BY SYDNEY KAWADZA PREMIER Service Medical Aid Society (PSMAS) is set to hold its annual general meeting (AGM) tomorrow, which is likely to put the final nail in the coffin on issues that haunted the company following the removal of former chief executive Cuthbert Dube in 2014.
The PSMAS AGM aims to also solve trust issues pertaining to management of its sister company, Premier Service Medical Investments (PSMI).
Zimbabwe Confederations of Public Sector Trade Unions (ZCPSTU) vice-president Goodwill Taderera said: “Once we enact the proposals, we have put forward and form the trust; we will guarantee the safety and security of the organisation’s values, services and assets, thereby enabling generations to come to benefit from this organisation.”
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ZCPSTU is the top Zimbabwean body representing all government workers.
“Following the Cuthbert scandal of 2014, government, acting as a regulator, through the former secretary in the Ministry of Health Gerald Gwinji, caused the dissolution of the PSMAS board and appointed an interim manager, Gibson Mhlanga (medical doctor), who spent a year at PSMAS trying to prevent a repeat of excessive expenditure. This resulted in the formation of a trust and a holding company to create accountability structures and safeguard the society’s assets.”
He said the new focus should be on transparency, whereby PSMAS must open up its accounts for scrutiny and publishing in the media.
As a continuation of the turnaround process, Premier Service Holding Company was formed in February 2019 in pursuance of a PSMAS members’ AGM on May 21, 2015. PSMAS has a membership of over 90 000 with the majority of them being civil servants.
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Government has also been accused of trying to muscle in on the society’s governance issues by demanding greater board representation.
The PSMAS constitution gives government three board seats which it fills as it sees fit.
PSMAS was formed in 1930 and created PSMI in 2003 to ensure service access for members following a rapid rises in medical costs.
The model has grown successfully and has now attracted interested parties, including a rumoured approach by politically-connected businesspeople interested in taking it over. Civil servants have vowed to resist any moves to take it over.
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