Pursue, punish looters of public health funds
What you need to know:
- NHIF is once again on the spot over glaring shortcomings and blatant corruption that have dogged it over the years.
- As healthcare delivery is hampered, denying members the services they are entitled to, some crooks are profiting from the dire situation.
- Interestingly, an investigation commissioned by the NHIF itself into the conduct of 17 suspended healthcare providers under the Edu-Afya programme has opened a can of worms.
The National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) is once again on the spot over glaring shortcomings and blatant corruption that have dogged it over the years.
Here is an organisation that should play a key role in healthcare delivery in the public sector but is always being fingered for failure to live up to expectations.
As healthcare delivery is hampered, denying members the services they are entitled to, some crooks are profiting from the dire situation.
Interestingly, an investigation commissioned by the NHIF itself into the conduct of 17 suspended healthcare providers under the Edu-Afya programme has opened a can of worms.
The report has exposed horrendous abuse and violations through which a tidy sum of Sh20 million was lost.
It is laudable, though, that the findings in this report have already led to the revocation of the contracts.
Edu-Afya is a special medical scheme for secondary school students. The fraudsters colluded with some school managers to steal from the government by filing claims for payments without having ever attended to the young people.
The programme, which is under the Universal Health Coverage (UHC), was anchored on the NHIF.
The report has documented the brazen looting of public funds. As often happens in high-level graft in the public sector, some of these thieving institutions filed claims running into millions of shillings for services not rendered or without supporting documents.
Corruption is the enemy of the people as it diverts resources from where they are required to provide essential services to the populace to line the pockets of a few crooks colluding with wayward public sector operatives.
There is a need, therefore, for a thorough investigation of all the culprits to be conducted so that they can be brought to book and the ill-gotten money recovered. It is not enough to just investigate and document this criminal abuse of trust.
The theft of public resources must be severely punished to serve as a deterrent for would-be offenders.
