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Nobleman Runyanga

The Premier Service Medical Aid Society (PSMAS) has been hogging the limelight for not-so-rosy reasons which range from failing to provide adequate health insurance cover to its members to the malfeasance involving its leadership which is trying to stifle an audit to cover its tracks.

The revelations of the goings-on at the society have foregrounded deep-seated and shameless corruption by PSMAS leadership which includes people who are supposed to safeguard workers’ interests at PSMAS.

When Government took issue with the PSMAS board of directors over these issues, the response was a baseless accusation that the former intended to take over the health insurer.

The Government contributes 80 percent of each civil servant’s monthly premium while the beneficiaries folk the remainder.

The Government handles the remittance of the monthly contribution to PSMAS. It is therefore very preposterous for the PSMAS board to claim take over intention on the part of the Government when the latter and the civil servants have been the key stakeholders since its founding in 1930.

PSMAS started operations with a special committee appointed by the Public Service Association (PSA) against the background of an economic depression.

The idea was to pool resources to enable civil servants to afford decent health care. Government was a major stakeholder right from the beginning and the claims of seeking to take control of the society do not arise.

Excitable individuals such as Norton independent legislator, Temba Mliswa had already latched onto the baseless claims by criticising the Government from a point of blissful ignorance.

Contrary to the board’s claims, Government has moved to alleviate PSMAS members’ plight of being denied medical services and drugs by most health services providers due to the society’s failure to pay doctors, clinics, hospitals and pharmacies because of the failure by the society to pay its creditors on time.

This caused the PSMAS medical aid card to lose integrity and acceptability on the market.

This was against the background of the society’s own health facilities owned under Premier Service Medical Investments (PSMI) failing to provide services due to mismanagement and under-capitalisation. To remedy the situation, Government has injected a total of Z$3,7 billion into PSMAS since January in addition to the monthly remittance of premiums.

This is expected to enable the society to retire its debts to various stakeholders and facilitate its operations which will restore confidence in the entity.

One is, however, not surprised by the PSMAS board’s grotesque claims.

The board members of PSMAS and its subsidiaries include Public Service Association (PSA) president, Cecilia Alexander and Zimbabwe Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (ZCPSTU), David Dzatsunga. Alexander is the PSMI deputy chairperson, while Dzatsunga is a committee member of the PSMAS board.

Despite standing for civil servants in PSMAS and its subsidiaries, these workers’ representatives have also become part of the malfeasance at the society that they are using their positions to fight Government in the name of the same workers who are suffering as a result of the mismanagement and corruption which they superintend over.

Alexander reportedly received a Mercedes Benz motor vehicle from PSMI, which is being used by her son, who is also employed by the same entity.

The entity’s board chairman, Colonel Wellington Tutisa reportedly received a Toyota Fortuner sport utility vehicle while PSMAS chairperson Dr Jeremiah Bvirindi received a Toyota Hilux Revo pick-up truck.

This is a repeat of the Cuthbert Dube era, when the former PSMAS group chief executive officer bribed board members with unsanctioned perks so that they would look the other way when he engaged in looting the society through a hefty salary and benefits, which breached the half a million United States dollars mark, and diverting funds to the activities of the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA), where he was the president.

Sadly, while Alexander, Dzatsunga and others were living on the lap of luxury thanks to PSMAS members’ contributions, the society’s staff had very serious welfare issues foremost of which was the issue of their remuneration.

The health sector online news website, healthtimes.co.zw reported on 6 June 2022 that as of that date, workers at PSMAS and its subsidiaries were yet to be paid their May salaries.

Given the activities of the PSMAS board and management teams, which bordered on corruption, fraud and gross mismanagement, one is not surprised that Government appointed board members were being sidelined to shield their shenanigans.

Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) representative, Deputy Secretary, Martin Rushwaya, Treasury representative, Pfungwa Kunaka and Public Service Commission (PSC) representative, Dr Tsitsi Choruma were being systematically excluded from some board activities and meetings lest they raise the red flag.

In May, Dr Bvirindi received correspondence from RMAS advising of the postponement of the society’s annual general meeting that was pencilled for 30 June to pave way for an audit and responded to it without referring to other board members who included the three Government representatives.

In view of the board’s dark designs, Government became an enemy to be avoided and fought spiritedly despite the fact that the society is in place mainly because of Government which employs civil servants.

Alexander even defended the formation of the Premier Service Holding Company (PSHC) last year.

The activities of PSHC were wilfully excluded from the society’s 2020 and 2021 financial statements pointing to its irregular formation. The new holding company presents an extra layer of bureaucracy and opacity which enables the board and management to swindle the society.

For example, the company is being used to divert the long suffering members’ funds to non-core business activities like microfinance and mining.

The company was also calculated to emasculate and disenfranchise the ordinary member by removing his right and power to vote for board members as this role has been exclusively assigned to PSHC.

It is sad that Alexander reportedly justified the formation of the PSHC by claiming that the society had grown.

It is sad that a functionary, who is expected to champion the cause and welfare of the civil servant, was at the forefront of defending the creation of a structure to facilitate the looting of the same civil servant’s funds while he was failing to access health services due to mismanagement of the society.

What a mockery to the society to be told that it has grown when he or she is failing to access basic health services despite being up to date in their monthly premium payments.

The PSMAS board’s attempt to besmirch the Government as trying to wrest control of the society should be read in the context of greed and corruption which undergirds the board and management’s decisions.

It is refreshing to note that not all stakeholders to PSMAS affairs are shamelessly corrupt and criminal. Some such as the Regulator of Medical Aid Societies (RMAS) are still professional and ethical. RMAS was spot on when it ordered a forensic audit of the books of PSMAS and its subsidiaries in May. This resulted in the postponement of the planned PSMAS AGM.

The audit is very welcome as it will expose in detail the rot at PSMAS. Its findings will provide Government with a starting point in and basis for dealing with the mismanagement and corrupt elements who were leading PSMAS to the detriment of the society’s members who are religiously paying their monthly premiums.

Post the audit, most Zimbabweans especially civil servants are expecting nothing short of convictions and condign custodial sentences for those who have been abusing the name of civil servants to feather their own nests with the sweat of the PSMAS members that are suffering as a consequence.

Those who have reduced civil servants to beggars of health services as if they are not members of a medical aid society should be made examples.

There should be very serious and deterrent consequences for their heartless behaviour.

The nation is expecting a thorough clean-up of PSMAS and a root and branch shake up of the society so that its members can enjoy health services without hindrance as before.

After the audit, Government should handhold PSMAS to a fresh start and a sustainable path into the future.

Going forward, RMAS and Government should intervene early with orders for regular audits and other measures to ensure that the society operates soundly and its members get the benefits of investing in a medical insurance scheme.

It is very sad that as a nation, we seem not to have learnt anything from Dube’s 22-year reign of theft and atrocious governance. If anything, it is as if Dube created a rule book for the Alexanders and the Dr Bvirindis of this country to religiously follow in fleecing PSMAS.

To avoid this, Government should use the ongoing cases at PSMAS, NSSA and Cottco to demonstrate that its anti-corruption drive can be used effectively to clean up parastatals and return them to a sound financial and good corporate governance footing.