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Firm denies cheating government after suspects’ confession

By Odita Sunday
02 October 2019   |   3:37 am
A Health Management Organisation (HMO), Clearline HMO, has debunked the allegation of fraud leveled against the management by a former employee who was paraded by the police.

The Lagos State police command had arrested a female dismissed worker and her lover for allegedly defrauding the Federal Government of N60 million through the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

The couple, Ogunseye Tunde and Oyelaja Fumilayo, had after the fraudulent act escaped to Ghana. Fumilayo, who was working with Clearline HMO Limited, based in Lagos, had allegedly diverted the funds meant for health insurance of Nigerians to her personal account.

Fumilayo, who was paraded by the Lagos Commissioner of Police, CP Zubairu Muazu, had accused some staff of conniving with her to steal from the government, adding that HMOs trained their workers to cheat the system

“I have worked with Clearline from 2014 to early 2019. What we do there is that we act as the middleman between NHIS and the hospitals. Our company cheats the system as we falsify records. When NHIS gives us money to pay hospitals, we do not spend all that was given to us and we do not refund the excess to NHIS purse, the company pockets the money.

At a briefing in its office, the company denied the allegations, claiming that the suspect was drowning and decided to drag the company’s image in the mud.

Acting chief executive officer of Clearline, Dr. Tunde Ladele, said: “We discovered the fraud and reported to the police. We went ahead to declare her wanted and placed an N2 million bounty on her head, which worked well. The moment she was seen, we were called on the phone numbers provided and we contacted the police who arrested her and her lover. It is laughable that she is accusing the company of connivance. If we have hands or we support crime, why should we arrest her?

“To tell you that we are serious, we have handed over the three workers she indicated to the police. We don’t cheat the system, we don’t cheat the government and it is even impossible to cheat. Individuals would try, but we must find out as we did in Fumilayo’s case. We are willing to cooperate with the police to get to the root of the matter,” Ladele, said.

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