THE House of Representatives’ Committee on Finance grilled the Executive
Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, Prof. Mohammed Sambo, on
Monday, raising concerns over how the scheme had been spending its resources.
Members of the committee expressed anger as they scrutinised the books of the
NHIS at an investigative hearing on revenue generation and remittance by
ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government.
The lawmakers took turns to query several items on the list of expenses
provided by the scheme in its written submission to the committee.
The NHIS, in the projects and contracts executed in 2020, said N37,186,825 was
spent on the purchase of 500 packs of N95 face masks and 500 packs of
disposable face masks, while the supply of 5,000 pieces of disposable face
masks cost N2,423,750 and 500 bottles of hand sanitisers (500ml) gulped
N2,423,750.
The scheme also said the supply of customised hand sanitisers with customised
logo on June 26, 2020, cost N47.970m, while the disposable face masks
delivered same day cost N30,724,200 as well as another supply of disposable
face masks at N15.951m.
The lawmakers also queries the N2.472m spent on supply of 1,000 litres of
diesel in January 2020; N2.408m spent on 8,000 litres of diesel at the Utako
office of the NHIS in Abuja, in March 2020; and another N2.255m spent on 8,000
litres of diesel at its Annex Office in Wuse II, Abuja; among other supplies.
Also, the lawmakers queried the sum of N49.2m spent on “vital contributors
programme for hosting/support of office websites and functionaries” in March
2020, while N120.247m was spent on beautification of external wall with
cladding at Wuse II as well as the N109.652m to procure and install additional
furniture, among others.
A member of the committee, Mr Nicholas Ossai, particularly said he had spotted
over 40 items for which millions of naira were expended, which needed to be
queried.
He said, “On the huge expenditure to the tune of millions with respect to the
COVID-19 items, we are National Health Insurance Scheme; we are supposed to be
a strategic purchasing agency by mandate.”
“During COVID-19, there was a plan of the Ministry of Health on sectoral
response to COVID-19 and because we are dealing with healthcare facilities, we
all know that at the beginning of COVID-19, most of the healthcare workers
abandoned their duty posts because they did not have items for their
protection.
“As part of our corporate social responsibility, we identified first line
organisations like police and so on. We gave them those items and we also
recognised hospitals that had huge enrolment of NHIS enrollees and we supplied
them with these items.
“All the documents are available if lawmakers need them. So, this expenditure
is not restrictive to NHIS. We have been directed to ensure the protection of
our people.”
The NHIS boss also told the committee that the scheme generated from the
tenders paid by contractors, N1.61m in 2019; N620,000 in 2020; and N700,000 so
far in 2021.
Sambo said, “The total revenue generation for 2019 was N32.14m; for 2020, it
is N58.9m and for 2021, it is N18.5m.
“We have remitted to the Consolidated Revenue Fund the sum of N20.5m, which
represents 25 per cent of the total revenue for 2019. We have remitted N14.7m,
which represents 25 per cent for 2020. And for 2021; we have remitted N4.46m
and all the evidence of remittances are encapsulated in this submission.”
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