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PSMAS goes after Cuthbert Dube's assets including a house

by Staff reporter
05 Feb 2014 at 14:20hrs | Views
Premier Service Medical Aid Society (Psmas) says it will be going after some assets including a house held by its former chief executive Cuthbert Dube.

Newly appointed chairman Luxon Zembe said the company had already repossessed an executive Mercedes Benz from its former chairperson, Meisie Namasasu.

"With regards to the former chief executive, there was a house bought for him as an official residence and this we are in the process of recalling it as an asset of the society, including some vehicles," Zembe said.

"He will however only be able to retain what is due to him as normal retrenchment benefits befitting his former position in the organisation," he said.

Zembe said the society had already engaged the services of PricewaterhouseCoopers to aid the restructuring of the business which has been reeling under unpaid dues to service providers such as hospitals and doctors.

"There is going to be major shakeup both at management and board level as we seek to reposition the business.

There has to be renewal in leadership in any organisation and this will see new people, but there has to be mix for continuity purposes," the chairman said.

"There will be no sacred cows in the restructuring. We are going to be fair that's why we have engaged the services of a reputable firm and by the end of it, we will be talking of a different tune," he said.

Zembe said the medical services provider was in the process of engaging the services of an auditing firm to carry out a forensic audit of the business.

"We are in the process of sourcing for the service of a firm to carry out the service and this will allow us to find out exactly what was happening and the position of the company," he said.

"An audit is going to be carried out to determine what has been going on and if anybody is found guilty they will be held to account," the Psmas chair said.

With regards to the ownership of Psmas, Zembe said the company was neither a parastatal nor a State entity, and only answerable to its members.

"It is a social entity established by its members, owned by its members ,in their interest and for their benefit, and this is according to our legal statutes," he said.

"Legally, it's the members who own and have the authority to make changes. The ministry of Health is only a regulator of our business and the Public Service ministry only provides the bulk of our members, who are the civil service and make up 80 percent," Zembe noted.

"The powers they do not have constitutionally, is to fire the whole board."

Developments at Psmas come amid an outcry over salaries paid out to top executives at the society who were reported to earn between $120 000 and $230 000 per month.

Altogether, the top management at Psmas were earning at least $1 million monthly.

Source - dailynews