NHIS: No Govt. Board Has No Power To Suspend CEOs Of Parastatals – SGF

No governing board of a Federal agency or parastatal has the
power to remove the chief executive appointed by the President, the
secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha
declared today.

The declaration came amidst controversy over the suspension of
the executive secretary of the National Health Insurance
Scheme(NHIS).

The board may “however articulate infractions, investigate wrong
doing and make recommendations to government through the
supervisory ministry”, Mustapha further clarified.

He made the clarification at an induction programme for
governing board members of federal parastatals, universities and
medical centres at the Transcorp Hilton. The CEOs were also in
attendance.

The induction, the second in the series, was organised by the
Bureau of Public Service Reforms, in conjunction with the DFID.

On 18 October, the chairman of the NHIS board, Ifenne Enyanatu
announced the indefinite suspension of the executive secretary,
Prof. Usman Yusuf, eight months after a similar suspension by the
minister was annulled by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Enyanatu said the governing council resolved to suspend Yusuf
because it had received several petitions against the NHIS boss.
She said the board had the permission of the minister of health to
suspend Yusuf, pending investigation.

“We consulted and got the approval of the Minister of Health
before this suspension, ” she said.

However, Yusuf ignored the order.

Mustapha certainly had the NHIS in mind when he gave the
clear-cut clarification today.

He said government was concerned that most governing boards have
not understood their roles in the corporate governance of the
agencies they superintend.

He then went on to list some of the recurring infractions being
committed by the boards.

Some of them are undue interference by board chairmen in the
day-to-day activities of their parastatals and agencies, blatant
disregard for extant regulations guiding the conduct of board
meetings.

Others are alleged interference in the function of the CEOs,
issuing directives to staff, without recourse to the CEOs, imposing
disciplinary measures against the CEOs, in flagrant violation of
the laid down rules and using labour unions as agents of
distractions in the agencies.

The government secretary also gave further clarifications about
the roles of the boards and ministers.

The role of the boards, he said, are limited to setting
operational and administrative policies for their agencies in
consonance with government policy directives.

“A Board shall not be involved directly in the day-to-day
management of a parastatal or an agency. A Minister exercises
control of parastatals at policy level through the board of the
parastatal only.

“The board must only operate as a part time board, in accordance
with extant rules that forbids allocation of official quarters to
members on a permanent basis and payment of estacode allowances for
only overseas travels approved by the Office of the Secretary to
the Government of the Federation and their part-time Ministry.”