The medical schemes regulator has reinstated one of the six senior officials it suspended for alleged corruption and maladministration last year, after an internal investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing. Business Day reports that the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS), which is responsible for overseeing the conduct of medical schemes, brokers and administrators, has been rocked by a series of events that have left it hollowed out and facing scrutiny from the special investigating unit (SIU).
The medical schemes industry covers 8.9m beneficiaries, that provided a contribution income of R160bn in 2018.
While the CMS’s head of legal services Craig Burton-Durham has been exonerated by its internal probe into his conduct, he returns to work for a mere two months, as he is among a group of long-serving senior staff who were notified late last year that their contracts will not be renewed after 31 March.
The report says CMS registrar and CEO Sipho Kabane declined to comment on the nature of the investigation or its outcome. Kabane was at pains to emphasise that the CMS’s council had not decided to not renew the contracts of its top managers, but to allow those that were coming to an end in March to “run their course”.
None of the other staff suspensions have been lifted at this stage, according to Kabane.
[link url="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/health/2020-02-05-medical-schemes-regulator-lifts-suspension-of-senior-executive/"]Full Business Day report[/link]