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Mukudzei Chingwere-Herald Reporter
The board of directors of the beleaguered Premier Service Medical Aid Society (PSMAS) dissolved itself this week just after its failure to block an internal forensic audit on its activities and a few days after chairman Dr Jeremiah Bvirindi quit.
The directors are expecting the regulator of medical aid societies to “fill the void”.
Dr Bvirindi stepped aside on Friday last week, automatically elevating his deputy on the board, Mrs Fatima Chauruka, to the top post.
But on Wednesday, the board decided “to dissolve itself”.
There has been continuous and ongoing public outcry over a series of complaints citing poor management of the society.
Public servants are not happy that their medical aid has been deemed “useless” by many service providers despite them being fully paid-up members and with some PSMAS clinics also out of action.
The failure by PSMAS to meet deadlines to pay service providers and pharmacies, plus the growing controversy over board decisions to use medical aid subscriptions to buy gold mines and other businesses unconnected with the normal functions of a medical aid society, caused the regulator of medical aid societies to order a forensic audit at PSMAS. The regulator can act in any medical aid society since they all have to be registered.
A forensic audit is a detailed audit that looks beyond just whether the accounts balance and all revenue was receipted and expenditure authorised, but also looks at the actual financial and business management and managerial decisions.
The board started the process to have the High Court rule that this audit instruction was invalid, a process that normally takes several months, so board member Mr David Dzatsunga applied to the High Court to block the ongoing forensic audit as a matter of urgency.
But the High Court dismissed that application as not meeting the conditions for an urgent injunction while the main case rose up the court roll.
That meant the audit that started a little over a week ago must continue.
At some stage in the future, if the replacement board wishes to continue the suit, the High Court will hear argument on whether the order for a forensic audit was valid or not, but by that stage the audit should be over and the findings known.
Dr Bvirindi resigned after thousands of public servants were stopped by their coordinator from demonstrating against the careworn medical society.
Five days later, the board led by Mrs Chauruka then dissolved itself after the failure to block the audit.
In her formal letter to the regulator on Wednesday just after chairing her final meeting, Mrs Chauruka wrote: “This letter serves to advise your office that the board of directors of Premier Service Medical Aid Society (PSMAS) met on the 12th July 2022 and passed a resolution to dissolve itself.
“This decision has been made in the best interest of the society, its members, and all stakeholders. The board is leaving the society reasonably satisfied that PSMAS, as the largest healthcare insurer in the country, is poised for a brighter future despite the current challenges.
“Further, the board acknowledges that there is an on-going forensic audit and undertakes to co-operate with the auditors or any other authority that may require any relevant information from the directors.
“It is the board of directors’ expectation that the regulator of Medical Aid Societies will move swiftly to fill the void created because of this decision, and institute any other measures that will guarantee business continuity and the sustainability of PSMAS.”
Before the dissolution, those at PSMAS have tried, unsuccessfully, to look for scapegoats, with uninformed unions even blaming the Government for the failures at the society, yet PSMAS is independent of Government control or management and belongs to its members, who are mostly civil servants. All the Government does is deduct contributions from civil service salaries, add in the far larger employer share of the subscriptions, and then sends all this money to PSMAS.
The society is run by those appointed by its members.
Some of the problems at PSMAS have been laid at the feet of senior management and some board members, who are reportedly mooting diversification into other areas such as mining and insurance, a flagrant disregard of the entity’s founding objectives, and who have also introduced co-payments.
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