by Oduntan Gbemi
The House of Representatives Committee on Finance has queried the National Health Insurance Scheme(NHIS) for spending millions on diesel, facemasks and hand sanitisers.
According to reports from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), The Committee raised the concerns at a public hearing on monitoring revenue generation by Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in Abuja,
Nicholas Ossai (PDP-Delta) a member of the Commitee said available information revealed that N2.09 million was spent on purchase of toners, questioning the rationale.
Also querying the N152.4 million spent on procurement of facemasks, hand sanitisers, protective wears and hand gloves during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 by NHIS.
Ossai also questioned the scheme’s expenditure of a minimum of N2.4 million on diesel on a monthly basis for its head office in Utako, Abuja and an office annex in Wuse 11, Abuja.
Responding, the Executive Secretary of NHIS, Professor Nasri Sambo, explained that the agency was a strategic purchasing agency by its mandate. He said the agency also provided more items under its social corporate responsibility for some social workers on the frontline during the peak of the pandemic. “On the huge expenditure to the tune of millions with respect to the COVID-19 items, we are a 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 sectorial response to COVID-19 and because we are dealing with healthcare facilities, we all know that at the be- ginning of COVID-19, most of the healthcare workers abandoned their duty posts because they don’t have items for their protection.
“As part of our corporate social responsibility, we identified first line organisations like the police and so on; we gave them those items and we also recognised hospitals that have huge enrollment of NHIS enrollees and we supplied them with these items.
Responding, the Executive Secretary of NHIS, Professor Nasri Sambo, explained that the agency was a strategic purchasing agency by its mandate. He said the agency also provided more items under its social corporate responsibility for some social workers on the frontline during the peak of the pandemic. “On the huge expenditure to the tune of millions with respect to the COVID-19 items, we are a 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 sectorial response to COVID-19 and because we are dealing with healthcare facilities, we all know that at the be- ginning of COVID-19, most of the healthcare workers abandoned their duty posts because they don’t have items for their protection.
“As part of our corporate social responsibility, we identified first line organisations like the police and so on; we gave them those items and we also recognised hospitals that have huge enrollment of NHIS enrollees and we supplied them with these items.