Kuppet seeks court action to stop medical scheme

The proposed medical insurance scheme for teachers is hurtling headlong into a crisis after one of the teachers’ unions threatened to go to court tomorrow to stop its implementation.

The two main teachers’ unions have taken conflicting stands on the planned Sh5.6 billion medical scheme which begins on July 1.

While the Kenya National Union of Teachers has been championing implementation of the AoN Minet Medical Scheme, its rival union, Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers wants its members not to join the medical scheme.

Kuppet deputy secretary- general Moses Nthurima told the Sunday Nation that they will challenge the medical scheme in court tomorrow. If the union makes true its threat, the medical scheme for 288,060 teachers might be delayed.

Mr Nthurima said Kuppet wants major changes made to the medical scheme before it is implemented.

Kuppet’s misgivings stem from the fact that the teachers’ employer, TSC, and Knut brokered the deal to have AoN Minet as the medical insurer for all teachers, leaving Kuppet in the dark.
Kuppet only came to know of the project after AoN Minet had been picked.

According to documents seen by the Sunday Nation, the service provider was identified by the TSC and Knut before the tender was advertised.
Knut, in a letter dated April 2014, pushed TSC to “fast-track the proposed medical cover for teachers” which it had already initiated with AoN Minet.

“The proposed medical insurance cover for teachers initiated by the Commission, Knut and AoN Minet is fast-tracked for immediate implementation,” reads the letter signed by the union’s secretary-general, Mr Wilson Sossion, to Teachers’ Service Commission CEO Gabriel Lengoiboni.

Three months later, the commission placed an advertisement asking interested parties to apply for a tender to provide health care for teachers.
Coincidentally AoN Minet, already mentioned in a meeting that took place three months earlier between the TSC and Knut, won the tender.

INSIDER DEALINGS

“AoN Minet quoted a price of Sh5.6 billion, the exact amount that TSC remits as medical allowance, a convenient coincidence. It shows that there were insider dealings,” said Mr Nthurima.
According to documents, the AoN contract price was Sh5,593,232,616.

“It is evident that while the Commission is hiding under the cover of the advert, the preferred agent was already identified and the advert is a mere smokescreen to hoodwink the public that the procurement process was above board,” reads a letter from Kuppet secretary-general Akelo Misori to TSC CEO Gabriel Lengoiboni dated July 8, 2014.

It goes on: “If AoN had been granted the tender, why waste resources advertising for expression of interest?” asked Mr Misori.

According to the documents, teachers will have to part with Sh1 billion in upfront charges before they receive services.

AoN Minet will issue each of the six beneficiaries of the scheme with a biometric card estimated to cost Sh1,200. On each visit for treatment, each beneficiary will be required to send an SMS confirming membership for Sh10 per transaction.

Knut secretary-general Wilson Sossion recently directed branch executive secretaries to go around schools and rally the teachers to register for the Sh6 billion-scheme.

He said “It is upon the teachers to register and start to benefit. It is not a double deduction for teachers.”

AoN Minet, on the other hand, from start of this week, June 1, took on an active social media campaign for the medical cover for teachers under hashtag #AoN Teachers Scheme.

In it, they outline the benefits of the cover saying they had contracted UAP, AAR, Jubilee and CIC insurance companies to offer the services to the teachers.

A teacher and four beneficiaries will be entitled to an inpatient, outpatient, maternity and dental cover. The highest package for inpatient will be Sh1 million and the lowest Sh300,000.

In a circular, TSC said the scheme will be implemented on July 1. Teachers were also informed that their medical allowances would be withdrawn beginning July 1.