DCI to unmask rogue employers defrauding NHIF

Cotu Secretary General Francis Atwoli said in the coming weeks they will seek the DPP’s support to recover unremitted millions by employers.

He accused players in the floriculture sector of being the leading defaulters and said their days are numbered.

“We have started the process of engaging the DPP so that he can assist NHIF in recovering the money,” he said.

The National Hospital Insurance Fund is working with Cotu to get assistance from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to recover the cash.

This emerged at the end of a two-day consultative workshop between senior managers of the NHIF and Cotu at Great Rift Valley Lodge in Naivasha.

At the same time, Atwoli hit out at Health CS Sicily Kariuki for forming a task force to reform the NHIF without involving the workers.

He said workers would oppose recommendations by the team as they were the main contributors to the fund.

“We are not opposed to the reforms but we are demanding representation in this task force failure to which we shall reject the proposals,” he said.

Atwoli praised the management of NHIF for their work despite the recent arrests of senior managers over allegations of corruption.

“We are asking the authorities to speedily conclude the ongoing investigations on the alleged loss of funds so that NHIF can quickly consolidate its work,” he said.

Atwoli asked the national and county governments to work towards improving the quality of public healthcare facilities countrywide.

Acting NHIF CEO Nicodemus Odongo said the organisation was dealing with 5,800 public health care facilities and another 2,000 private institutions.

He said failure by institutions to remit workers contributions was stretching their services.

“We want first to engage all those defaulters and we have written letters to them before taking the next step in recovering this money which belongs to the employees,” he said.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *