Boss Mustapha: Boards have no power to suspend CEOs of parastatals
News & Trends •
mustapha certainly had the nhis in mind when he gave the clear-cut clarification today1 no governing board of a federal agency or parastatal has the power to remove the chief executive appointed by the president the secretary to the government of the federation boss mustapha declared today1 the board may however articulate infractions investigate wrong doing and make recommendations to government through the supervisory ministry mustapha further clarified1 he made the clarification at an induction programme for governing board members of federal parastatals universities and medical centres at the transcorp hilton. the ceos were also in attendance1 the induction the second in the series was organised by the bureau of public service reforms in conjunction with the dfid1 on 18 october the chairman of the nhis board ifenne enyanatu announced the indefinite suspension of the executive secretary prof. usman yusuf eight months after a similar suspension by the minister was annulled by president muhammadu buhari1 enyanatu said the governing council resolved to suspend yusuf because it had received several petitions against the nhis boss. she said the board had the permission of the minister of health to suspend yusuf pending investigation1 we consulted and got the approval of the minister of health before this suspension she said1 however yusuf ignored the order1 the declaration came amidst controversy over the suspension of the executive secretary of the national health insurance schemenhis1 he said government was concerned that most governing boards have not understood their roles in the corporate governance of the agencies they superintend1 he then went on to list some of the recurring infractions being committed by the boards1 some of them are undue interference by board chairmen in the day-to-day activities of their parastatals and agencies blatant disregard for extant regulations guiding the conduct of board meetings1 others are alleged interference in the function of the ceos issuing directives to staff without recourse to the ceos imposing disciplinary measures against the ceos in flagrant violation of the laid down rules and using labour unions as agents of distractions in the agencies1 the government secretary also gave further clarifications about the roles of the boards and ministers1 the role of the boards he said are limited to setting operational and administrative policies for their agencies in consonance with government policy directives1 a board shall not be involved directly in the day-to-day management of a parastatal or an agency. a minister exercises control of parastatals at policy level through the board of the parastatal only1 the board must only operate as a part time board in accordance with extant rules that forbids allocation of official quarters to members on a permanent basis and payment of estacode allowances for only overseas travels approved by the office of the secretary to the government of the federation and their part-time ministry1