A fresh crisis of confidence has erupted in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
This followed alleged inflation of 2018 budget for Information and Communication Technology (ICT), from N8.7billion to N14, 975, 032, 572.30 by the management.
As a result of the loophole, the Governing Council of the agency was yet to approve the budget in less than three months to the end of the year.
Also, the agency was accused of paying about N508.038million upfront to consultants above the approval limit of the Executive Secretary (ES) of NHIS, Prof. Usman Yusuf.
About five other curious payments have caused ripples in the agency, including a N43million payment for consultancy for media and special public relations.
These alleged infractions are contained in a petition to the Governing Council of NHIS by a former Acting Executive Secretary of NHIS, Mr. Attahiru Ibrahim.
He asked the council to investigate allegations against Yusuf to ensure justice and fairness in the system.
The petition was in response to a memo to the Governing Council by the ES seeking sanctions against the former Acting Executive Secretary and two other directors.
The petition reads: “In the 2018 budget, the ES presented and inflated the ICT budget from N8.7 billion to N14,975,032,572.30.
“We plead with the Council to request for the copies of these proposals that amounted to this cost. It will not be a bad idea if the Council embarks on the process to authenticate the veracity of these proposals and the cost implications (Appendix VII). ”
Findings by our correspondent showed that the budget of the NHIS for 2018 has not been approved by the Governing Council as at press time.
The NHIS had proposed N64,725,325,088.44 budget estimate for 2018.
But it was learnt that the Governing Council was still considering the budget and it had raised some objections to certain parts of the budget for the Executive Secretary to address. - The Nation
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