From: Kemi Yesufu and Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives Committee on Healthcare Services, on Thursday, stepped down the budget consideration for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), accusing the management of the scheme of a lack of transparency.
The decision of the Chike Okafor-led committee to postpone the 2016 budget appraisal and the 2017 budget defence of the agency was consequent to the adoption of a motion raised by a member of the committee, Ossai Nicholas Ossai, who stated that NHIS had failed to appear before a sub-committee set up to audit its account.
Citing Section 88 Sub Section 1&2 of the 1999 Constitution, Ossai who said the refusal of agencies set up by an act of parliament to appear at investigative hearings of committees or to make available documents as demanded by the parliament points to a culture of impunity, further reminded the management team of the agency led to the hearing by the Executive-Secretary Prof. Yusuf Usman of how letters written it to appear before the sub-committee were ignored.
“The sub-committee headed by the deputy chairman of this committee was denied access to information, letters were written to the agency, with no response. The 2016 budget of the agency was not presented to this committee, by so doing, they flouted a law passed by the National Assembly in 2005.
“We oversight agencies and failing to listen to the National Assembly, you will summoned and if you fail to attend, appropriate measures in Section 88 will be meted out to the agency or person. It is upon this premise, that I am asking this committee to step down attending to the NHIS until the proper thing is done”, Ossai said.
Ruling on the motion, which was unanimously adopted by the committee, Okafor said the NHIS would only be allowed to present its 2017 budget after it has appeared before the sub-committee mandated to conduct a forensic audit of its account.
The lawmaker directed the NHIS to appear before the sub-committee headed by the Deputy Chairman of the Healthcare Services Committee, Mohammed Usman, to give a detailed presentation of its financial status, saying it must do this before the agency’s next appearance date ofTuesday February 21.
Earlier, Acting Director-General of the Nigerian Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Yetunde Oni, told lawmakers of plans by her agency to generate N14 billion as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in 2017.
Oni, who gave N7.9 billion as the amount generated as IGR by NAFDAC in 2016, said 25 percent of the sum was remitted to the Federation Account, while 75 percent of the fund was used in running the agency.
She, however, called for intervention from the committee as key budgetary allocations to the agency for 2017, fell short of recommendations made to the budget office.