The Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Sylvester Mensah, has admitted that the 2012 Auditor General\u2019s damning report on the finances of the Authority is true, but the misappropriation did not happen under his watch.<\/p>\n
The 2012 Auditor General\u2019s report which was based on the audited accounts of the NHIA between 1 January, 2008 to 31 December, 2009 revealed that huge amounts of public funds were either diverted into non-existing investment accounts or withdrawn without a trace.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are our observations that we have made public\u2026the report is legitimate and a true reflection of what happened at the time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He has however clarified that the results of a comprehensive internal audit which was carried out on the operations of the scheme when he assumed office in July 2009 is what has been captured in the report.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”xPw6a3XxcQoa7Vn0xJZoeCRIQg4wXVoM”]On the Citi Breakfast Show<\/strong> on Tuesday, Mr. Mensah explained that under his leadership, the Authority undertook a “comprehensive internal audit of the entire scheme from the authority through the regions down to the schemes. It is from our internal audit report that over 90 percent of the issues you find here reflected.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is this report that we shared with our external auditors for further investigations that we now have this reflected in the external audit report,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n He blamed his predecessor for the financial malfeasance saying, \u201cI became CEO of the health insurance in July 2009 and so largely, 2008 was within the previous regime and again the leadership of the previous regime continued through to July 2009.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Mr. Mensah, the findings from the internal audit which he initiated led to a series of comprehensive reforms on the operations of the scheme to \u201ctie all the loose ends that we had\u2026 and address some of the structural and administrative bottlenecks that generate such difficulties.\u201d<\/p>\n A risk assessment he said, was also taken adding that before his tenure, there had never been a risk assessment of the scheme till late 2009 into 2010.<\/p>\n The NHIA boss was certain that if \u201cwe get to the audit report beyond 2008, 2009, you will observe the improvements that have occurred.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that \u201cI take responsibility for all these even though for most part of what you find in this report, I was not at post.\u201d<\/p>\n Click on attached audio file to listen to Sylvester Mensah<\/strong>
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