NHIF Building Rent Arrears Hit 178 Million, Cabinet Affairs Office Tops List Of Defaulters

The Cabinet Affairs office is the top rent defaulter in the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) building, Nation has reported.

In a report, NHIF noted that the office owed them Ksh 23.9 million in rent arrears as of June 30, 2022, 13.4 percent of the total Ksh 178.4 million owed to the agency.

In terms of rent arrears, the Cabinet Affairs office topped followed by HIV & Aids Tribunal (Ksh 16.5 million), Ministry of Environment and Forestry (Ksh 16.01 million) and Essence Ltd (Ksh 14.49 million).

Others are the National Social Economic Council (Ksh 9.19 million) and the Presidency Ksh 9.11 million.

“Rental income earned as at June 30, 2021, was Ksh 320,471,130 against an annual target of Ksh 349,491,108. The performance is eight percent below target attributed to the delay in payment of rent by government institutions,” NHIF said.

The rent arrears rose by over Ksh 100 million compared to a similar period a year ago.

“Total arrears as of June 30, 2021, was Sh109.5 million. The arrears position increased by 63 per cent by the end of June 2022. This is attributed to the delay in rent payment by government institutions” the report further said.

Elsewhere, as reported on WoK, NHIF was put on the spot for misuse of funds in the latest scandal.

According to a report by Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu, NHIF paid KSh 336.3 million to a law firm that had not been cleared to bid for tenders with health providers.

Notably, the drafting which was fully paid using the taxpayers money was not part of the NHIF approved

procurement plan for 2018/2019.

Gathungu noted that the move went against the Public Procurement and Assets Disposal Act of 2015 which indicated that no money had been set aside for payment of legal service.

The report of the audited financial accounts also showed that a further KSh 156.4 million was paid to private law firms as legal fees.

The payment was made without approval from the Attorney General (AG).

The law firm which was approached to draft the contracts charged NHIF KSh 43 million.

The services included company search, printing, binding, travel costs, stamp duty and distribution of the contracts to the various hospitals and other health providers.