NHIA embarks on e-receipting and on-site banking project
The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) is to embark on electronic receipting and on-site banking system to inject sanity and transparency into its financial operations.
The project would soon commence this on pilot basis in some selected districts nationwide, and this is envisaged to save the Authority GH¢3 million annually when fully operational.
It would also have also have the procurement cost of general counterfoil receipts (GCRs) provided by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department.
Mr Alex Odoi Nartey, Deputy Chief Executive (Finance and Investment) of the Authority, said this at the opening of a one-day sensitisation workshop organised for 91 participants who represented the northern sector- Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions pilot Districts on in Sunyani.
The participants consisted of Regional Directors, District Managers, Accountants, Managers of Management Information Systems (MISs) and Public Relations Officers (PROs).
Mr Nartey said challenges to the Authority’s current system with respect to cash collection included spending before banking, shortage/unaccounted funds, misappropriation of funds and loss of cash through theft/ burglary in some District offices.
Another major challenge, he said was “delays in banking which is in contravention of the stipulated 24 hours banking prescribed by the Financial Administration Regulation (FAR) Legislative Instrument (LI) 2004”.
Mr Nartey said other challenges with the system in connection with the GCR management comprised cost and risk of transporting GCRs, laborious task of casting GCRs for audit assignments, missing/unaccounted GCRs, problems with GCR storage and retrieval and printing defects of GCRs.
He said flaws in preloading GCRs leading to invalid receipts during registration, easy predictions of GCR numbers and lack of control between accounts office and MIS offices for cash received were also other factors against the GCR management.
Mr Nartey said the objectives of the E-receipting and on-site banking would be efficiency gains to ensure elimination of cost of banking and delay deposit by the district offices, ensuring proper accountability of funds and strict compliance with the FAR, LI 2004.
Source: GNA