President Muhammadu Buhari orders the reinstatement of Usman Yusuf, the suspended executive secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, even while he is being investigate for alleged fraud of about N900 million

THE Federal Government on Tuesday, February 6, reinstated Usman Yusuf, the executive secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS.

It was learnt that President Muhammadu Buhari ordered his recall through a letter with reference number, ‘SH/COS/10/6/A/29’, signed by Abba Kyari, the chief of staff to the president. In the letter, Buhari informed Isaac Adewole, the minister of Health of Yusuf’s recall, adding that he (Yusuf) had been “admonished to work harmoniously with the minister.”

The letter, it was learnt, was sent to the minister on Tuesday, February 6, evening, which Adewole himself confirmed in a telephone conversation. “Yes, what you have heard is true,” he said. The minister refused to answer further questions on the matter.

Yusuf was suspended on June 6, 2017, by Adewole, who set a committee to investigate allegations against Yusuf on “corrupt expenditure of N292 million allegedly spent on health care training without recourse to any appropriate approving authority.” He denied all the allegations.

The committee set up by the minister submitted a probe report to the president in September last year accusing Yusuf of abuse of office.

In the report which was compiled by senior officials of the health ministry, the Department of State Services and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, ICPC, the panel described Yusuf as a public servant who “portrayed a holier than thou attitude but at the background, milked the agency dry” by conniving with others to perpetrate fraud to the tune of over N919m.

According to the panel, the N919m was dubiously given as payment to consultants for staff training.

The committee alleged that Yusuf was personally responsible for all administrative, procurement and financial lapses.

According to the report, “His (Yusuf’s) deceitful attitude coupled with ‘name dropping’ of Mr. President as having sent him to sanitise the NHIS but he caused more harm than good to the scheme.”

The committee, therefore, recommended that the EFCC probe the agency for diversion of funds and contravention of the Procurement Act of 2007.

The report stated that Yusuf contravened the Procurement Act of 2007 through nepotism and other irregular award of contracts and should be sanctioned in line with the provision of the Act.

Explaining how the alleged staff training scam took place, the committee said in some instances, the number of trainees was far more than the entire number of employees at the agency while in some other instances, some employees were registered for the same training in two different states at the same time.

Most of the consultants were said to have charged about N250, 000 per participant.

Incidentally, at the time Yusuf was being recalled through the letter from the Presidency, he was reported to be a guest of the men of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Tuesday, February 6, who grilled on the allegations levelled against.

Now that Yusuf has been reinstated back to his position as secretary of the NHIS, it is unclear what would happen to the allegation that he committed frauds to the tune of N919m.

– Feb. 7, 2018 @ 18:10 GMT |