How alleged corruption, nepotism tore NHIS apart

*Spends N860m on frivolous contracts

*Claims closeness to Buhari, says he’s untouchable

*ICPC begins probe on contracts scam

*Embattled Prof. Yusuf keeps mum

This is not the best of time for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) as allegations of corruption and nepotism are now rocking the agency which is under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Health.

The development is also creating crisis of confidence while the embattled Executive Secretary of the NHIS, Prof Usman Yusuf, is on three months suspension on the grounds of alleged fraud and mismanagement.

The suspended ES, The Daily Times gathered, had on assumption of office in 2016, allegedly introduced ethnic sentiments and divisive tactics in running the affairs of the NHIS.

It was alleged that Yusuf made lopsided recruitments and recently transferred about 100 members of staff out of the NHIS headquarters in Abuja to other states in a discriminatory manner. Most of those transferred were said to be from Southern extraction with few from the North.

The development was said to have been reported to the Ministry of Labour, Nigeria Labour Congress and the National Assembly.

The embattled NHIS boss was also accused of spending money without recourse to the laid down rules of the establishment and allegedly awarded contracts without following due process.

He was also alleged to have expended over N860 million on frivolous contracts with the sole aim of enriching himself through his cronies.

Multiple sources also confided in The Daily Times that Yusuf, while leaving office on Thursday after the announcement of his suspension, allegedly took away three Ghana-Must-Go- Bags containing files and other vital documents from the office.

It was also gathered that the suspended ES has been busy “spreading lies and whipping up ethnic sentiments” with divisive tactics and hatred for workers at the headquarters.

The Daily Times also gathered that few days before Ramadan, the ES took delivery of a N58 million Prado Jeep which was extremely beyond his threshold.

Information available to the Daily Times revealed that the approval limit of the Executive Secretary is N2.5million while the purchase of the jeep and the training of staff are now being probed by the federal lawmakers.

Stakeholders in the health sectors are worried over the spending of the suspended ES, lamenting that the N58million would have saved the lives about N4,000 in health insurance at about N15,000 each.

Further checks revealed that there were four brand new Prado Jeeps at the NHIS headquarters that Yusuf could use but he decided to add another one to the fleet.

A lot of procurement dealings were said to have taken place under the instruction of Yusuf without ratification or approval.

But a source said the suspended ES played ethnic and tribal card making the Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, to be circumspect and cautious.

Yusuf was also alleged to have approved the N210million for Electronic media in connivance with the General Manager, Finance, and the General Manager Audit as well as the Head of new Media.

Although the suspended Executive Secretary had since handed over to a new acting ES, the situation at the place require him to restore confidence to the workers.

Yusuf had alleged that the Minister of Health and the former acting ES of the scheme are corrupt but yet to provide evidence to back up his claims.

One of the major frauds perpetuated by the suspended ES, a source said, was the training programme for members of staff.

According to our findings, N860million was budgeted for training in the 2016 budget, but as Yusuf assumed duty, he set in place machinery to award contracts for trainings which were devoid of laid down procedures.

These trainings, it was alleged, were not targeted to improve the capacity of the staff but towards personal aggrandizement.

The training were not in tune with the contract sum particularly in the ICT section.

Documents available to the Daily Times showed that Yusuf was said to have awarded these contracts to his cronies by organizing five different trainings namely: ICT, Risk Management, Healthcare Financing, Communication strategy, and Public Procurement.

But the spendings carried out on the training programme were said to be above his approval limits.

Yusuf was reportedly claiming that he has the ears of President Muhammadu Buhari and allegedly boasting that they are from the same Katsina State as he remains untouchable.

Under the ICT training, the contractor, First Digital and Techno-Law Forensics Ltd, allegedly spent over N400million by contract splitting which is contrary to laid down procurement rules and designed to profit the owner who was said to be his benefactor and confidant.

This he achieved by positioning him to supervise all the contracts nationwide in ICT, First Digital incidentally got the bulk of these jobs.

In one of the trainings, a course fee of N520,000 per staff for three days local training was approved without recourse to diligent planning but with the alleged mindset to profiteer his cronies. After complaints from most members of staff, the course fee of N520,000 was reduced to N270,000 under suspicious circumstances.

According to another source, most of the trainings, scheduled to hold across the 36 states and the FCT, were never held while those that held were incomparable to the funds which had been released for the trainings. There was absence of training materials in most of the designated venues of the trainings.

Multiples of payment vouchers ranging between N19million, N18million and N21million were raised to cover up for the payment of over N400million for the trainings.

One of his cronies was also alleged to have been instrumental in this cover up and is said to possess some documentary evidence on the transactions.

In a similar vein, over N250million was said to be arranged between Yusuf and a consultant, AMA Health Consult, which is allegedly owned by three retired managers of the scheme who are his close allies.

The training in question was awarded initially at N300,000 per staff for three days, but after complaints from staff, it was again reduced to N250,000.

Similarly, a training of over N120million was allegedly approved for staff training outside the country to his friend on Risk Management for alleged kickbacks.

The amount of N150million was also approved for the consultant in the training of Report Writing, who was said to be his brother and a retired director.

The approvals made by Yusuf were said to be above his threshold according to laid down norms of the service as he allegedly circumvented this by splitting the contracts.

Yusuf was also alleged to have approved supply of E-library equipment to a Company named Promatrix Global resources Ltd for N28million and reportedly paid the company upfront in clear contradiction of the Procurement Act.

Documents available to The Daily Times showed different store receipt vouchers with differing dates on goods supplied but with the same date of payment.

According to receipts, the goods were supplied on 06/04/2017 while the job had been paid for on the 28/03/2017 but the vouchers were allegedly tampered with by the GM Finance and Accounts to cover the above mentioned anomaly.

Investigation further revealed that payment of funds to contractors before supply of goods were carried out in alleged connivance with the Head of Finance, Mr John Okon and Head of Audit, Shehu Adamu in order to cover up the shoddy deals.

Yusuf was also alleged to have severally awarded contracts above his N2.5 million threshold which is against the procurement act while most of the contracts were allegedly awarded to his associates.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) is said to be investigating the alleged frauds over award of contracts and training of members of staff.

A source close to the matter also disclosed that the suspended ES was invited four times by the ICPC while he was said to have been grilled for over four hours by the operatives of the agency on these occasions.

The Daily Times also gathered that once the anti-graft agency concludes its investigation on the alleged frauds, necessary action would be taken and all those indicted would be brought to book.

Yusuf was further alleged to have encouraged the supply of fake products and substandard goods to the store with a warning to the GM Finance and Accounts of the consequences of turning them down.

The suspended ES was also accused of engaging in inflated contracts and allegedly bragged that he had the backing of the President in disobedience to his supervising minister, Minister of Labour, TUC and NLC.

Stakeholders have also called on the security agencies to find out how insurance brokers are chosen for the scheme, alleging that Yusuf and his friend have been the ones selecting the insurance brokers.

It was further alleged that one of the selected insurance firms (names withheld) never had an office in Abuja but reportedly brought on board to facilitate the alleged scam

Yusuf was also said to have denied medical assistance to an official from the agency office in Kaduna, Mr. Al Amin Mohammed while the development led to his demise.

But several efforts made by the newspaper to get the response of Yusuf proved abortive as different telephone calls and text messages sent to his phone were not responded to at press time.

Prof Yusuf , however, sent a terse response when the newspaper had gone to bed.

His short SMS simply read, “Print this: Hahahahahahahahaha !!!!