Police Seal Off HICC to block PSMAS members
Harare- POLICE officers have sealed off the entrance into Harare International Conference Centre (HICC) Thursday, the venue of the Premier Services Medical Aid Society (PSMAS) 89th Annual General Meeting (AGM) that was postponed at the eleventh hour, Express Mail Zim can report.
The cops were implementing the announcement by the organisation’s regulator to cancel the AGM to pave way for an ongoing forensic audit.
Government spokesperson Nick Mangwana on Wednesday said:
“Govt(sic) please report for duty as usual tommorow (Thursday).The AGM has been cancelled by the Regulator to allow for completion of a forensic audit at PSMAS that is underway.”
However, stakeholders thronged the venue since government made late communication to the PSMAS board chairman Jeremiah Bvirindi. In response, the board chair wrote to the Ministry of Health permanent secretary Air Commodore Chimedza advising him that he will have to announce the postponement at the venue since he only received such communication late on Wednesday.
He wrote: “I acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 29 June 2022 which I only received late this afternoon (Wednesday) .
“In view of the inherent logistical challenges, the postponement will be formally announced at the venue tomorrow (Thursday).”
Express Mail Zim gleaned the notice of AGM and one of the proposal was the dissolution of Premier Service Holding Company(PSHC) and Trust.
If okayed, this development will see a massive loss of jobs accross the board. It will mean the employees become redundant but however, at law affected employees are supposed to be served with a notice should the ‘striking out’ is resolved.
Read part of the proposals:
” To dissolve Premier Service Holding Company (Pvt) Ltd and the Trust. If the answer is no,we propose to consider and approve the Board of Trustees . Further propose to approve the Deed of Trust for the Trust formed for PSMAS members.”
The other critical proposal was to extend the forensic audit to all PSMAS investments.
Part of the agenda was to confirm Grant Thornton as auditors of the current year.
PSMAS has been haunted by the 2014 ‘Salarygate Scandal’ supritended by Cuthbert Dube. This forced the government to appoint an interim manager, Gibson Mhlanga and subsequent formation of a trust and a holding company to create accountability structures and safeguard the society’s
assets.
PSMAS has a membership of over 90 000 with the majority of them being civil servants.
PSMAS was formed in 1930 and created PSMI in 2003 to ensure service access for members following a rapid rises in medical costs.
