Workers of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) have risen against their executive secretary, Usman Yusuf, accusing him of embezzling almost N1billion allocated for staff training in the institution, which is in excess of one N100 billion in workers contribution under management.
The workers have also accused their boss of inflating training contracts by over 100 per cent and allegedly awarding training contracts to cronies.
Other accusations leveled against Usman, are that he exceeded his spending limit of N2.5m, that he awarded contracts to his brother and that he paid for a contract for e-books from NHIS capital allocation, even before the delivery of the books.
Usman was also accused of paying for the treatment of two women from the North-West and South-East, even though the women are not NHIS enrollees.
In his angry response, the executive secretary said he had been forced to suspend any scheduled staff training for the year.
The allegations were made by the NHIS chapter of the association of senior civil servants of Nigeria, in a petition sent to the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC.
Usman himself acknowledged the petitions in a letter dated May 19, 2017 in which he said, “I am writing to update you all on the recent happenings in the scheme. I was invited to the ICPC on Friday May 12, 2017 where I spent three hours answering a petition written against me.”
The executive secretary dismissed the allegations, saying although he welcomes scrutiny from all stakeholders, “these frivolous petitions are nothing but distractions from my quest of ridding NHIS of corruption and working for the voiceless enrollees.”
He described himself as “the first executive secretary of the NHIS that has visited all security and anti-corruption agencies, seeking their assistance in flushing corruption out of NHIS, recovering all stolen NHIS funds and bringing all past perpetrators to justice.”
BusinessDay has not independently confirmed the allegations but private sector leaders in the sector said they have always raised the critical issue of poor corporate governance at the NHIS.
They also questioned Usman’s preparation for the job.
“We have also championed the cause of appointing the right people to the leadership of the NHIS,” one health management orgnisation chieftain said. “Our recommendation is that the executive secretary should be one with a strong private sector background and must be supported by at least two executive directors, to provide balance and improve corporate governance in the institution.”
BY OUR REPORTER
