A former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Dr. Femi Thomas has dismissed reports that he was involved in enrolling ghost enrolees in the scheme leading to a fraud of N327m during his tenure.
Thomas was reacting to a recent reports carried by some national publications of Tuesday 17th March 2016, credited to the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission where he was alleged to have been involved in the “systematic creation and manifestation of ghost enrollees in the scheme at a staggering cost of N327 million.”
Thomas said the alleged enrolment of ghost enrolees happened well before he assumed office, adding that the fresh allegation was a clear evidence of the desperation of his enemies to pull him down.
Dr Thomas, who addressed a press conference yesterday in Lagos, described his removal in April last year midway into his 5-year tenure as politically motivated added that his regime was the best ever in the history of the organisation.
He described the incessant negative media campaign against him as unhealthy.
“This fresh allegation is a clear evidence of the desperation by my enemies to nail me and pull me down at all costs. I resumed as Executive Secretary in November 2013 long after the purported ghost enrollees scheme was conceived and or executed, if indeed it was. So how can I be held responsible for a crime committed when I was not yet in office?”
“On the contrary, I was the one who asked for the repatriation of overpayment to HMOs when I resumed. I also carried out an integrity check probe of HMOs which resulted in the sack of some HMOs in 2014.
“How can I scale through the hurdle if I had compromised by collaborating with HMOs on a fraudulent matter? Are you aware that some HMOs brought money to me and I chased them out? Let us check our facts”
Dr Thomas called on the Nigerian Government to amend the NHIS Act and make enrolment into the scheme mandatory for Nigerians.
This, according to him, would create demand and increase revenue, which could be used to fund the real sectors of the economy.
He said one of his achievements was that the NHIS did not rely on allocation from the Federal Government to pay workers’ salaries and meet its recurrent responsibilities.
The former NHIS boss said all their expenditure, including contracts and salaries were financed from their internally generated revenue (IGR) and urged the government to make the enrolment into the scheme compulsory for Nigerians and thereby creating automatic demand for health care facilities.
“All I am talking about is just the insertion of a sentence into the NHIS act to amend it. When you make it (NHIS) mandatory, it means all those working, be it in the formal or the informal sector, must contribute something, the way we pay taxes. Those who are not working will be covered through cross subsidy and all other funds from international organisations.”
Dr Thomas who was commissioner for Health in Ekiti State twice said his tenure in NHIS captured over two million people into the NHIS scheme, and was able to raise massive IGRs from the process.
He said the scheme invested much of the funds into treasury bills which yeilded 10-14% interest rate, adding that he was able to increase staff salaries by 100% in 2015.
He said he further introduced exit packages to workers to encourage those who were up to retirement age to do so gracefully.
He dismissed a claim that he sacked only northerners working in the scheme during his regime. “I did not sack anybody during my tenure, not even one, let alone sacking Northerners”, he added.
The former NHIS Executive Secretary argued that not all public servants are thieves, adding that this general notion puts you at risk whenever you dutifully put up yourself for public service.
He also called for thorough investigation into the murder of his security aide allegedly by security operatives.