It would be recalled that the NHIS has been bogged down by a faceoff between the Staff and the Management, which resulted in the sack of the former Executive Secretary of the NHIS Mr. Femi Thomas.
Presidency sources observed as follows “the various petitions written by staff and the unions to the Presidency regarding the activities of Mr. Thomas as Executive Secretary of NHIS, when investigated, were found to be credible and his sack was recommended to the President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR who approved his sack…”
It was gathered that apart from the alleged fraud, waste and abuse levelled against Mr. Thomas, the union was particularly peeved by the lack of upward mobility being faced by staff as Mr. Thomas refused all entreaties to grant staff access to reach the cadre of General Managers in the establishment. He was alleged to have prepared grounds to recruit 6 persons from outside the establishment as General Managers thereby preventing deserving employees of an opportunity to progress in their careers within the NHIS.
Following the sack of Mr. Femi Thomas and the appointment of Mr.Olufemi Akingbade as the Acting Executive Secretary of NHIS the Presidency set up a committee to secure an amicable and permanent resolution of the issues.
It was reported that the committee found as a fact that part of the cause of the controversy was a lack of a culture of Ethics and due process in the organisation and recommended the establishment of an additional department of Ethics, Compliance and Monitoring in the Agency with a mandate to create an environment conducive for Ethical decision taking and legal compliance as well as due process in staff career advancement.
It was also revealed that the committee agreed that there is a need to provide access to the employees to reach the cadre of General Manager in the organisation and Management would be advised to reserve a minimum of 40% of available vacancies for General Manager positions for staff who had been in the employment of the organisation for a period not less than 5 years.
Our source who spoke on a condition of anonymity because she was not authorised to disclose the information stated that, The president approved 4 main things in the resolution of the NHIS impasse
1. Establishment of additional Directorate of Ethics, Compliance, Monitoring and Anticorruption
2. Appointment of General Managers to be made up of minimum of 40% staff members
3. Immediate appointment of an Ethics and Compliance expert on General manager level to establish and manage the new directorate.
4. Immediate priority to be given to staff development and skills acquisition to ensure that required posts are filled with staff going forward.
This it was agreed will boost staff morale and increase productivity.
Meanwhile an intensive lobby is ongoing for the appointment of a substantive Executive Secretary for the NHIS. Information from the Presidency indicates that there is a three-way battle between candidates favoured by different power brokers and lobbyist close to the President. As it is stands the Ag. Executive Secretary is said to be in a pole position to retain his position and be confirmed as the substantive Executive Secretary before the hand over of government on the 29th of May 2015. This was indicated by the clandestine way the presidency issued a formal instrument ( on Monday 11th May 2015) confirming his acting position and despatched same to him without recourse to the Health Ministry which is the supervising ministry for the NHIS. This it was learnt did not go down well with operatives in the Ministry; even though the Minister of State for Health has been lobbying for Mr. Olufemi Akingbemi
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