NHIS account not compromised — Official

National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), on Sunday, dismissed allegations that the organisation’s account was hacked for fraudulent operation by the staff of Clearline International Limited, a Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO).

Ayo Osinlu, Head, Media and Public Relations of the scheme made this known in a statement in Abuja, adding that the discovery of the fraud operations led to the arrest of two persons.

He stated that one of the two persons arrested following the fraud allegation was a staff of Clearline International Limited.

He noted that “the discovery of fraud in the operations of one of the Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO), Clearline International Limited, led to the arrest of two persons, one of whom a staff of the HMO concerned.

“This has come to the attention of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS),’’ he said.

He said that the seriousness of the crime, the huge sum of money involved, as well as reference to NHIS’ account being hacked compelled the Scheme to make the following clarifications:

“That NHIS has no account anywhere else outside the Federal Government’s Treasury Single Account (TSA) in custody of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

“ It is therefore not possible that the perpetrators of this heinous crime hacked into the account of NHIS.

“In the spirit of the Scheme’s ongoing rebranding reform, of which Transparency and Accountability is a major factor, a Management Committee has been constituted the day after the crime was reported.

“This is to ascertain the veracity of the allegation, the actual sum involved and circumstances that facilitated the commission of the crime, among other terms of reference,’’ Osinlu stated.

He reassured stakeholders and the public that NHIS would not tolerate any breach of trust or guidelines under its operations.

Osinlu said that the scheme would remain committed to ongoing reform aimed at repositioning the health agency as a result-oriented and socially-responsible public institution.