- The claim which is subject of Parliamentary inquiry was made by fraud risk analyst and former Treasury internal auditor Bernard Muchere.
- But in a statement, Kenbright poked holes in Muchere’s claims terming them ‘disinformation’.
Image: NHIF
Actuarial and financial services giant, Kenbright, has denied claims that the firm played a role in the alleged Sh21 billion suspicious payments by the national insurer, NHIF.
The claim which is the subject of Parliamentary inquiry was made by fraud risk analyst and former Treasury internal auditor Bernard Muchere.
Muchere appeared before the National Assembly’s Petitions Committee on Tuesday.
But in a statement, Kenbright poked holes in Muchere’s claims terming them ‘disinformation’.
In dismissing Muchere, Kebright Board chairman Paul Gondi explained the reserve account is a globally accepted best practice.
He said the laws of Kenya require all insurance firms, including medical insurers to mandatorily hold such reserves.
“At the heart of the story, in an easily verifiable and deliberate lie that NHIF as a health insurer should not have set aside the claim reserves, a prudent action in line with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS),” Kenbright said in a statement to newsrooms.
“In other words, the source of the disinformation states that NHIF did the wrong thing when its Board took steps to start doing the right thing in the year 2021 by setting aside proper claim reserves that provided a true picture of its financial position in line with international best practice."
Gondi further called on Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) and The Actuarial Society of Kenya (TASK) and Media Council of Kenya (MCK) to initiate public empowerment on financial literacy.
Muchere had told the Committee that the ‘fake’ claims were engineered through Incurred But Not Reported claims by NHIF.
IBNR is a reserve account used by insurance companies to compensate for claims that have not yet been reported.
According to Muchere, the system does not raise suspicion and can only be flagged by experts.
“In the audited financial statements for 2020/2021, 2019/2020 and the preceding financial years, IBNR reserves were non-existent, they propped up in the financial year ending June 2022,” the petition said.
“This brings to question, the authenticity of the arbitrary cumulative figures of Sh19,972,497,763 purportedly brought forward from the financial years preceding 2021/2022 and the source of data, the basis for the IBNR claims.”
MPs have invited the firm and NHIF top management to appear before it over the claims.