NHIS Staff Assured of Job Security (Page 19)

Saturday, July 25, 2009

STAFF of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) have been assured of job security provided they are competent and ready to perform.
Addressing a cross-section of the personnel in Accra, the acting Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Mr Sylvester Mensah, said employees of the authority were public servants who deserved to have job security and continuity of tenure.
“That is not to say that people should continue to be employed if they are incompetent and would not do satisfactory work,” he stressed.
Mr Mensah, who assumed leadership of the NHIA on June 15, 2009, said a number of visits he had so far made to some of the District Mutual Health Insurance Schemes (DMHISs) in parts of the country had revealed that, while some of the staff were doing excellent job, others did not have the requisite qualification to be placed at where they currently found themselves and, therefore, could not function effectively.
He pointed out that some of the schemes handled funds bigger than district assemblies, and asked why unqualified accountants should be allowed to take charge of such offices.
Mr Mensah said there was the need for re-structuring within the various schemes and went ahead to announce that Mr Elvis Amoako and Mr Paul Danklu, the Scheme Manager and the Accountant respectively of the Ga East DMHISs at Amasaman should step aside to enable a yet-to-be-formed three-member committee to investigate into their activities. The Greater Accra Regional Manager, Mr Gabriel Amoako, will, however, temporarily take charge of the operations in the Amasaman office.
The CEO said in spite of the shortcomings identified with some of the officials, some of them proved very competent and, therefore, deserved promotion.
In that direction, the Scheme Manager of the Dangbe East DMHIS, Mr Francis Lawson, has been transferred to the head quarters of the NHIA for performing creditably over the years.
Mr Mensah said service providers who inflated claims to the schemes would be dealt with and their names published.
He said such operations had caused leakage in the system, and complained about a situation where schemes spent between 20 and 30 per cent of the premium they collected on administrative expenses.
Concerning the one-time premium payment, he said the policy by the government on this issue was “non-negotiable”, and explained that an initial work done by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and actuarial division of the NHIA indicated that it was feasible.