AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Electronic payment system adopted by the National Insurance Corporation (NIC) in mid-last year has helped improve the corporation’s revenue collection, further cutting payment arrears by 97.5 per cent in just seven months.
Minister of Finance and Planning Dr Philip Mpango told the National Assembly here on Friday that arrears of premium payments had decreased from 20bn/- in July 2019 to almost 500m/- in February 2020, an equivalent of 97.5 per cent improvement.
The government resolved to financially equip the corporation by adopting a number of strategies, including increasing the business and compelling instant electronic payments for premium services.
The minister said the initiative had helped to lower payment arrears that could otherwise affect the corporation.
The clarification made by the minister was in response to claims by Ubungo MP Saed Kubenea that NIC was facing high-level of embezzlement and needed the State to come to its aid.
“There are allegations that embezzlement is rife at NIC and that the corporation has no working strategy to compete in the market,” Kubenea said, demanding that the government make a clarification.
In addition, the MP requested the government to explain its plan to help the corporation financially and expertise to compete in the market.
Dr Mpango rebuffed the claims, saying there were no records of embezzlements in the corporation and that the entity had been working to improve its systems to control revenues and expenditures.
The minister told parliamentarians that part of the plans included adopting the government electronic payment system that officially replaced cash payment in November 2019.
“It has improved its regulatory framework on paying claims, conducting a special audit of all insurance claims and is finalizing plans to adopt the public institution accounting and payment management system—MUSE,” he said.
He said the completion of installing the system will give the entity ultimate control of all payments. NIC suspended indefinitely cheque payments that also helped to block forged cheques.
The government saved it from being privatized, which in turn helped it to compete in the insurance business.
According to the minister, the government had also reformed the management structure, equipping it with professionals in the areas of ICT and digital office management.
