PS: NHIF staff with clean records to be redeployed within civil service

NHIF staff with good conduct but lacking requisite skills in health matters will be redeployed within the civil service upon transition to the Social Health Authority.

Medical Services PS Harry Kimtai on Tuesday maintained that only staff who will pass the vetting process will be transitioned to the new authority.

Kimtai said there will be no mass transfers as those staff on interdiction and those who will be found with questionable character will be dropped during the transition.

He said only those with competencies and skills required under the new authority will be transitioned to steer the ship forward.

The PS noted that even though the law provides that staff currently employed by NHIF should be allowed to be employed by the Social Health Authority, there is going to be a vetting process to ensure that only those officers who are clean with no corruption tags are transitioned.

"We are not just going to have mass transfers, we have officers who are under interdiction and I don’t think we are going to move with such officers because they are already having cases," Kimtai said.

"Any officer who will not be absorbed by SHA will still be given an opportunity if we find that their competence and skills are not required in SHA we will still assign them other duties within the civil service so we are not going to terminate the officers."

The PS was speaking during the handover of a National Health Insurance Fund systems review report.

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission undertook an examination into the systems, policies, procedures and practices of the NHIF from August 31, 2023 and November 2, 2023.

According to EACC chairperson David Oginde, the purpose of the exercise was to identify opportunities that expose the NHIF to corruption risks in the provision of healthcare services.

The commission was then tasked with making recommendations on how to seal the identified loopholes.

The examination covered the technical functions at the NHIF, public and private hospitals and key stakeholders in the health sector.

The PS said the government will use Sh50 billion to develop a healthcare system that seeks to address systemic challenges that previously plunged the defunct NHIF into fraud cases.

The investment will include digitizing the Social Health Authority, the claims and the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority to be able to track and trace commodities.