Adan has been heading the caretaker committee appointed last month to sort out the mess regarding the Sh4.6 billion outpatient medical scheme. The move comes as the High Court is still considering an appeal filed by the Attorney General against a court decision suspending the caretaker committee on grounds that it was illegality constituted.
Terms and services
The appeal was filed on July 19, and the case also came up for mention on Thursday.
Kirgotty is the former Commissioner of Motor Vehicles at the Kenya Revenue Authority, where he also served as the registrar.
He has served as the as Director of Administration in the Ministry of Housing, before moving to the Ministry of Medical Services in the same capacity. He is a career civil servant who once worked as a District Officer. Kirigotty’s terms and services are still those of KRA Commissioner.
The latest move by Nyong’o comes as the caretaker committee is reeling under scandals involving nepotism and accrediting unregistered clinics to offer services to its members.
On Thursday The Standard reported how Adan was caught up in a scandal in which he appointed his relatives to plum positions.
The caretaker committee had also accredited at least 77 health facilities that had not been registered and licensed by the Medical Practitioners and Dentist Board repeating mistakes it was appointed to fix.
The committee approved a Sh3. 7 million advertisement in a newspaper in the United States without going through the standard procurement procedures. The advert was meant to reach Kenyans in the Diaspora to entice them to sign up with NHIF.
There was drama at NHIF headquarters in May that resulted in the suspension of the Fund chairman Richard Muga by the Government hours after he had suspended the Chief Executive Richard Kerich and four other members of the management. It emerged at the time that a company, which received Sh202 million from NHIF to cover medical services between January and March, this year, was owned by a person whose identity was allegedly being protected.
A parliamentary committee claimed that Clinix Healthcare Ltd received Sh91.3million for 21 facilities that were not open by the time of the signing of a contract with NHIF in January, terming the payments as fraudulent.
Outpatient scheme
Drama started moments after a board meeting attended by ten directors failed to agree on a proposal tabled by Prof Muga that included a section detailing the suspension of the management over scandals at the multi-billion-shilling scheme.
It now appears that the last three months that should have been spent probing irregularities in the civil servants’ outpatient scheme have been wasted.
The caretaker committee, which was expected to probe and produce an actionable report, is now caught up in scandals that might have robbed it of its moral authority and credibility. On Thursday Kirgotty visited NHIF where he held “consultations” with members of the caretaker committee. It was reportedly agreed that official handover might be done on Friday or in the next few days to minimise uncertainty over the running of NHIF.
A previous attempt by Nyong’o to reappoint Kerich stalled after it was resisted from many quarters, including the EACC, which insisted Kerich was still under investigation.
