At least Rwf96.4 million meant for community-based health insurance, commonly known as Mutuelle de Sante, was embezzled in five districts of the Eastern Province, a report by a special audit team shows.

The preliminary findings cover all districts in the Province, but Kayonza and Rwamagana.

In Nyagatare, Rwf 33.9 million was embezzled,  Gatsibo Rwf 32.9 million, Bugesera Rwf 4.1 million, Kirehe Rwf 22.4 million  and Ngoma Rwf 2.9 million.

"We will also soon report on the two remaining districts,” said Mathias Mbabazi, who headed the team.

At least six people, including accountants and insurance managers in various districts have since been arrested in connection with the findings.

The provincial audit followed a nationwide assessment of the health insurance scheme, which, among others, indicated fundamental inconsistencies between the recorded number of beneficiaries and the total premiums.

Speaking to The New Times yesterday, provincial Governor Odette Uwamariya said the provincial audit unraveled issues of mismanagement of the funds by heads of the health insurance scheme in various health centres.

There were cases of misappropriation and mismanagement of insurance premiums, it has been prevalent for long but it must be brought to an end, she added.

Uwamariya said embezzlement of the funds meant for Mutuelle de Santé had adversely affected the functioning of the insurance scheme and healthcare provision in general.

"It is a sad reality that several millions were embezzled…imagine situations where a single person pocketed over Rwf11 million. Most of these problems are at the sector level…several millions went missing,” she said.

"Whereas the poor families struggled to pay Rwf3,000 each, officials were busy linning their pockets. This is something we shall not tolerate.”

Uwamariya described the act as abuse of public trust.

"This criminal conduct harms insurance scheme, the law will take its course,” she said.

The governor explained that the audit started with districts which had accumulated more debts for hospitals.

The auditors discovered that some didn’t transfer the collected contributions to the district and, in some cases, districts did not transfer the requisite funds to national level which led to accumulation of debts, according to Uwamariya.

Some suspects, for fear of consequences, in the process refunded the funds, where by before the completion of the audit Rwf4.7 million had been refunded in Kirehe, Rwf3.5 million in Nyagatare, and Rwf400,729 in Ngoma District, she said.

IP Emmanuel Kayigi, the Eastern Province Regional Police Spokesperson, said they were carrying out further investigations into the cases.

Government is in the process to transfer the medical insurance scheme to the Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB), the country’s pension body, from under the Health ministry. 

Mutuelle de Sante has in recent years been marred by decreasing subscriptions and accumulation of debts, threatening the existence of the scheme, which was earlier credited with improving the country’s healthcare.

Results from a comprehensive audit of the community health insurance scheme are expected to be made public late this month.

Late last month the Finance minister Claver Gatete said the auditors had hitherto audited in 20 districts. 

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