Gov’t diverting NHIS monies into private investment company – NDC

The largest Opposition Party has accused government of illegally transferring over GHC17 million of National Health Insurance Scheme’s funds into a private fund management company.

According to the National Democratic Congress, the said transaction was done without due diligence and risk assessment.

Speaking at the third edition of Moment of Truth Series organised by the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi attributed the current financial woes of the scheme to the diversion of funds and other alleged fraudulent activities.

Mr. Gyamfi said the fund is collapsing despite government’s claims that it has cleared debt of the scheme.

“Recently in his State of the Nation Address and while on a tour of the United States of America, President Akufo-Addo peddled blatant untruth when he claimed that the NHIS is “buoyant and has come back to life.

“The truth of the matter is that, the NHIS, very known to the President, is in a deplorable state and gasping for liquidity breath. Currently, the NHIS owes service providers in all the sixteen regions of Ghana claims covering a period of almost twelve (12) months. This has landed most health care facilities in distress. For instance, the Daily Graphic reported on Thursday, 28th March, 2019 that the Central Regional Hospital is on its knees begging to be paid an amount of GH¢6.1 million owed to it by the Scheme, in order to settle its indebtedness to suppliers of critical drugs and medical consumables.

“This is just one example of how our health facilities are being crippled as a result of the huge indebtedness of the NHIS to service providers. Ladies and gentlemen, we have also taken note of persistent claims by President Akufo-Addo that his government has cleared a total of GH¢1.2 Billion NHI arrears it inherited from the erstwhile Mahama government. We wish to state without any equivocation that, this claim is mischievous and not borne out by the facts. After the Association of Private Clinics and the leadership of Government Hospitals disputed this claim, one would have thought that the President will desist from peddling this obvious deception. However, it appears President Akufo-Addo is determined to deceive the nation as far as this matter is concerned. Indisputable evidence contained in the 2017 NHIS Fund Allocation Formula presented to the august house of Parliament by the Minister of Health shows that, total arrears of NHI claims stood at GH¢425.79 million as at December 2016. This completely belies the claims of President Akufo-Addo and exposes him as a very dishonest,” Mr. Gyamfi said.