There exists great uncertainty about the extent of the possible fraud and corruption at the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) and the FF Plus demanded answers about the Council’s investigation into the irregularities in Parliament earlier this week.
The FF Plus wanted to glean more information from the Council regarding reports in the media a few weeks ago that made mention of alleged malpractice in the Council for which five people were apparently suspended.
The CMS is a statutory body that was established by Parliament to regulate medical schemes. According to recent media reports, five of the Council’s members were suspended due to allegations of irregularities like corruption and unethical behaviour.
Two of the five are presumably executive members while three are senior managers. This sets alarm bells ringing about the Council that is tasked with the oversight of an industry worth approximately R180 billion, money that is contributed by members of medical schemes.
From their response to the FF Plus’s question, it is clear that the Council still does not know how much money was possibly used in the alleged fraud and corruption, but the investigation is already amounting to approximately R24 million. The investigation itself is bordering on squandering.
The situation is shocking and unacceptable. Millions of rand are spent on an investigation to determine what allegedly happened to an unknown amount of money. It has nearly reached the absurd point of where an investigation needs to be conducted into the current investigation to determine if there are any irregularities there.
This cannot be tolerated. Corruption in the healthcare industry must be completely eradicated. The FF Plus will keep a very close eye on the matter to ensure that no more money is squandered and that the guilty parties are called to account.
The FF Plus will also engage with the Minister to find out what action the Department will take seeing as the CMS is funded by the Department of Health and the National Treasury.
Read the original article in Afrikaans by Philip van Staden on FF Plus
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