Government denies wrongdoing in NHIA investment in All Time Capital

General News on Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Source: ghananewsagency.org

2019-04-17

On Tuesday, the government refuted claims by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that it has invested more than 17 million GHc belonging to the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) with All Time Capital Limited. , a private investment company.

At a press conference in Accra, to answer and clarify the allegations, Mr. Pius Enam Hadzide, Deputy Minister of Information, said that the investment in the company of Investment had started under the Mahama-led government on July 26, 2012, with the establishment of five million Ghanaian cedis invested in fixed deposits for 365 days.

He added that the management of the National Health Insurance Plan (NHIS) at that time had even postponed the capital and interest accrued on the funds, before making other investments with the same company d & # 39; # 39; investment.

The Deputy Minister was therefore surprised that the NDC leadership could reverse the situation and accused the current government of failing to exercise due diligence to invest more than 17 million GHc in NHIS funds in this area. investment house, and called this accusation a lie of facts.

The NDC, led by its director of communications, Mr. Sammy Gyamfi, held a press conference on Monday, April 15, to formulate a number of allegations regarding NHIS operations and said the program would It was rapidly collapsing due to government investment in the country. All Time Capital Limited.

Mr Hadzide said the NHIS was dynamic and that the government had provided all logistical and financial support to the program, adding that President Akufo-Addo had never leaked the truth about the state of the NHIS during from his speech on the state of the nation and his meeting with Ghanaians in the diaspora.

He refuted the NDC's claim that the NHIS was about to collapse, adding that the government had paid off the 1.2 billion GHc debt left by the previous government.

He said that the NDC was clearly mistaken for the GHG 425.7 million financing gap with the total outstanding debt of 1.2 billion GHc in December 2016, explaining that the funding gap was the difference between total liabilities and the money owed to the NHIS.

He said the NDC's reference about increasing the NHIS's estimate of expense compensation was a manifest and misleading lie, explaining that the creation of new regions and the Additional office layout plans explained the increase.

In response to the allegation of use of NHIS funds to pay for the trainee nurse's allowance, Mr Hadzide said the 2018 budget clearly indicated the funding sources for the NHIS funds. trainee nurse stipend, which would come from a statutory fund of the Ministry of Health in the amount of GHc311. 98 million.

Mr. Hadzide also refuted the statement that Ghanaians were losing confidence in the Plan, saying that membership growth had increased from 18.6 million in 2016 to 20.1 million in 2018, with 75,000 mobile phone renewals each week.

In addition, the number of health care providers (accredited institutions) registered to badist registered NHIS cardholders increased from 4,160 in December 2016 to 4,520 by the end of 2018.

In January 2019, the number of active members of the Plan was 10,793,456 more than the 2019 number cited by the NDC.

He stated that the government had increased rates for services payable to certification institutions by 20 percentage points as of April 1, 2019, with the goal of improving the quality of service to subscribers.

Dr. Lydia Dsane-Selby, Interim Executive Director of the National Health Insurance Authority, corroborated the Deputy Minister of Information's speech and stated that previous NHIA management had invested in All Time Capital Limited, but As the new NHIS board took office in 2017, he decided to review the investments to preserve the funds.

Answering a question about the NHIA's indebtedness, she said, the Plan had a five-month debt gap and was working hard to pay the outstanding arrears owed to health care providers.