The Federal Government has expressed displeasure over the lackadaisical attitude of insurance companies in the payment of death benefits of civil servants.
Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, Head of Civil Service of the Federation,expressed this displeasure in Abuja during the meeting with underwriters of the Group Life Insurance Policy for Federal Civil Servants in her Office.
She lamented that while the Federal Government is doing its best to improve the welfare of families of deceased workers through the prompt release of funds for the payment of death benefits, the underwriters and brokers are frustrating the efforts by their unserious attitude.
She lampooned the companies over their non- performance,saying it was unacceptable and should be remedied.
According to her, the meeting was necessary to bridge the gap that exists between the Underwriters and Brokers as it was unreasonable to continue doing the same thing repeatedly without achieving meaningful result.
A statement by Mohammed Ahmed, Deputy Director, Communications, in the OHCSF, quoted Yemi-Esan as saying that “If the Brokers are no longer relevant, then they should be blacklisted.”
She said that the payment of insurance claim is not rocket science, stressing that her Office performs similar function through seamless settlement of backlog of claims not covered by the present arrangement.
The Key Performance Indexes (KPIs) on settlement of claims as of September, 2022 indicate that the total number of claims reported was 776; number of claims paid was 357; total sum on claims reported, N4,201,392,384.27; number of awaiting EDVs from HoS/MDAs 101; total amount paid N1,574,709,562.12; number of awaiting DVs from Lead Underwriter 150 (2,626,682,822.15), total amount expected from EDVs N785,123,928.73, number of incomplete documentations 168 and total outstanding claims is N1,841,558,893.42.
She further stated that from the breakdown of the report, there is a clear indication of a huge gap between the number of claims reported and those paid, adding that there is the need for improvement from the insurance service providers, as there is always room for other alternatives.
Speaking on behalf of the underwriters, the Lead Underwriter and CEO of Old Mutual (Nig.) Limited, Mr. Segun Omosehin, expressed his gratitude to the Head of Service for her concern and show of outright displeasure over their low performance.
He expressed commitment to support the Head of Service by doing the needful to bridge the gap existing between the underwriters and the brokers, which he identified as the major issue responsible for the late payment of claims to families of deceased civil servants.
