Follow Us on Google
Uche Usim, Abuja
The Auditor General of the Federation, Mr Anthony Ayine, has recommended that the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) recovers and pays back over N4.93 billion to the nation’s treasury and evidence of recovery and remittance forwarded to his office for confirmation.
The money, according to the AuGF, was spent on irregular and unauthorised allowances paid to members of staff during between January, 2016 and December, 2017.
The recommendation is contained in the 2017 audit report of government agencies.
The AuGF noted that the unauthorised payment was uncovered during the periodic check at NHIS.
The irregular allowances include upfront allowance, upfront differential allowance, sitting allowance, 13th month salary, pre-retirement overseas training allowance, terminal benefit (exit package) aside and different from the provision of Contributory Pension.
The report explained the payments violated Public Service Rule 130102, as they are not part of the allowances listed as payable to officers in the federal public service.
“Allowance differential payment is illegal and alien to the public service as public service allowances are paid on the basis of grade level as at the time of payment.
“Sitting allowance was paid for holding day to day committee meetings, for which the officers received salaries in violation of Circular Ref No. SWC/s/04/S.310/T/65 of 8th April, 2016 which says that “public officers on monthly salary are not entitled to sitting allowance for holding meetings in their offices”.
Payment of pre-retirement training and exit package allowances violate the Pension Reform Act, 2014, which spelt out benefits due to retiring officers of the public service.
“These allowances were paid without providing approvals of the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission in contravention of the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission Act, which states that specific approval must be obtained for payment of any new allowance in the public service”, the report added.
On the concomitant effect of the violation, the AuGF explained that in “a system where management violates extant laws and makes unapproved payments of allowances to its staff is abuse of office and mismanagement of public funds. This would deny the Scheme of the resources to carry out its statutory mandate”.
Still at the NHIS, the audit report further detected that N72.383 million was supposedly paid for verification exercise without any report or other form of evidence to confirm if the verification took place, where and when.
“This is a violation of financial regulation 603 (i) which states that “All vouchers shall contain full particulars of each service, such as dates, numbers, quantities, distances and rates, so as to enable them checked without reference to any other documents, and will invariably be supported by relevant documents such as local purchase orders, invoices, special letters of authority, time sheets, etc.
“Payment may have been misappropriated leading to loss of funds. The Executive Secretary is required to recover and pay to the treasury the sum of N72.383million, forwarding evidence of refund to my office for confirmation.
The third issue uncovered at the NHIS was payment for services not rendered, to the tune of ₦31,478,400.00.
The money, according to the report, was purportedly paid for accreditation of Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) without any report or other evidence to confirm
that the accreditation exercise took place.
“This is a violation FR 708 which states that “On no account should payment be made for services not yet performed or for
goods not yet supplied.
“There is the risk that the Scheme may have spent the money without any accreditation of HMOs, thereby leading to loss of Government fund.
“The Executive Secretary is required to recover the sum of ₦31,478,400.00 and
remit to the treasury, forwarding evidence of remittance to my office for confirmation”, the AuGF stated in the report.
The report unearthed another ₦9,668,000.00 that was purportedly paid as Duty Tour Allowances (DTA) to 19 officers for study tour to review NHIS Staff Condition and Scheme of Service.
“The following irregularities were observed in the payment; the study tour was purportedly conducted to gather inputs, after the documents had been finalized and submitted for final approval; claim that findings from the tour would be used by the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) appears false, as there was no evidence of request for information support from the OHCSF and no evidence of communication of findings from the tour to the Head of Service.
“This payment may have been used to pull out money for private interests rather than public interest, thereby resulting to loss of government funds. The Executive Secretary is required to recover from the 19 officers and pay to the
Treasury the total of ₦9,668,000.00. Evidence of the recovery and remittance should be forwarded to my office for confirmation”.
•
