N860m training scam: Panel recommends NHIS boss, officials, contractors for probe

THE committee probing the suspended Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Professor Usman Yusuf, has recommended that he face the “consequences of his actions, inaction.”

According to its report, the committee said its recommendation is based on findings that he was responsible for all the “administrative, procurement and professional lapses” in the agency.

Yusuf was suspended in July 2017, following allegations of impropriety in the handling of the financial processes and administration, with an Investigative Committee set up to investigate the allegations, which included the alleged spending of N860 million for staff training without due process.

The committee, in a 99-page report obtained by Sunday Tribune on Saturday, recommended that the entire financial infractions in the NHIS be referred to appropriate anti-corruption agencies, alleging that “the suspended Executive Secretary did not carry out his statutory functions as an accounting officer pursuant to section 20(1) and 92)(a-g) of Public Procurement Act 2007.”

The committee stated that contrary to the allegation that N860 million was used for staff training without due process, the amount was actually N919 million, as the report alleged that “the entire processes, his [Yusuf’s] actions involving all the foreign trips, engagements of the training consultants and documentation of the payment processes amounting to N508 million were devoid of due process.”

The committee recommended that the sum of N508 million be recovered from the training consultants engaged by the NHIS.

The report added that the NHIS management should be directed to request the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to recover the sum of N48 million paid to a hospital (names withheld) for the treatment of three cancer patients and N24 million balance of withholding tax under-deducted from all training consultants who handled the staff training programmes, while the committee also recommended that the management should recover N82 million not approved by relevant authorities for foreign trips.

The committee further claimed that the NHIS boss erred on the approvals he gave for trainings and the secondment of some officials of the scheme.

Yusuf was suspended in July 2017 by the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, following allegations of financial impropriety and flouting of public service rules.

The Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo had, in July, ordered the probe of the NHIS boss, with an investigative committee comprising officials of the Department of State Services, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission, auditors and senior officials of the Ministry of Health set up to look into the allegations against the NHIS boss.

The committee equally found some top officials of the NHIS culpable on the allegations of impropriety in the procurement processes and handling of financial and other matters in the scheme, recommending different actions ranging from refund of allegedly misappropriated sums to sanctions by appropriate authorities.