NHIA clarifies position

THE National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has reacted to a Daily Searchlight front page story captioned “ RAPE AT NHIS” in the Tuesday, January 26, 2010 issue, describing “it as full of falsehood, half truths and malice”.
It said contrary to the newspaper’s report that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) had purchased a number of vehicles for his personal use, the authority had purchased only one Nissan Teana salon car for use by the CEO as was the normal practice in the Public Service
A statement signed by the Deputy Director, Public Affairs of the NHIA, Mr Eric Ametor-Quarmyne, said it was important for the authority to offer some clarification in the light of the fact that the NHIA was a public institution.
“The story, as published by the Daily Searchlight, was full of falsehood, half truths and malice. It is important that a public institution such as the National Health Insurance Authority should be very much aware of its expenditures and we can assure the good people of Ghana that the present management under Mr Sylvester Mensah has taken steps to safeguard the interest of the Ghanaian taxpayer,” it stated.
The statement said regarding the subject of the purchase of vehicles by the Authority, the management of the authority was happy to share information on its vehicle acquisition with the public to whom the Authority, as a public institution, was ultimately responsible.
It pointed out that beginning from 2009 to date, the NHIA had acquired the following vehicles for use by not only its head office staff, or its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), but also for the operations of some of the 145 Schemes across the country: Five slightly used Nissan Hard Body pickups acquired from National Identification Authority (NIA), three slightly used Nissan Patrol four-wheel drive vehicles for use by NHIS Schemes in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions, five new Nissan Navara pick-up vehicles acquired for distribution to NHIS Schemes which have no vehicles for their operations and for Head Office use.
Their distribution, according to the statement, was as follows: Head Office -two, Volta Region-one, Ashanti Region-one, and Brong Ahafo Region-one.
In addition it said one Toyota Land Cruiser four-wheel drive was allocated to the Head Office of NHIA for trekking purposes.
It pointed out that the vehicles acquired from the NIA were used for only about one year and that due to the drastic reduction in its workload, the vehicles had become redundant.
“The arrangement was a win-win situation for both the National Health Insurance Authority and National Identification Authority since it enabled the NHIA to purchase the vehicles at discounted rates, thus making appreciable savings, while the National Identification Authority was able to recoup some of its expenditures on vehicles, which otherwise would have been locked up in idle vehicles.
The NHIA provides the 145 Schemes that are presently operating in the country, the necessary logistics including vehicles as and when required”, it pointed out.
The statement said with regard to vehicles for staff of the NHIA, the NHIA would like to explain that since its inception in 2004, its administration had had a policy of not purchasing vehicles for its staff except the CEO, but instituted a revolving fund from which staff could access loans to purchase their own vehicles.
It is important to note that while employees have to pay the loans with interest and with no chance of defaulting, because the loans plus interest are deducted at source, the staff use these vehicles to perform official duties and bear all maintenance costs exclusively themselves.
“It is clear from the above that had the Daily Searchlight taken a little time as a credible newspaper would have done to wait for the information it had attempted to source from the NHIA, it would have ended up praising the NHIA for its meticulous use of public resources entrusted to it for the public good,” the statement stressed.
The NHIA said its doors were open to all media houses to seek clarifications on any matters of public concern or interest and added that the management of the NHIA was committed to transparency and accountability in its operations and saw the media as partners in the huge tasks ahead of the Authority to bring to reality President J. E. A. Mills’s one-time premium payment policy direction of the National Health Insurance Scheme.