 086 for wrongful payments made to the waste management company.

This was after an audit into the accounts of the NHIA for the period from January 2007 to April 2018 where the financial infractions were said to have been noted.

Former CEOs of the NHIA – Sylvester Mensah, Ras Boateng, Samuel Annor and the current CEO Nathaniel Otoo – have been surcharged by the Auditor General and given ultimatum to pay the money.

But Sylvester Mensah who is an NDC flagbearer hopeful has stated categorically that the NHIA never had any contractual relations with Zoomlion, and only paid the company when directed by the Ministry of Health.

“Contracts against these provisions are made between the MoH and the contractor (Zoomlion in this case). Technical supervision on these contracts logically rests with MoH.

“NHIA has no supervisory responsibility over MOH expenditure provision in its allocation formula,” he clarified.

“Besides, all payments for MOH’s contractual obligations for which provision has been made in the NHIA budget is paid against specific request by the Minister of Health/Ministerial directive on the specific work performed and ascertained by MOH.

“Supervision of work for such payments rests with the MOH and not NHIA. This is why the specific requests are made by the Minister for Health.”

Below is his full statement

Subject: Auditor General and Surcharge of Former NHIA CEOs

My attention has been drawn to a report in the media by the Auditor-General on some disallowances and surcharges standing in my name. I wish for the sake of clarity, to point out that the NHIA’s annual budget is designed as, and called an Allocation Formula. All expenditure items are clearly itemized with provisions made for Ministry of Health (MOH) expenditure.

By Law, MOH’s specific budget line is allowed on the NHIA Allocation Formula or budget, which is approved first by NHIA Board and subsequently by Parliament.

Contracts against these provisions are made between the MoH and the contractor (Zoomlion in this case). Technical supervision on these contracts logically rests with MoH. NHIA has no supervisory responsibility over MOH expenditure provision in its allocation formula.

Besides, all payments for MOH’s contractual obligations for which provision has been made in the NHIA budget is paid against specific request by the Minister of Health/Ministerial directive on the specific work performed and ascertained by MOH.

Supervision of work for such payments rests with the MOH and not NHIA. This is why the specific requests are made by the Minister for Health.

In this case the NHIA has never had any contractual relations with Zoomlion.

NHIA makes payment only when directed by MOH to settle MOH’s contractual obligation to Zoomlion, which they specify is the amount of work performed for them, for which budgetary provision had been made by Government/ Parliament.

All former and current CEOs work with duly issued instructions of the MoH in accordance with the law and budgetary provisions.

The new NHIA law, Act 852 of 2012 has placed a 10% cap on how much provision can be made in the NHIA budget for expenditures determined by the MoH.

Under my stewardship the NHIA was transformed from a mutual scheme to a truly National Scheme were card bearers or subscribers could access healthcare across the country.

The scheme further secured permanency by moving all headquarters and regional offices from parasitic rental premises to the Authority’s own offices to cut off rental cost into the future. Instant biometric ID cards also replaced manual ID cards which, otherwise took over six months from registration to issuance.

The establishment of claims processing centres and the introduction of Electronic Claims Management Systems also helped to inject greater efficiency in operations.

The introduction of quality assurance and clinical audit regimes as well as the consolidated premium accounts into which all subscribers premiums are deposited for greater accountability further strengthen efficiency measures of the scheme.

We also established a Call Center Regime which gave the subscriber a voice to log in their concerns and challenges for management decision-making.

The replacement of Act 650 of 2003 with Act 852 of 2012 supported the reduction of both demand-side and supply-side moral hazards.

The scheme secured international recognition with multiple international and local awards and became a hub for global knowledge sharing. The scheme continues to make further progress despite many difficulties.

The net effect of all these was the rise in active membership from about 4 million in 2008 to over 11.2 million by December 2015 and an increase in utilization from less than 11 million subscribers in 2008 to over 29 million in December 2015, among others.

Let us sustain the achievements and good international image of our scheme as we strive to further improve upon what we have attained.

Thank you

Sylvester A Mensah

NDC Flagbearer Hopeful

Former Chief Executive, NHIA