Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly Refutes Allegation

Bolgatanga, Oct 28, GNA - The Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly has a newspaper report that it was among District Assemblies alleged to have diverted funds meant for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr. Isaac Nsoh Amoah, refuted the allegation at a press conference in Bolgatanga.
According to the said report, carried by the Daily Graphic, special audit into the operations of the National Health Insurance Council (NHIC) between January 1 and September 30, 2005 revealed that some assemblies, including the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly, diverted funds meant for the setting up of the Scheme.
The MCE explained that during the period in reference, funds meant for the scheme were not passed through the Municipal Assembly, but were channelled directly to the Scheme.
He explained that the Ministry of Health in 2004 engaged some Consultants to assist some assemblies to set up the NHIS, and announced that the assembly received a set-up fund of 300 million cedis for the Scheme.
Mr Amoah said Community Partnership for Health and Development, a consulting agency for the Scheme, submitted a proposal to the assembly to carry out an operational research on co-payment pretext and health facilities.
The Proposal, he said, was examined and a payment of 45 million cedis made to the Consultant.
He indicated that the same consultants submitted another request to the assembly for 35 million cedis as payment for technical support that they provided to the Municipal Health Insurance Scheme. He expressed regret that the newspaper failed to cross-check its facts from the assembly before publishing the story. "We wish to categorically state that no money was diverted or misplaced, but was rather used to set up the Scheme which is now operational with a registered number of 51,886 people as at September 2006," the MCE explained.
He announced that the Assembly on its own provided office equipment and other logistics to enable the Scheme to facilitate its operations, and wondered why the Assembly should divert money meant for the NHIS into other uses.