Lateef Ibrahim, Osogbo
Osun state governor, Ademola Adeleke, has called on the suspended executive secretary of the Osun health insurance scheme, Dr. Niyi Oginni, to come and salvage the scheme from imminent collapse.
Adeleke who ordered the immediate recall of Oginni from suspension expressed worry over the report of the imminent collapse of the scheme.
Oginni and the Head of the Primary Health Care Development Board, Dr. Adebukola Olujide, were suspended in December 2022, for mismanagement of funds.
The suspension of the two chief executive officers was a sequel to the interim report of the Committee on Contracts and MOU chaired by Hon Niyi Owolade, which indicted the two agency chiefs of gross abuse of office, mismanagement of public resources, and serial violations of agency and public service regulations and laws.
“The Committee in its recommendation had unearthed the unethical practices of the suspended heads of the OSHIA and the Primary Health Care Board as manifested in contract awards without due process, non-remittance of the actual tender fee collected from contractors, contracts without value for money like the PHCs, deliberate splitting of contracts.
“The Committee further found out that the suspended OHIS boss gave contracts to the tune of several millions of naira to his daughter and his private hospital in the agency he is heading, while the acting Career Head in the Primary Health Care lied on oath when she falsely denied knowledge of all contracts of infrastructures and supplies in the PHCs, resorting to bulk-passing and blame trading,” the report added.
However, a statement made available to journalists by the spokesperson to Governor Adeleke, Olawale Rasheed, Tuesday disclosed that ‘disturbing reports’ of the imminent collapse of the state health insurance scheme and the review of the report of the Contract and MOU Committee necessitated the recall of Oginni.
The statement added that the decision was also linked to the need to comply with public service regulations which stipulated procedures and conditions for the discipline and management of public servants.
It stated that the governor directed the recall of Oginni to normalize the operations of the insurance scheme by ensuring continuous patronage of the scheme by hospitals across the state.
